Whistle-stop trip: Croatia in 6 days

Split > Bol > Trogir

• Travel dates: 14th May - 19th May 2012
• Flights: EasyJet
• Accommodation: booked apartments independently for Bol and Trogir

How to cram as much as possible into 6 days and still relax on the beach...

First-thing's-first: you need a car for this trip itinerary. This definitely works out as affordable if there are 4 of you travelling together, as splitting out the cost of rental and petrol makes it quite cheap.

We booked through Atlas Choice, which got us a car rented through Sixt. We picked up and dropped off at Split Airport and this worked out good as obviously you save on any airport transfers as well. The cost was approximately 106 Euros for the 5 days.

Our first task upon getting the car was to drive into Split centre towards the ferry port. We never actually had a map for Croatia - the designated driver associated passengers had familiarised themselves with our approximate route on Google Maps before leaving. We actually found the roads to be well sign-posted and easy to navigate.

As we had a car, our only choice for travel to Brac was to take the car ferry - it doesn't go directly to Bol (our desired destination) but instead docks at Supetar, approximately an hours drive (allowing for one or two stops).

We had some trouble finding information about the ferries leaving Split, but this website has good details of the timetables for both the car and foot passenger ferries leaving. 

As this was such a short trip, we booked our accommodation in Bol in advance. We stayed at the delightful Apartments Irma, which were very reasonable. Booked over email and paid the full amount on arrival. The owners were lovely, and even greeted us with pastries leftover from their daughter's wedding.

The setting was perfect, just a short walk into the centre of Bol, and easy to get to the super market and the local restaurants. We were also situated right on the seafront, although you'll see from the waves it wasn't for swimming - however we were told of a sandy beach just a short walk up the road which we unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit. The apartments had amazing gardens full of cacti and succulents. It's worth noting that the price of this apartment includes free, off-road parking.

Zlatni Rat beach was a 10 minute drive from the apartments, although it is walk-able and takes around 20-25 minutes depending on your walking speed. We visited twice and experienced drastically different weather on each occasion; first visit in the early evening was cold and windy, second visit in the early afternoon was hot enough to swim and sunbath.

Bol was a really relaxing,sleepy town but, bearing in mind we were there off-season, there wasn't a whole lot going on. We had hoped to arrange a fishing trip, but this was more expensive than we had budgeted for (around 50 Euros for half a day) and it was off season, so not much chance of landing any fish. Once you've done Zlatni Rat it's not really all that alluring, the beach is pebbly and the swimming ok (as it juts out from the land, the water gets deep very quickly - lots of treading water). We took the snorkling gear down as well, but the water was a bit too murky to see much. Again, this may very much be the season. We spent 3 days in Bol and then hit the road to the next destination.

Our next stop after Bol was back to the mainland to Trogir, mainly because we wanted to see these waterfalls but also because we had heard that Trogir was a picturesque town worth visiting.

The drive obviously involved getting the ferry back from Supetar and another hair-raising trip around some very tight hairpins. Not driving for the faint-hearted.

It took us around 4 hours to get from Bol to Trogir, allowing for ferry waiting times, crossing and drive either side. We also stopped in Split to top up on supplies at the amazing market there. This market sorted us for cheese, cured meats, vegetables, cheese, bread, oil and much more - at very reasonable prices. It worked out perfectly, because the apartments we booked both had kitchens and we often sorted lunch and breakfast ourselves.

InTrogir, we stayed at Apartment Orlic the other side of the river to the main town, but only a short walk. We were met in the harbour by the owner, a very friendly chap who appeared on his motorcycle and lead us the way up to the apartments. This also included parking.

Our rooms were reasonable, there was a slight smell of damp in the apartments and very little natural light. Still, they were clean and spacious and we had space on the balcony outside where we were given home made Croatian wine to sup in the evening sunshine.

We did head out for eats in Trogir, I feel like we were missing something as everywhere we went was pizza and pasta and nothing particularly interesting to be honest. We were really up for seafood, but this was seriously limited (probably, as above with the fishing trip, because it wasn't fishing season).

By far the best thing we did from staying in Trogir was heading to the Krka waterfalls. This was about an hour's drive from our apartment, we took the toll road which was a really easy drive; though we were told there was a scenic route along the coast which took a little longer. We'd already done coastal drives around Brac, so we were more interested in getting to the waterfalls.

It was a beautiful day there and was a superb way to spend our last full day in Croatia. We drove there and parked up; we paid up for our entrance and had the option to get the bus (which, if I remember rightly) ran every 20 minutes, or to walk down. We chose to walk down and then grabbed the bus back up.

That wraps up our trip, and

Sonoma - Santa Cruz - Highway 1 - Los Angeles

The end is nigh...

