-
Visit the dalmatian coast (CROATIA)
This post is a great place to start if you’re planning a beach trip to Croatia. It’s based on our 8 days on the Dalmatian Coast and includes things we did and things we wished we had done.
This itinerary allows you to fly into the international airport in Split, Croatia, island hop through Brac, Hvar, and Korcula taking ferry transfers, and fly home from the international airport in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Instead of giving you a day by day itinerary, this post describes the vibe of each location and allows you to determine how many days you spend in each. Note: If you’re traveling here from outside Europe, plan to be jetlagged your first couple of days… that’s one reason we suggest starting out in Split instead of Dubrovnik.
Highlights
- Split – Splendor of a medieval town built inside the walls of a Roman Emperor’s, Diocletian’s, Palace, a 25-foot tall bronze scuplture of a Saint Gregur, and baroque Venetian architecture
- Brac – Chill beach vibes and the most photographed beach on the Adriatic coast, Zlatni Rat ( referred to as Golden Horn Beach in English). Learn about olive oil production at an olive oil museum. You can lay out your towel on the pebbly beach for free or get served at one of the beach side bar/restaurants in a lounge or daybed.
- Hvar – If you are only going to pay for one beach club on your trip make it Beach Club Hvar. At night head over to Hula Hula Hvar. For a more relaxed experience check out President’s Beach.
- Dubrovnik – Walk the fortress walls and gave at the Baroque city and crystal blue Adriatic sea below, visit The Red Museum to learn about communist Yugoslavia (1945 to 1992 C.E.)
Based on our preferences we’d spend the most time in Brac and the least time in Split. For a week itinerary we might suggest Split (1 night), Brac (3 nights), Hvar (2 nights), Dubrovnik (1 night). Game of Thrones fans may want to take 2 nights in Dubrovnik.
Where we stayed:
- Split- Design One Hostel which is cheaper than a hotel, but more expensive than other hostels. We enjoyed our private room and public rooftop terrace
- Brac – An AirBnB guest house
- Hvar – An AirBnB guest house
- Dubrovnik – Rooms Kortizija
Where we enjoyed eating
- Split, GELATO – We took a recommendation from the podcast Extra Pack of Peanuts (EPOP) and enjoyed the gelato at Sladoledarnica Emiliana. Having once lived in Rome and eaten gelato daily for one month, I’m extremely picky about the gelato I’ll recommend. Sladoledarnica Emiliana is the only gelato I can endorse on this trip – so don’t miss out!
- Split, By the time we reached Croatia we’d been on the Aegean, Ionian, or Adriatic sea for one month and eaten a lot of 1) seafood (looking at you whole, grilled sea bream) and 2) balkan food (ćevapčići and burek). Therefore we ate less of the local food than we would have had we only been in Croatia. However, that did not stop us from enjoying local cuisine at Fife. You probably won’t have the same craving for Indian food we had, but if you do we recommend you try Rhoo which is next to Design One Hostel.
- Brac, Gogy Pizza Delivery makes great whole pizzas with lots of unique toppings and creative combinations
- Brac, Sandwiches at Arguloa fast food
- We didn’t have any standout food experiences in Hvar or Dubrovnik
-
Dubrovnik, Croatia – Before there was Game of Thrones, there was Yugoslavia
Make sure your itinerary to visit Dubrovnik, Croatia looks like this:
- Walk Dubrovnik’s fortress walls
- Visit The Red Museum
Yes, I’m telling you that the museum is the second most important thing to do.
The Red Museum was one of the most important cultural experiences I had during my six weeks of travel in the Balkans. The museum exhibits are immersive and interactive. The curator seeks to provide an objective view of what life was like for an average citizen in communist Yugoslavia.
If you are a “child of the 90s” then you were indoctrinated into the cold war and the “threat of communisum” in the 1980s via public education and media. If you were born afterwards, then you’re more likely to associate Drubovnik, Croatia with King’s Landing and Game of Thrones. We first learned about Croatia when it declared its independence from Yugoslavia during the decline of authoritarian communism in Eastern Europe – the same decline that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in East Germany.
