24 Jul Our Croatia Travel Costs

How much did we spend during our five and a half week stay in Croatia? Andrew and I travelled along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia exploring UNESCO protected Old Towns, waterfalls, islands, national parks and beaches. Here’s a detailed breakdown of our Croatia travel costs.

Croatia Travel Cost Breakdown

After spending more than we anticipated in Spain, Andrew and I made the move to Croatia, where we hoped to cut our expenses and explore a country we’d never visited before. First, we stopped briefly in Dubrovnik, before settling in an apartment in Split for just over a month. From there, we took daytrips to explore the area and visit nearby islands.

Cost of Accommodation in Croatia

When we looked at Croatia hotel prices online, they didn’t seem particularly cheap along the Dalmatian coast so, as usual, we turned to Airbnb to look for cheaper accommodation options. We found a hostel in Dubrovnik which turned out to be very nice; we had a private room with a balcony, killer view, access to a kitchen and two bathrooms shared between three other rooms. It was a bit of a steep, long walk into the Old Town but we would have had to pay triple the price to get something similar in the main tourist hotspot.

For the rest of our trip we rented a lovely apartment in Split, which had everything we needed, including a kitchen, comfy sofa, balcony, fast wifi, air con, all bills included and an underground parking space for our rental car. The apartment was a 10-minute bus ride from Split’s Old Town and we took plenty of day trips to surrounding sites which lay just an hour or two away. Check out the video below to get a good look at what our apartment was like. If you’ve never used Airbnb before but would like to give it a try, you can get £20 free credit if you sign up here.

Cost of Food in Croatia

We found food prices in Croatia were similar to those in Spain, so we cooked most of our meals at home and shopped at local supermarkets and Lidl. When we did eat out, we enjoyed the food in Croatia and ate cheap pastries from bakeries, delicious pizza and pasta dishes, freshly caught fish and ice cream. You could dine out for £10 – £20 for two mains and two drinks – obviously you can pay a lot more depending on your budget.

Cost of Transport in Croatia

We used buses in Croatia to get from Dubrovnik to Split and then from Split to Budapest. The buses were clean, comfortable and reasonably priced, although we did have to pay a small extra amount to store our bags in the luggage compartment, which was odd. We also used cheap local buses in Dubrovnik, Split and on Brac island. Buses were frequent and reliable but we always tried to buy tickets from the booth beforehand, as it was more expensive to buy them on-board.

To go sightseeing around Split we looked into Croatia car hire costs and decided it would be cheaper and less hassle to rent a car for a few days than get buses or pay for tours. The Petrol prices in Croatia are slightly cheaper than the UK (about £1/litre) but toll roads and parking fees really added up over a week and our overall car hire costs were pretty pricey, luckily we shared these with a visiting friend. To explore the nearby islands of Brac and Hvar, we took the local ferries from Split run by Jadrolinija. Although the return ferry to Brac was pretty cheap at just £6.75 each, we took the Hvar catamaran a few weeks later during peak season and it cost substantially more at £19 each.

Entertainment Costs in Croatia

We took advantage of a lot of Croatia’s free activities; exploring the Old Towns on foot, visiting the beaches and countryside. We did pay £25.30 to walk along Dubrovnik’s City Walls, £4.20 to go up the Bell Tower in Split and £23 for a day trip to Krka National Park though.

Miscellaneous Costs

The main bulk of our miscellaneous costs were on my contact solution and lenses, which weren’t as cheap as I’d hoped (£22.20 for six pairs), however the lenses were Oasys Acuvue, the same brand as I used to have in the UK. I’m looking forward to getting back to Asia where lenses are a fair bit cheaper.

Total Cost of Visiting Croatia

Here’s the total cost of travel in Croatia for us over five and a half weeks (39 days). We’re pretty pleased with how we managed our money, but we’re also hoping that food costs will be cheaper as we move on to other parts of Eastern Europe.

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