So to Sonoma, 1.5 hours from San Franscisco, 2 days fast-tracked wino tour. Of course, slightly hindered by the need to drive everywhere. Many an hour spent sobering up in the pub - me fashioned with a glass of water and bag of crisps.

We found the most amazing restaurant completely by accident in Santa Rosa, called G&Gs Earth and Surf. A brand spankingly new place with an amazing menu (chickpea chips no less) and a policy to source food from no further than 150miles away. The same went for alcohol. Not only all this, but it catered for my exact diet - vegetables and fish. This place was so good that we insisted on a three course lunch and went two days in a row...so much for that budget.

For wine tastings we found ourselves in Heraldsville, a sleepy, quaint little town with all manner of tasting options. Most fun was the Toad Hollow winery from which we purchased a bottle of rose and a bottle of bubbly...did someone say budget?

Probably a good thing we only had 48 hours here, but in reality it would have been grand to go the whole hog with a wine tasting tour. It's certainly on my to do list.

Next stop: Santa Cruz. Three hours of driving sees us in Santa Cruz, just before sunset. We are here following a recommendation from the man who sells jewellery opposite ferry terminal 4 in SF. Less than 24 hours to do the Board Walk. Our hotel is a motel and I'm excited. It's pink and floral, clean and spacious, but a 25 minute walk from the beach. Bit of a shame with limited time, still we hit the off-licence opposite for some choice picks for local beer and head on down to the beach in time for sunset.

The Board Walk is primary-coloured, tinny musical, fried food wonderment. According to budget we stick with things like the "make your own Santa Cruz Board Walk penny" machine and "Collect these Vintage Car Postcards for a dime" machine. The one thing we hadn't thought of is that there is no alcohol on the beach, so the 6 bottles of carefully chosen local beer we'd lugged all the way down, were lugged all the way back up again.

The hours worth of walking was rewarded with a midnight tryst at the local ice cream parlour, and boy was this place awesome. Marianne's late night ice cream parlour - it had to be done.

Next stop: Highway 1 to LA.

The longest drive of the West Coast excursion, 9+ hours and I think I stopped counting at 9 anyway. This drive was no without stops however, and on such a beautiful day as it was these stops were well worth the additional hours it took to arrive in LA. First pit stop was Monterey. This place felt proper seaside, with a proper sea breeze to help that feeling along. We stopped for brunch in this restaurant called First Awakenings which makes me hungry now at just the thought of it. After a quick wonder along the promenade we hit the road again, back to Highway 1.

The pit stops along the way consisted of serves into small roadside cubby holes, where we'd briefly leave the car to stand on the precipice of the road, look down to the turquoise blue Pacific Ocean and breathe in the vista that surrounded us. Quite simply put, this drive was breath-taking. We later read that highway 1 is one of the most dangerous roads in California, at the time I didn't consider it but there were a couple of white-knuckle moments: the lanky bridges spanning cliffs, the hairpin corners and the bottomless drop into the ocean made for some interesting driving.

Beat poets, red woods, humming birds, waterfalls, beaches full of seals, crashing waves, campsites, forest trails and wine...I would love to do it again, but this time with a whole month to spare.

So sunset passed behind us, twilight edged in, my eyes began to cross over and coffee was required. Following a small hiccup with getting lost in LA, we arrived at our hostel at midnight. Touted to be the best room in the house, we dragged our weary bodies upstairs to our private room and crashed out in preparation for a hectic last two days.

San Francisco and bringing it home

So to the last two weeks of my trip. San Francisco was an amazing city, there were all kinds of trips and events on offer - though I was acutely conscious of my fast dwindling budget so opted to do only free things. This meant I scaled almost the entire city by foot. I did not once take a subway/tram/bus/taxi or the like. As it goes, I was not only incredibly lucky with weather in Seattle but also in SF. Someone was smiling on me for once.

I did a lot of window shopping.

I walked the length and breadth of Market Avenue, with no particular agenda other than to see as much as humanly possible on foot. I found an amazing old arcade near Fisherman's Wharf which provided all manner of entertainment all for the price of a quarter or two. I experienced some impressive street art, saw (and smelt) seals, enjoyed the sea, took in the bridges, ports and boats. I had considered hiring a bike to cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge, but at $25 for the day it was well out of my price range. I was lucky (again!) enough to be in San Fran on the free museum days so got myself to the MOMA for an afternoon.

The hostel I was staying in had a massive communal area up front, which was pretty nice considering; so my evenings were usually spent hanging out here with a few tinnies from the corner shop opposite. Keeping it cheap there.

On my third day in SF Tyler arrived from London at around midnight, so we found ourselves in a 24 hour 1950s diner called Lori's eating veggie burgers and onion rings and drinking beer.

The next day was spent at an incredibly bizarre exhibition by Nick Cave - think all-in-one knitted body suits crossed with Sesame Street on acid - and finding our hire car. Having had a break from behind the wheel (for approximately 5 years) I was glad that cars in the US do all the gear shifting for you.