Traveling through the Balkans for six weeks, I am learning a lot about the 20th century history of Yugoslavia and the countries that pulled together to create it in 1918 as a monarchy and recast it as a communist country in 1946. I’ve also watched videos explaining the conflicts that kicked off in 1991 as its member states (North) Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia declared their independence from Yugoslavia.
The Red Museum captures Yugoslavia as a unique, (and economically thriving) communist country. The curator has expertly created an immersive experience where you will feel as if you’re stepping into the past as an average citizen of the country.
If you were born after 1990, you likely lack preconceived notions of Communist countries like Yugoslavia and the U.S.S.R. After 1989, cold war rhetoric in the U.S. faded and the government and media looked to frighten us with new threats. My teenage impression of life in a Communist country is captured in the word “bleak”. “The Free World” (i.e., the U.S. and Western Europe) was cast as “thriving” and life under communism was cast as “meager”, “joyless”, and “oppressed”.
Therefore, stepping into the section of The Red Museum that recreates a typical 1960s Yugoslavian home was a little jarring. To abuse a People magazine meme, I thought, “Yugoslavians, they’re just like us.” You will walk through the recreation of a family’s kitchen, living room, and bedroom. I had not realized that Yugoslavia was the first country to open itself up to trade with Western capitalist countries and was quite surprised to see so many branded consumer products on the shelf. This Westward shift was due to conflict between the revered leader of Yugoslavia, Marshall Tito, and the austere leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin.
Equally surprising was to learn that Yugoslavia had a thriving music industry that paralleled the rise of pop & rock music in the U.S. There is a fascinating wall plastered with 20 album covers. You can listen to 7 tracks! The tracks cover pop, rock, folk, and even punk genres. Don’t miss “Rock Me” by Riva which was the song that made Yugoslavia a Eurovision champion in 1989.
The museum strives to take a balanced and objective view of Yugoslavian history. One exhibit that exemplifies their approach is a set of two videos that are side by side. In one, a man who was imprisoned at Goli Otok – labor camp stationed on an island where many rocks and men were broken – tells his story. In the other, the man who was part of Yugoslavia’s ruling communist party and was responsible for the labor camp tells his story. You witness two different perspectives of the morality of the camp and leave expecting that the “truth” is somewhere in between.
The grand finale of your walk through the museum is the opportunity to climb into the driver’s seat of a domestically manufactured Yugo automobile.
Admission is €9 per adult. If you have previously purchased a Dubrovnik Pass to explore the fortress walls than you are eligible for a 20% discount at The Red Museum.
-
A call for non-hikers to enjoy the majestic mountains of Theth, Albania
If you are a day hiker, through hiker, or backpacker and have begun research on the Balkans then Theth is already on your radar and, more than likely, on your itinerary.
However, if you DON’T see yourself enjoying a 1,000 meter climb to the peak of a mountain, you should instead picture yourself enjoying a romantic evening with a bottle of wine and lively conversation as you and your partner watch the sun go down behind a panoramic view of surrounding mountain peaks.
Put Theth on your itinerary to get the benefits of simply being there. The awesome beauty of the alpine mountains doesn’t require you to climb them. We have traveled across the United States and been to 95% of its National Parks. The magnificence of Theth’s mountains is on par with the best of these parks. Theth is one of those places where photos simply cannot capture the actual beauty of BEING there. You will take something special away from your visit.
We lucked into booking one of the twelve (12) rooms at Villa Molla (Vila Molla is the Albanian spelling) and encourage you to make the same choice. We recommend staying here because:
- Villa Molla provides world class accommodations with the personal touch of a family run guest house
- The view is spectacular and the best in the valley
The front lawn of Villa Molla is the best place to take in a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountain peaks. It is a comfortable place to do so as well because it is tastefully furnished with patio couches and 2-top tables. Here is where you’ll enjoy that aforementioned romantic bottle of wine later, but first a welcome drink of Prosecco. Our room also had an impressive view; but the view from the window of our room’s private balcony couldn’t compete with the immersive view from the front lawn.
