Why We Recommend Croatia For Small Ship Cruising

The classic route runs between Split and Dubrovnik, in either direction, over seven nights. The ships are small — around 38 passengers is standard, often on modern vessels with balcony cabins. These trips are pitched firmly at adults rather than families. 

Between Split and Dubrovnik you’ll typically call at islands like Hvar, Korcula, and Mljet — possibly Brac, Vis, or one of the smaller ports along the Dalmatian coast. Each one is its own walled old town, its own stone-paved square, its own version of the Adriatic. And each has its own little tourist angle. Vis for example was the location for the second Mamma Mia film and they let you know it!

After a while, you get into a bit of a routine.

You usually leave port around 6:00–7:00 in the morning and head off for the next destination. That’s time for breakfast. While you’re having your buffet breakfast, you can see beautiful Croatian scenery as you go by.

By mid-morning, you anchor up somewhere nice for swimming time. This is usually near one of the rocky islands or possibly near a beach. The Adriatic, perhaps because of its saltiness, is a beautiful sea to swim in and it’s very easy to tread water.

Each afternoon, usually not long after lunch, you arrive in the next spectacular, beautiful old port. Perhaps there’ll be an option of joining a quick city tour (these are usually included in your fare), but overall the rest of the day is yours to explore.

Needless to say, there’s plenty to see, plenty to visit, and plenty of places to have a beautiful meal and a glass of wine. 

Our guide used to say: “The rest of the day is up to you. The most important thing is you must be back on board no later than 6:00 am tomorrow morning.” She did admit she was used to travelling with younger groups — for us, those instructions were unnecessary!

My personal favorite was an excursion to an oyster farm based on a wooden platform situated in a beautiful bay, reached by small boat. 

You quickly adapt to the rhythm of this trip. Sail, swim, eat, wander, sleep. Repeat for seven days.

The season runs roughly from May to October. July and August are the hottest and busiest. May, June, September, and October give you a better weather-to-crowd ratio.

The direction — Split-to-Dubrovnik or Dubrovnik-to-Split — doesn’t matter much. Both run, both visit similar islands. What matters is which city you finish in, because you’ll probably want a couple of nights there at the end to explore properly. Both airports have reasonable flight connections, especially Dubrovnik.

It is not a remote expedition. The Adriatic in summer is busy. But what it offers instead is civilised: gorgeous old towns, easy swimming, good food, a comfortable ship, and a stretch of coastline that’s been working on its hospitality for two thousand years.

If a week of that sounds about right, get in touch. We’ve done it ourselves.

We work with a number of different vessels although this option is our favourite as it also includes a day trip into Montenegro.