The highlight of that day was driving over the Golden Gate bridge at dusk, on the way to the Sonoma Valley to drink some of that Californian wine you always hear about.

Pulling my finger out...

Well, given that I've now been back in the UK for over a month, it really is time I tied up the end of my blog. So I'm pulling my finger out, it has literally been up my arse.

My three nights in Seattle were great, not only because the sun came out and stayed there. I was taken on a guided tour by a proper local and a very good new friend. We did the tourist thing and went on the underground tour. In fact, Seattle has a very interesting history and (although touristy and seemingly full of drunken women on hen weekends) was well worth the $15 I paid for it.

There was talk of heading up a tall building (I forget what it was called now, but I remember it was white and once was the tallest building in the US), but then we found a happy hour, so such plans were held off until happy hour had been well and truly taken advantage of. The rest of Seattle was hanging out in Calyn's garden, trialing public transport, views over the Bay (whichever one is closest to the famous market - also worth a visit), trips to the marina to see the boat makers, a drive along to see Lake Washington and admire the prim and proper, a gimsp at the radio tower, the Japanese gardens at the arboretum and a lot of appreciation of the beautiful weather.

My next West Coast destination was San Fransisco. I'd originally planned to try overland travel to San Fran, due to my over-exposure to air travel throughout the rest of my trip. This was partly an environmental decision, and partly the fact that I really dislike travelling by air. However, when I began researching the options they weren't looking too appealing. A train from Seattle to Fisherman's Wharf SF would have taken anywhere between 22 and 24 hours and cost approximately $90. Greyhound was a similar amount of time, and coming in above $80. So, I chanced the flights: a flight with Virgin America took 2 hours and cost $65. Despite my declaration upon leaving Costa Rica: "no more air travel until my flight out of LA" it would've been stupid not to.

So, off to San Fran, courtesy of Virgin America.

Victoria BC (UK)

My trip to Victoria was the traditional go-it-alone travel (aside from the lift Jen gave me the bus terminal). I purchased an all-inclusive bus/ferry/bus ticket (C$40) and headed off. The journey took just under 4 hours and the bus dropped me off a brief walk from the HI Victoria where I was staying. This hostel had an enormous dorm of over 20 beds, only 4 of which were occupied making it feel a little weird and unfriendly. The weather and atmosphere of Victoria reminded me the most of home than any other place I'd visited: overcast, drizzling and cobbled streets.

That night I wandered around the streets of downtown Victoria and treated myself to a rather pleasant Italian meal and glass of wine in the restaurant opposite the hostel. The following day it was still raining (the rain featured throughout the remainder of my time in Victoria) so I did what all good Brits do and tracked down a cup of tea. I found my salvage from the rain in Murchie's Tea and Coffee shop which quite simply rocked (their tiramasu was amazing) and pretty much spent my morning(s) in this shop. I walked the length and breadth of Victoria, saw the oldest China town in Canada, explored the market place and walked the harbour. In the evenings, I did what all Brits do and went in search of a pub; I got myself a local ale and I was happy.

All in all I found Victoria to be very quaint and easy to navigate, but probably best enjoyed in the summer as the drizzle and cold were a little limiting. My next destination was Seattle. I had considered going to the San Juan islands to do a spot of whale watching, but I was informed that this was not the best time of year for it, so off I went to Seattle. My first boarder crossing on the open seas. I had to get the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles on the West Coast of America in the Olympic National Park. This cost me the princely sum of US$13. The ferry took around 2 hours and I even saw a seal bobbing around in the ocean, so worth every cent.

I'd booked a place on the Dungeness (namesake of the local crabs) line bus service to get to downtown Seattle (US35) and this took 4 hours through some really picturesque countryside. I arrived in a slightly less picturesque Greyhound station and waited for Calyn (my travelling buddy from Panama) in a cave of a Thai restaurant attached to the station. Naturally it was raining in Seattle. Upon being picked up we headed to a local bar called The Comet which was a very fine introduction to the City, despite the continued rain.

And then the dog peed on my leg

The Overnight Greyhound Experience was...well, all other Greyhound buses I'd taken were half-empty so I had the seat next to me for luggage, feet and for general relaxing/stretching purposes. Not only was the bus half an hour late, it being dusk in Banff the temperature had dropped considerably, but it was packed. So, the only option I had was an incredibly cramped space next to a complete stranger. Suffice to say, not much sleeping happened and all the reading lights got turned out at 9:30pm meaning reading wasn't an option either. So all I could so was stare into dark space, occasionally getting kicked accidentally by people on the way to the toilet, for about 6 hours until finally someone got off the bus and the very back seat was free.

