Dalmatian coast

Has this place anything in common with the dalmatian dogs?
Is Dalmatia home of the most popular movie series’ filming locations?
Was Dalmatia one of the main provinces of the probably biggest empire in the history?
Yes, but our main reason to visit this region was to relax 🙂

Then where it is exactly on the map? Mainly the south part of Croatia and the Kotor bay from Montenegro. Wiki knows the best:

Plitvice lakes

Slightly outside of the dalmatian map, in the north, are the Plitvice Lakes, Croatia’s one of the emblematic tourist hot-spots.
Thousands of tourists enter the park in summer, which is a plausible sign for it’s awesomeness. On the other hand hanging around by the lakes in an overcrowded atmosphere could ruin a part of your experience so we recommend to plan your visit right after opening or before closing time.

All the lakes are full of fish. I’m not sure if there were there before or after the tourist boom, but it brings a plus for the experience.

Beside the natural beauty of the waterfalls and the blue colored lakes one thing we noticed and captured in images were the pretty paths.

On one of the biggest lakes you can also take a boat trip. It saves you time so I would recommend to do it.

And these are the photos you see on the Internet! After you reach the lowest lakes you have to climb back a little to be taken by some yellow-mini-school-buses. Otherwise you would have plenty of walking back to the parking lot.

Molat island

We wanted to go on an island for two days. We were undecided, so we asked at the information office, in Zadar. They didn’t especially recommended Molat and we chose it just because of it’s suitable boat time schedule.

With the hammocks in our backpack, without any accommodation set for this night and neither for the next one all we wanted was a nice, remote place near the water and, of course, with trees to put our hammocks.

What could be nicer than hitchhiking a boat to a smaller, remote island? We were taken by a local on an island where we became the only residents.

Doing nothing and doing it well.

Mostar

While investigating to map towards south Croatia we realized that we have to cross the Bosnia-Herzegovinan border by car. Probably you have seen at least one picture with Stari Most bridge on the internet, but maybe you didn’t know where is it.

Stari Most is the most important landmark of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the reason to put Mostar on many travelers’ bucket list. The bridge was built in the 16th century by Ottomans and recently rehabilitated.

Daily, several people jump from the bridge into the deep water. A few for earning money, others just for fun. Even cliff diving competitions are held there, for example Red Bull Cliff Diving 2015

Most of us heard about the Yugoslavian wars, but maybe too little. It’s hard to imagine that the former Yugoslavian countries were involved in a long, ethnic war just 10-15 years ago. A lot of the Serbians, Croatians, Albanians and Bosnians were enemies on the battlefield in the 90’s. Now the Croatians and Bosnians leave in peace in Mostar (as far as I know), but as they also pointed out in several places of the city, they will never forget what happened.

Mljet island

Mljet, home to one of the Croatia’s national parks, named as “Croatia’s greenest island”, is well known about its inland lakes and trekking trails.

As a first stop, we found this hidden cliff jumping place, randomly on the map. A while ago, somebody told me he would go to Croatia just for cliff jumping and it seemed a bit hard to understand this back then. But when you find yourself in places like this, jumping and playing around spectacular caves and azure waters, time passes fast and it’s easy to make out of this a main trip purpose.

The curvy road goes all the way on the coastline and offers plenty of impressive landscapes.

Waiting for the sunset.

Dubrovnik

15 years ago this city was under the siege of Serbian army forces. Dozens of people where killed and a significant part of the city was damaged. Now is the touristic capital of Dalmatia, gathering thousands of visitors every day.

The old town is one of the best you can see, and having it right near the Adriatic sea makes it look even more imposing and beautiful. Also, Dubrovnik is one of Game of Thrones’ filming locations, the home of “King’s Landing”, with plenty of scene spots spread around the city that can be “hunt down”.

The main street of Dubrovnik’s old town. You can’t drop a needle in peak season.

A tour on the city wall gives you spectacular views of the fortress and surroundings, and even though there is an entrance fee it’s worth it. If you go in summer, don’t forget to take a bottle of water with you 🙂 .

Kotor

Just several kilometers South, in another country, named Montenegro, there is a magical place: the Kotor bay. Geographically, I could say it’s the South European copy of the majestic Norwegian fjords.

The difference is that the weather is way more sunny, there are several medieval towns on the shoreline with authentic architecture and at last, it’s more cheaper.

Medieval town of Kotor is placed in the heart of the bay and it’s surrounded by water, cliffs and fortifications.

Starting from Kotor town there is a steep, curvy road above the town with several viewpoints. These are one of the views you will never forget.

This parking lot is the start of the ascent to Mount Lovcen, 1749m. On the top of the mountain is the Njegoš Mausoleum, a Montenegrin poet and philosopher, and the stairs go up right until the mausoleum.