Travelers' reviews about Croatia

Let me put my comments into context. We are Canadians in our early 70s. My wife and I travel regularly, 41 countries and 91 UNESCO Wold Heritage Sites to date. I have used 'in country' agents to set up trips for independent travel in the Azores, Ireland, Greece, Alaska etc. I only 'discovered' Evaneos on-line in the fall of 2018 when starting to plan a trip to Croatia. The concept intrigued me and when I saw Jelena's ad mentioning UNESCO sites I took the plunge. I started our planning in late Nov 2018 even though we wouldn't be traveling until Sept 2019. We chose Sept hoping for warm but not cold weather rather than hot weather which would be the norm in the summer months. We also hoped for less tourists to contend with. Working with Jelena by e-mail we quickly came up with a 16 day self drive itinerary focused on UNESCO sites in Croatia and one which also included a drive through portions of Slovenia. I found Jelena to be easy to work with and quick to respond to my inquiries etc. She was clearly knowledgeable and able to answer any questions that I had. The final written itinerary was very detailed. She went so far as to provide addresses for parking lots to use while visiting sites we were interested in. The itinerary was set out day by day in a logical manner. The accommodations were clearly chosen to facilitate exploration by foot in the larger locales such as Zagreb, Ljubljana and Dubrovnik. She arranged for private tour guides for walking tours of the big sites and without exception these guides were experts: knowledgeable, personable and very helpful in all respects. The accommodations were excellent and very memorable. Breakfasts were all good, some exceptional. The distances to drive each day were quite reasonable and left enough time for us to explore and even choose to visit places not on the itinerary, the Motovun truffle festival for example. While self driving is challenging and occassionally stressful when one misses a turn as dictated by Athena, our GPS, I found the roads and drivers in Croatia to be quite good. We used a Garmin NUVI handheld GPS for driving and with one notable exception in Split it worked wonderfully. We purposely chose to stay longer in Zagreb, our first city, in order to rest up from our flight from Canada and again we lingered longer in Dubrovnik to relax after our journey and prepare for the flight home. The international flights, as many co travelers will confirm, are the worst part of international travel these days, even when using highly reputable carriers. I am confident that Jekena, who is very well organized, has our tour in her 'system' and that it is a well used and reliable route with accommodations carefully selected for parking etc. I suspect that we will travel with Jelena's guidance in other locales in that part of Europe as she is very knowledgeable of those locales. Our only regret is that we never had an opportunity to meet her personally as our telephone conversations while in country and exchange of e-mails over the months have made us to regard her to be a respected professional. I take pictures, lots of them!! Some people even think I am a photographer!! When I get around to editing them and if it is possible, I will try and add them to this review.

Igor from Tureta Travel organised us a perfect 20 days itinerary for our family of 4 (2 teenagers!) across Croatia including a stop in Mostar and Kotor. The private guides booked by Igor were all very good and made a difference in learning about the country and allow us to understand the rich history of Croatia. Thank you Igor for you professionalism, availability before and during the trip and the perfect coordination of drivers, guides and choices of hotels.

We traveled thru Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and southern Croatia. Had a wonderful time everywhere.

My husband and I had already visited Croatia, Montenegro and Venice in a previous tour 10 years ago. Since we liked it so much the first time, we decided to go again with another couple (sister-in-law and her husband). We visited Zagreb, in Montenegro Kotor, Cetinje. We then went back to Croatia: Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Plitvice Lakes, Motovun, Porec, Pula Rovinj and finalized in Venice, Italy. It was a wonderful trip!!

My trip was ok. I was ill the last day, and spent it in bed, which I don’t think the guide appreciated, as she complained about having to stick around the inn all day. I don’t think I was her ideal traveler as she told me she usually tours from 8:00am to 8:00 pm. This is not my style. I believe she was bored, as she was on her cell phone most of the time we were out and about.

All three destinations we went to - Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnic - were absolutely stunning. We had a memorable all ladies trip. Piltwick lake and Trogir were another excellent places to visit.

This was a wonderful trip, start to finish. We drove from Opatija south to Dubrovnik stopping along the way at Plitvice National Park, Split, and Korcula Island.

We picked Croatia as our destination because my grandparents lived there before coming to America. It is a beautiful country and the prospect of doing some genealogy searching made it the right place for us. We like to find the 'hidden gems' when we travel and not follow the crowd. My favorite place was Velika Planina in Slovenia. It took some effort to actually get to the settlement, but 100% worth it. We also loved driving the Julian Alps and visiting Pag, Croatia. Jelena arranged a rental car for us, and we drove from Zagreb to Slovenia and then down the coast to Dubrovnik. Everything at our own pace. If we saw something interesting we stopped. No tour group schedules to follow, no feeling like were were part of a herd. I enjoyed the safety of knowing that Jelena was just a phone call away should we run into any problems.

We landed in Zagreb, spent a day or so there, moved onto the Adriatic Coast and Pula, stayed in Opatija for three days and traveled down the coast to Split. Every day was perfect.

