8 Days in Croatia by Bus (and the One Boat Tour I'd Skip)
An 8-day Zadar to Dubrovnik route done entirely on public transport — the full 8-hour Plitvice trail, why the four-island boat tour was a mistake, and the one stretch of coast where I wish I'd had a car.
This was the first proper trip of my life. Eight days, two of us, hostels the whole way, no car at any point — just Croatia's bus network, which turns out to be more than good enough.
The shape is simple and I'd keep it: 2 nights in Zadar, 2 in Split, 3 in Dubrovnik, moving steadily south.
Three things I'd tell you before the days themselves:
- Plitvice Lakes is, hands down, the best national park in Europe. It's the reason to come and it deserves a full day, not a morning.
- Skip the four-island boat tour out of Dubrovnik. I did it, and it's the one part of the week I'd take back.
- Buses are fine everywhere except one stretch — and I'll tell you which.
Day 1: Zadar
Zadar is a good place to start because it's small and you can see it on foot in an afternoon — Roman ruins, medieval churches, and a compact old town you can't really get lost in.
The two things everyone comes for are on the seafront and they're both worth it. The Sea Organ is a set of pipes built into the marble steps that the waves play; you sit on the steps and listen to the sea make noise at you. The Sun Salutation next to it is a solar-powered disc set into the promenade that lights up after dark.
Go at sunset and you get both at once.
Day 2: Plitvice Lakes — take the full day
Day trip from Zadar, and the best day of the trip by a distance.
Plitvice is a chain of sixteen terraced lakes that spill into each other over travertine barriers, and you walk it on wooden boardwalks laid inches above the water. There's nothing else in Europe quite like being in it rather than looking at it.
Do the 8-hour route
There are shorter marked routes and they're all shortcuts. I did the full 8-hour trail — Route K — and it's the one to do. It covers the Upper and the Lower Lakes, and the ferry across Lake Kozjak and the shuttle bus between sections are both included in your ticket, so you're not paying extra to walk the whole thing.
Start at Entrance 1. There are two entrances about 2.5 km apart, and Route K runs from either — but Entrance 1 puts you at the Lower Lakes, which means you're standing above Veliki Slap, the 78-metre waterfall, within minutes of walking in. That's the view people come for, and doing it first means you get it before the day fills up.
Two pieces of advice, and I'd weight both heavily:
- Book your ticket in advance. Don't turn up expecting to buy one at the gate.
- Get there as early as you possibly can. The boardwalks are narrow and single-file in places, and once the coach groups land you spend the day queuing behind people rather than looking at water. Early is the whole game here.
Buses run to the park from Zadar daily, which is what makes this work without a car.
Day 3: Bus to Split
A few hours south, and Split is where you swap national park for Roman ruins.
Diocletian's Palace is the thing, and it isn't a ruin you look at from behind a rope — it's a lived-in quarter of the city, with cafés, shops and apartments built into and on top of a 4th-century imperial palace. Wandering it without a plan is the correct way to do it.
The marina and the Riva promenade are the evening, and Split has a real bar and beach-club scene if that's what you're after.
Day 4: Hvar
Ferry out to Hvar for the day — lavender, a busy harbour, turquoise water, and the Fortica fortress on the hill above town with the view back over the Pakleni islands.
Honest verdict: Split and Hvar were the underwhelming part of the week for me. Neither is bad. They're just the part I'd cut first if someone handed me this itinerary and told me to lose two days, and I'd put those days into Plitvice and Dubrovnik instead. Plenty of people love Hvar — I didn't especially, and you should know that before you build a trip around it.
Day 5: Split to Dubrovnik — the one stretch I'd drive
The bus down the coast to Dubrovnik is long and it is spectacular, running along the Adriatic with the sea on one side and red-roofed villages dropping away below the road.
Sit on the right-hand side of the bus. Heading south you have the Adriatic on your right the whole way, and you'll spend the journey looking straight down at the water.
Here's my one transport regret in eight days: this is the single stretch where I wish we'd had a car. Not for the rest of it — the buses are genuinely good and I'd take them again everywhere else. But on this road you pass viewpoint after viewpoint that you can only watch go by through a window. If you're going to rent a car for any part of a Croatia trip, rent it for Split to Dubrovnik and hand it back.
Day 6: Dubrovnik — the walls and the Game of Thrones tour
Walk the city walls — but not when I did
The 2 km circuit on top of the walls is the best thing in Dubrovnik: the whole old town laid out below you on one side, Lokrum island and open Adriatic on the other.
I did it in the afternoon and that was a mistake. There is no shade up there, none, and the stone throws the heat straight back at you. Go early morning or late in the day — it's the same walk and a completely different experience.
The Game of Thrones tour
Around €30 when I went, and worth it — if you liked the show. That's the whole test. If you did, having someone walk you to the actual staircases and squares and tell you what was filmed where genuinely changes how the city reads. If you didn't watch it, spend the money on something else; it's not a general history tour in disguise.
Day 7: The boat tour I'd skip, and Mount Srđ
Don't do the four-island boat tour
I did the four-island tour out of Dubrovnik and the islands were underwhelming. It eats a whole day and I don't think it gives you much back.
Do a day trip to Mostar or Kotor instead. Both are straightforward from Dubrovnik — Mostar for the bridge and the Ottoman old town in Bosnia, Kotor for the bay and the walls in Montenegro. I did neither, and that's the one thing about this trip I'd genuinely change.
Hike Mount Srđ for sunset
Best sunset in Croatia, from the hill directly behind the old town.
There's a cable car, and I hiked it instead because the cable car is expensive. The path switchbacks up from behind the city and it's a real climb, but it's free and you've earned the view. Go up with enough daylight to spare and come down after the sun goes.
Day 8: Departure
Fly out of Dubrovnik. Because the whole route runs one direction — Zadar down to Dubrovnik — you never double back, so fly into Zadar and out of Dubrovnik rather than booking a return to one of them.
What I'd change
Not much, honestly. It was a good trip and a very good first trip.
- Swap the four-island boat tour for Mostar or Kotor.
- Walls in the morning, not the afternoon.
- A car for Split to Dubrovnik only.
- Fewer days in Split and Hvar, more in Dubrovnik.
Practical notes
- The bus network does everything. Zadar–Plitvice, Zadar–Split, Split–Dubrovnik: all straightforward, all frequent enough that you don't need to plan far ahead.
- Ferries to the islands are frequent from Split.
- Croatia is on the Euro now. It joined in 2023, which quietly removed the most annoying part of my trip — when I went you were still juggling kuna and hunting for decent exchange rates.
- Book Plitvice ahead. Everything else you can sort on the day.
- Take proper walking shoes. Between the 8-hour Plitvice route, the walls and the Mount Srđ hike, this itinerary has more walking in it than a coastal holiday sounds like it should.