Overall impressions

Top travel tips and facts

Travel itinerary overview

New Zealand is one of the most beautiful country in the world, therefore is hard to say how many days/weeks are enough to actually enjoy the country and its people. You have plenty of attractions to choose from: hiking amazing trails, experiencing extreme sports or be amazed by the nature itself. The South and North islands have pretty different attractions and none should be skipped in your vacation. Nevertheless, if we’d have to choose, we’d go with the South island, as there are better nature attractions and hiking trails than in the North of the island. Planning a trip to New Zealand was maybe the most challenging thing we have ever done. Why? Because it requires a lot of research and usually you don’t have enough time to see all the things you would want to(unless you have two to three months to spend 🙂 )

The North Island

We did not spend so many days in the north island,but we are going to share with you our four days itinerary :). After arriving in the capital city, Auckland, we took an Uber and checked in to our hotel – we stayed only for two days in Auckland at the City Lodge . We were quite affected by the jet lag and we only visited the Sky Tower that day. The nice thing about the Sky Tower is that you can buy tickets that are valid for two consecutive days, so we have visited again in the next day as well :). The view from the Sky Tower is really amazing and on top of that, if you are not afraid of heights you can try the the SkyJump – SkyWalk activities – we are pretty sure that either activity is a good cure for the jet lag.

Day 1 – From Zadar to Dubvronik

There are almost 350 kilometers from Zadar to Dubrovnik, therefore, after grabbing a quick breakfast,  we headed straight to the most prominent tourist destination from Croatia. Although we visited quite a few walled cities, the city of Dubrovnik is just different – its history dates back to the 7th century and in 1979 was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Being one of the world’s most magnificent walled cities,finding a parking spot in Dubrovnik is like finding water in dessert. Therefore, pick an accommodation with parking included, and, if possible, nearby the city center, so that you don’t get bored waiting for a taxi or tired because all the climbing up and down, involving a lot of stairs.

In our first day, in Dubrovnik, we decided that we just want to wander around the city, to go around every corner, without having any plan whatsoever. Despite the covid pandemic, it was such a pleasant experience, to see so many people were amazed by this beautiful city. Later, in the day, we hiked to the top of Mount Srd of Dubrovnik, to watch the sunset from the highest point in the area. If you don’t want to hike for thirty minutes, you can always take the cable car or a bus , but be aware that the cable car is quite expensive for a five minute ride. Well, come to think of it, everything is expensive in Dubrovnik, therefore be ready to spend ‘some’ money in this beautiful town.

Day 2 – Dubrovnik and Lokrum

Being a very walkable city, one of the main attractions of Dubrovnik is the City Walls – you can climb and walk a fortification system that was never breached in the Middle Age period. There are many entries for the City walls, that surround the old town and for a complete tour, you are going to walk around two kilometers. We started our tour at the main gate, the Pillar gate, where right at the beginning, you have beautiful views of the long promenade of the city and of the Lovrijenac fortress. Depending on how many photos you would like to take, you should plan between one hour and two hours – you can always have a break at on of the coffee shops located on the city walls. It goes without saying that you should start as early as possible, so that you avoid the ‘half a day’ tourists, brought by travel agencies. Last but not least bring sun protection and suitable footwear – you don’t want to not enjoy this experience. After the city walls, we visited the fortress Lovrijenac or often called Dubrovnik’s Gibraltar. It is a really impressive fort, famous for the defense of the city, against the attacks of the Venetians. If it is really crowded, you can always visit it later in the day, as there is not much to do inside the fort.

If you have more than half a day in Dubrovnik, please do not skip the Lokrum Island – it is a short ferry ride from Dubrovnik. We do recommend to take a local ferry company, that sails to Lokrum several times per hour, mainly because it is cheaper and ,very important, in the passenger ticket, it is included both the admission to the island and the return ferry ticket.

Top reasons to visit Lokrum:

Day 3 – From Dubrovnik to Split

Unfortunately we had only two days for Dubrovnik , therefore we had to continue our trip, towards the beautiful city of Split. On our way back to Split, we made a small stop to Trsteno Arboretum , mainly because we enjoyed the GoT TV series. It is a nice botanical garden, with renaissance vibes, but honestly, if you did not see the GoT, most likely it won’t be anything special for you .