Plitvice Lakes National Park and Dubrovnik have become world renowned and were the magnets. When hiking in the Dolomites we tried but could not fit in Triglave NP and Bled so this was the beginning of this trip. My wife and I are 64 year old activity travelers and have checked off our last 2 bucket list locations with the help of Evaneos. (Portugal with Anna and now) Croatia / Slovenia with Jelena, our local agent. As busy as Jelena has been with small independents such as us or leading bus loaded tours, she always found time for us. Beginning the trip's process with variable dates and length of travel, she remained calm and organized. Jelena quickly found out we were doers and not leisure lizards. She offered various itineraries and guided or independent treks including a variety of accomodations and sites. From there, she and Lauri grew the trip to cover both history, culture, people interaction, beauty and action. They explored their options on the internet and came up with a slighty more extended plan with additional highlights. We started in Zagreb to find out how little, we Americans know of the region. That simply added to the mystery of the history and evolution of this Balkan region. Lauri and I kept reading as we explored the region from city-state-and now the national Countries of the area from Illyrian, Greek, Roman, Venetian, Nappleonic, Habsburg, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslavian cultures and now the newly re-soverign nations with Ottoman and Islamic influences. This simply super-enhanced the architecture, flavors, people, wars of appreciation by Jelena's recommendations. We toasted with the locals in Vrhnika, ate in stone cities, mountains, lakes and hilltops with wild or farm to table local foods. We chose Slovenian truffles with Croatian wines and ate the best steaks ever. Jelena was soon to find out that Lauri and I are over-achievers; we added a hiking guide for 2 days in Triglav National Park and indulged in Lake Bled and Bovec / Soca activities. We added Skocjan Caves and Predjana Castle Cave, Piran and Motovun on our way to Opatija where we walked the lungomare and had an extensive breakfast buffet under covered tables on the Grand Palace's gorgeous deck overlooking the Adriatic sea. Each accommodation was increasingly thought out for our enjoyment and interest by Jelena and if we got lost getting there even with GPS in the tiny car-challenged streets, Jelena helped us through. She even met us at our up-scaled BandB to meet and talk in Plitvice. Understanding Croatia and site recommendations are definitely Jelena's strength! Zadar (harmonic steps), Trogir (effervescent energy), and seaside towns to Split along the coast road and not the super highway further enlightened the history and development of Jelena's country. Oh my, what an understatement Split is for it's more heavily tourists 'sister' Dubrovnik! We stayed in a re-gentrified home/UNESCO turned BandB at Heritage Palace Varos with original in-floor olive mill 2 blocks from Split old city and Diocletians Palace. Split has accommodated Croatia's attraction well. By adding a half day private tour to our schedule, Jelena only enhanced it's unique history, cobbled with a young, energetic esplanade and great restaurants, bars and squares, street music within the Palaces courtyard and a wonderful Marjan Park with great views highlighted the coastal towns. The Jewish immigration and current presence over the centuries was most interesting to us. We added options like walking Ston's walls and eating oysters and appreciating the still functioning Roman salt pans before we got to Dubrovnik. As Dubrovnik was a City Nation-State, we stayed just outside this living double walled millenial fortress at the gorgeous Blue Hotel resort. We continued our activity with an extended prearranged tour and fine foods of pastas and seafood, took a short 'fish-eye' view of this historic town from the sea and a 'bird's-eye' view from the top of the gondola. We better understood the development of this wonderful country following the third Balkan War and left grateful for Jelena's masterful arrangements including car pick-ups and deliveries to and from the airports. Jelena deserves 5 star kudos for a most wonderful trip. We look forward to using the services of Evaneos once again in the near future!

We had a car from Split airport and drove directly to Plitvice Lakes which we visited the next day. By the end of our holiday, this was still our favourite day. The lakes and falls are something you should not miss. Then we drove down to Zadar and on to Sibenik. Sibenik is wonderful old town and we had a delightful apartment right in the old town. From there down to Split where we enjoyed a Wine tour and an afternoon sailing to the Island of Brac. Split old town is wonderful with so many things to see and we only covered a sample. Next a bus to Dubrovnik where we again stayed in the old town. So little time there to see all the wonders but we managed to go up in the cable car and take a ride to the Island of Lokrum where we spend a pleasant couple of hours.

Two week road trip through Slovenia and Croatia ..people were lovely .. most helpful. Both countries are beautiful ... so much to absorb and appreciate. Everyday brought a new highlight!

Jelena did the following for us: Pick up from Zadar airport for drive to Troger. Local-food lunch in Troger and brief tour of the restaurant area. Dropped us off at the Cornaro Hotel in Split, making sure that our next morning tour would start at 9a when the weather was less hot. Arranged a van, driver and tickets for Krka National Park to accommodate us and extended friends and family. Picked up our luggage and delivered to new accommodations in Hvar Town. Made sure we had ferry tickets to get to these accommodations. Van driver dropped us at the ferry port. Picked us up at Hvar Town and drove us via ferry to Mostar, stopping at Kravice Waterfalls along the way. Took our son and daughter-in-law to bus station in Mostar for departure to Sarajevo and got us registered into City Hotel. Took us to Mostar guide and accompanied us throughout the old city tour. We enjoyed Bosnian coffee and sweets, lunch of cevapcici with local bread. Drove to Medjugorje where we climbed the hill. Drove back to Croatia, stopping at Ston Walls and enjoyed oysters in Peljesac Oyster bay and then on to Dubrovnik. Arranged tour of Dubrovnik city. Driver to Dubrovnik airport and departure to Rome. All in all, this was a great trip and it is all due to the many talents of our agent, Jelena, and the beautiful Croatia, Herzegovina and Bosnia countries! Thank you!

Croatia has always been on our bucket list. My grandfather's family is from Croatia, which added to our reason of visiting. I found a tour on evaneos that we liked and was contacted by Jelena. I do not think this trip would have been as amazing as it was without Jelena. She customized everything to exactly what we wanted. We emailed for months before our trip to make sure it was all perfect. She even helped find my family, and was our translator for the day, plus 2 days in Zagreb. Every city was amazing! We loved the Plitvica Lakes, Sailing trip to the Kornati Island, Diocletian's Palace, Hvar, Dubrovnik, and Mostar. The scenery, food, and people are breath taking. Jelena was in contact through phone or email the entire tip. She made sure we made it to each hotel and all the way back to Florida. I would love to go back. The price for the trip truly reflects in the activities, beautiful hotels/homes, excursions and food we had. It was all amazing. Thank you evaneos and Jelena for the trip!