Introduction

One of the the trips I’ve been looking forward to the most was spending a week in Croatia during my travel week. During the semester, each student gets a week off to travel independently or sign-up for an DIScovery trip, excursions that are partially subsidized by DIS. For example, there is a trip that goes to Southern France for a culinary tour! However, I decided to customize my one-week off by traveling independently. One of the places that has always intrigued me was the Dalmatian Coast. A quick Google search on Croatia and its neighboring country of Montenegro can easily convince you to spend a week or even a month in one of the most beautiful regions of the world.

History & Present

The area also has a fascinating and bloody history. Formerly part of Yugoslavia, Croatia only gained independence in 1991 and joined the European Union in 2013. The country also had a significant role during the recent Refugee Crisis since it is the first land entrance to the European Union, witnessing 600,000 refugees passing through its borders from Montenegro in 2015.

Croatia since its independence has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe which consequently made it prone to overcrowding. However, my travel break happened during its off-season in March and although weather forecasts predicted rain throughout the week that we were going to spend in Croatia and Montenegro, by some miracle, it was sunny most of the time.

Planning & Booking

Planning a trip to Croatia from Copenhagen during off-season was at first very challenging. Normally, there would be nonstop flights from Copenhagen to either Split or Dubrovnik, two of the most popular tourist destinations on the Coast. However, one of the cheapest and most “direct” option was flying on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. It was a bit of a back track but I love flying and layovers so it was not an issue. However, for future reference, there were also shorter options with connections in Frankfurt, Vienna, or Zagreb.

Despite that, one of the best things about traveling to Croatia during the off season was the availability of lodging. I easily got an entire apartment via Airbnb with panoramic view of the coast for about 44.00 USD a night. There were also plenty of availability for day tours to either Montenegro or Bosnia for less than 70.00 USD via Viator. Viator has become one of my go-to sites for booking all-inclusive tours and day trips since 2014 and have used it from Japan to Hong Kong to all over Europe. I’ll make a detailed blog post about this cool website soon because it’s really been one of the best travel tools that I consistently use.

Anyways, enjoy this video montage of our trip to Croatia and Montenegro!