The architecture of Villa Molla combines the authenticity of the original home (e.g., beautiful original stone walls on the ground floor) with the comfort and luxury one expects from a boutique hotel. The Molla family spent three years renovating and upgrading their traditional family home to transform it into the Villa you will enjoy today. The twelve guest rooms are on three newly constructed levels built directly on top of the former family home which now serves as the ground floor. The renovation was completed in 2021 and at the time of this writing Villa Molla has only been open two seasons.
The Molla family themselves are perhaps a more important part of your stay than the historic structure. They are the ones who welcome you in as if you’re family and take care of you during your stay. We not only got to meet Mr. and Mrs. Molla, but one of their adult sons was home helping out with the property as well. They are the reason Villa Molla feels simultaneously like a boutique hotel and a guest house. Mr. Molla was born in Theth and grew up in the original house. Mrs. Molla grew up in a nearby mountain town. She runs the kitchen and its possible to enjoy all your meals on the premises in their beautifully decorated dining room. We opted to enjoy a dinner and breakfast that she prepared. You definitely should take her up on her offer to prepare you dinner. She prepared a wonderful table for both of our meals. The breakfast spread is quite a treat to wake up to.
For dinner (€15 per person) we were given the choice of a traditional Albanian meal or an Italian meal with pasta. We had been traveling in Albania for a week eating either traditional cuisine or fish so we opted for the Italian option… all the better because in addition to being Albanian, the Mollas spent decades in Florence, Italy. That was the clincher for choosing the Italian option. The Mollas are proud to tell you the furnishings and provisions that they’ve imported from Florence. At the table this includes olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Italian wine including Chianti Classico and other Sangiovese wines. They offer an affordable house wine by the class, but we indulged and purchased a €30 Chianti Classico (and were thrifty by not opting for the €80 Barolo). The meal came with a wonderful salad, cheese, and homemade bread. We ate our fill not realizing that the meal also included a secondi of a pork chop and grilled vegetables! Another perk of their love for Italy is that Villa Molla serves a great espresso and cappuccino.
At €100 for balcony room, Villa Molla is more expensive then other guest houses you can find in Theth which might cost €25-50 per night; but the design and quality construction of the rooms are worth the extra expense.
Up to this point we have suggested you can get a great benefit from being in Theth without leaving the villa property, and this is true, but the experience only gets better if you’re open to some walking.
We suggest taking the country trail that leads down a road to the adjacent Guest House Molla property (Mr. Molla’s nephew operates this more traditional guesthouse that has been in service longer) and then through farm land where we saw cows, goats, chickens and pigs. Take some funky bridges over the magnificent and glacial blue Theth river and go onward either to the Theth town center are the valley’s base – or – if you are a hiker start the ascent to summit the peak of Mount Valbone. We’ve been told that hike is typically a 3 hour ascent.
I’ve mistakenly included a couple of pictures in this post, but as I said before there is no comparison between the actual experience and ANY photo. Much less to the snapshots from this untrained photographer.
To get to Theth and Villa Molla you will likely come from either Albania’s capital (and airport) Tirana, or you might arrive from Shkoder. Either way it will be a couple hours on the road. You may choose to drive a rental car out to Theth or take one of the many private vans/buses/turgons that make daily runs to and from Theth each morning. We arrived via Shkoder where and a nice Sprinter van was arranged by our darling hostel, the Green Garden Guest House. You will be astounded by the scenery as you drive into the mountains… it gets more wondrous with every turn and the greatest reward is arriving in Theth Valley. I would say pay attention to the diversity of mountain types that are visual as you take in a 360 degree view: take in a dead-ringer for Yosemite’s Half Dome, the snow capped peak of Valbona, and evergreen crowned granite peaks all with just a swivel of your head.
I hope this has convinced you to spend at least one night here at Villa Molla while in Albania. While we intended to hike the peak, the valley captured our hearts and it was quite the struggle to hop on the Sprinter less than 24 hours later. Let us know if you go by tagging us on Instagram @erinandbryan. Ciao for now!
Click to book your stay at Villa Molla now! (This is not an affiliate link, we just are eager to drive people to stay at this property given our experience there.)
erinandbryan 