I was utterly ecstatic about this as I could now lie horizontally and I no longer had to stick my legs into the aisle to be vaguely comfortable. What I discovered about the back seat was the lack of a reclining chair feature, this meant every time the driver applied the breaks I was flung forward into the chair in front. The driver (who had chastised me previously for apparently "waking up the entire bus" at a stop because the previous driver hadn't asked me for my ticket - I'd been on the bus for 7 hours by that point and, I hasten to add, he'd just turned on all the lights and announced the stop so I fail to see how it was my fault that people were awake) was driving like a loon so the flinging was a frequent feature of my so-called sleep. I arrived at Vancouver dazed but simply happy to be off that bus.

I was to meet a gent named Neale on Granville and Robson, and so the Vancouver adventure began. I spent a few hours wandering around the sea wall, then Neale drove me to Commercial Drive for lunch and introduced me to the dog, Q, who later showed his appreciation for my company by relieving himself on my leg in park. Finally Neale dropped me off at Jen's. That evening Jen and I ate veggie Chinese and drank Cools Light into the smaller hours, then she was off to do her 12 hour Paramedic shift!

The rest of my time in Vancouver was a blur of Juno awards parties, Vancouver fashion week, Juno gigs (most notably a Canadian band named Scatterheart), the aquarium, Stanley Park, chats with homeless guys ("I love rock and roll, prettiest girl I ever saw, see her on the movie screen...") sushi and drinking. I met some great people in Vancouver and I was shown a jolly fine time by all concerned.

Next stop: Victoria, Vancouver Island.

The Greyhound Experience

Due to a slight mishap with my driving license - it potentially ending up at the dump - the only other option was to Greyhound it over Canada (trains being very expensive and often slow). The Greyhound's not horrendously expensive, then it's not cheap either. The Greyhound from Saskatoon to Edmonton was about $50 per person, six hours of snowy landscapes and one stop for a bran muffin. The Greyhounds also seem to stop off to deliver mail along the way, this is when all the smokers dash off to suck down a fag to keep them going for the next hour or so.

Arrival at the Greyhound station in Edmonton, we went to get a taxi and lo and behold the hotel - The Sutton Place - could be seen at a slight distance. Therefore, the taxi drivers suggested we walk it...right across an icy car park with my lungs already stretched to capacity. We made it in the end, cursing the taxi drivers as we stepped through the doors.

The hotel was in a shopping centre, but you wouldn't notice it unless you knew. It did alright and was $100 for a double room which isn't bad. That evening was spent eating sushi at mikado (which was amazing) and heading around my friend Paula's place for late-night (Canadian) wine and chats.

The next morning, nursing a hangover with a $25 brunch from the hotel (which was lavish but utterly worth it - buck's fizz and the most amazing pastry selection I'd clapped eyes on in a while). We checked out of the hotel and I headed round to begin my stay with Paula.

Five days doing Canada the Canadian way once more: I hung out at the Junque Cellar where Paula worked; ate in an authentic Canadian diner; pounded the streets scrutinising all the vintage second-hand stores on Whyte Avenue; the West Edmonton Mall experience; made the Cargo and James teashop my temporary home for a couple of days; and made a delightful day trip to Elk Island National park to search for bison (though there was more s*** than actual animal).

Next Greyhound up - 6am trip to Jasper Alberta. I only had a matter of twelve hours here, staying at the Maligne Lodge due to all the hostels being seeming locked up and without power and water at this time of year. The hotel was ok, though the door didn't shut properly so it was somewhat cold and the promised 'hot tub' was a little manky looking, so I avoided it like the plague. Jasper was a really sweet little place, and it was all blue skies and views of the rocky mountains around me, being a national park and all it was quite something to behold.

I'd booked a trip with Sun Dog Tours (CD$69), to go from Jasper through the Columbia icefields, past Lake Louise to Banff. The bus picked me up right outside the hotel and off I went with Boards of Canada for company, admiring the view every inch of the way. It took 4 hours to get to Banff, and one lady on the bus, Ali, was staying at the same hostel as me: HI Alpine Centre Banff. This turned out to be one of the best hostels I've stayed in so far, aided by the great group of ladies in my dorm.

Banff was a lovely place. I went to the local museum. Up Sulphur Mountain (expensive at CD$29 but worth it for the incredible views) where I made friends with an older British couple who brought me tea and told me stories of the world. On an icewalk to see frozen waterfalls. And to the Banff hot springs with Ali where we kicked back in hired swimsuits and took in the views of the Rockies surrounding us.

There was only one problem with Banff, and that was the loss of all my photos - of Edmonton and everything else also. The second time I've lost my travelling photos, I feel I am photo doomed!

I was a little sad to leave Banff, I would've loved to do a day of snowboarding but budget and needs must. I was off to Vancouver, to stay with another of Ty's friend's (Jen) and to experience: The Overnight Greyhound Journey (play scary, ominous violin music here).