We don’t usually mention the places where we stay in our trips, but The Miraval Luxury Rooms is in our top five accommodations, of all time, for several reasons. Apart from the cleanliness and the location of the apartment, we were really impressed that the host, saved us a parking spot, on a Friday night and even paid for it. Now, finding a parking spot in Split is really, really difficult, therefore try as much as possible, to book something an accommodation with parking included. Another tip is to use the Split parking app or website – it is a nice digital solution for finding and paying for your parking spots in Split.

Split is the largest city from the region of Dalmatia and the second largest city from Croatia, therefore you have plenty of things to do in here. The main attraction of the city is the Diocletian’s Palace, an ancient palace build for the roman emperor Diocletian, in the fourth century AD. Its architecture is largely intact and you can easily ‘get lost’, while wandering around the old city town. Being a coastal city, Split has an amazing promenade – the Riva promenade. Located nearby the old town, Riva is a good place to grab a coffee, have a beautiful and romantic dinner with your significant one, or just to hit the clubs. From Split you have two islands worth visiting, that you can reach via the ferry – Hvar and Brač. Due to lack of time, we only visited the Brač island, but we definitely were a little bit sad that we could not visit Hvar as well.

Day 4 – Brač Island

Despite the fact that the Brač island is the largest and the most elevated island from the entire Dalmatia,to our surprise, it is not as much popular as the islands of Hvar or Korcula. However, we picked the Brač island for our one day trip, as we wanted to spend some time at the beach, but also to enjoy some spectacular views of the Adriatic sea – nevertheless to say that we enjoyed every minute on the island. You might ask yourself why didn’t we spend half a day in Hvar and the other day in Brač – The main reason for that, is that there is no connecting ferry between these two islands, that includes car transportation as well.

Getting to Brač island by ferry and with a car, can be somehow a frustrating experience, especially if you did not do your research beforehand. If you are traveling in high peak, do book a ticket in advance, from the Croatia ferries company , as there is a limited number of tickets with car included. When arriving at the ferry location do ask the locals or any employee what is the exact location for the Supetar ferry, the main entry point of the Brač island – also, when waiting for the ferry,try to park you car in the lowest available row number, as they are going to allow cars from the first row to go to the ferry, then from second row etc. You can do a lot of things while in Brač, but for one day, a safe bet would be to visit the Zlatni Rat or Golden Horn Beach, Vidova Gora – at 778meters is the highest peak on the Adriatic islands, and last but not least,this oil museum(see the embedded google map for the exact locations).

A friendly advice if you travel by car is to do your research about the parking lots,nearby the Zlatni Rat beach. Some of them can be even twice as expensive as others, even though the walking distance to the beach is almost the same. The Golden Horn Beach is probably the most beautiful beach from the entire Croatia, not only because of its unique shape of a white tongue stretched into the sea, but also for its overall environment – clear blue water, gentle breeze sounds, the mountains. It is a popular destination for windsurfing, parachute rides and there are a lot restaurants, coffee places where you can enjoy a quite afternoon.

Although we wanted to spend more beach time,after a couple of hours we headed to the Vidova Gora. The ascent to the peak, by car, can be a little bit tricky if it is crowded – there are some narrow portions where you might have to steer the car in reverse (of course that it is easier if you drive an automatic car). The view from the top is simply amazing -you can see the entire southern coast of the island, the village of Bol and last but not least, the Zlatni Rat beach.

Well, after enjoying best of both worlds, we had to do one more thing in Brač – visit an oil museum. Our choice for this visit was the amazing Olive Oil Museum Škrip, a museum that shows you the traditional process of olive oil production. Another important aspect is that the guided tour also includes a tasteful Mediterranean menu, from local products – a good choice before your two hour return travel by ferry, to Split. Not only that we advice you to buy the local olive oil, but also try and buy local food products(e.g. the figs).