T R A V E L - / / C R O A T I A !

I was lucky enough to head off to Croatia as an early birthday present last week!
Our original idea was to head to Amsterdam... But I'm not overly fussed on the idea, so when Michael found this bargain I was over the moon!

We stayed at the beautiful 5* Hotel Croatia Cavtat, situated right by beach in Cavtat.
Our package included flights from London Stansted to Dubrovnik Airport, a 3 night stay and breakfast buffets every morning!

I didn't know Easyjet offered package holidays, but I would totally book with them again, everything was easy sailing, and for £150 each we couldn't ask for anything more!

Our room was on the 7th floor, with a forest facing window, which may not have been as pretty as the sea view rooms, but it was so quiet and peaceful! A nice double bed with en-suit bathroom (bath and shower, just right for both of us!)

All the staff were fantastic, the spoken English was perfect, and our room was ready two hours for two sleepy guests (after travelling for 13 hours!) The hotel had a number of restaurants to use. A steak house, buffet, piano bar, poolside bar and so much more! It also offered complete usage of the gym and spa activities, Michael loved the sauna and wet room. I'm too sensitive for both of them, but the indoor heated sea salt pool and outdoor sea salt pool worked wonders on my dry skin!

DAY ONE!

We arrived around 10am (Croatia time) and had to wait until 2pm for our room, so we decided to head down to the harbor. It's only a 2 minute walk down some steps just outside the from entrance of the hotel (Or down from the outdoor pool). We had a little look at the restaurants and cafes on the front (purely because I'm a fussy vegetarian so struggle to find food that isn't pizza or a sarni!)

The resturants were full of great vegetarian dishes, truly spoilt for choice!

Deciding it was too early we decided to go on a stroll down the coastal path, within 10 seconds I had made friends with the local stray cat, called Meowth now. It was so relaxing, we sat on a wall overlooking the sea, watching the fishes and discussing our plans for the holiday. Seriously breath taking!

We finally settled down ready for dinner around 11.30am, We chose the restaurant at the end of the harbor, with a little white gazebo to keep the breeze out. As we were pretty tired, we decided to have a nice simple pizza, Vegetaria for me! and pepperoni for Michael. Amazing, freshly stone baked there and then, and at 45Kuna, (less than £4.50) we were really impressed! As a refreshment, Michael had the local beer (I can't for life remember the name I'm afraid) and I myself had a Somersby fruit cider! 

 

We headed back to our hotel around 12/12.30 because we were on deaths door after travelling from Cardiff to London Victoria(4 hours), then onto London Stansted(1 hour), and waiting 4 hours for our flight, to then fly for another 3! Luckily, the staff had finished cleaning our room so we could go straight up! We managed to have a little nap before checking out the local facilities.

First up, we headed back down to the harbor from the back entrance of our hotel, swim stuff in hand ready to take a dip in the sea! Sadly, I never got that far, Michael jumped straight in and the reaction on his face said it all! I wrapped myself back up in my bathrobe and headed to the outside pool. Which I sadly thought was heated until I climbed in hahaha. Due to the fact I didn't jump into the sea, I was forced to continue my dip. IT WAS FREEZING! but semi bearable after a little swim. I soon changed my mind and wanted to head inside. Which was amazing! Heated to 27oC, with a cocktail bar located right next to the pool we were in heaven. We were definitely the youngest people within the hotel, and the only ones making a splash in the pool (Probably not acceptable for a 5* Hotel but we were too excited to behave accordingly) 

Once we'd finished in the pool, we headed to the busy Sauna and wet room. Michael loves them after his uni trip to Finland, but It's way too hot for me to handle, and stings my dry skin so I left soon after, I went back to the room for a bath and another little nap. By now it's around 8pm. 

For our tea we headed to the Steak House. The man who seated us was so polite and sweet I wanted to talk to him all night! We were treated like royalty and served straight away.

For starters, I had mozzarella dippers with a sweet chili sauce, and Michael had a french onion soup, both came with two different freshly baked bread rolls. 

Then for the main course I had a beautiful grilled tofu served on mixed vegetable couscous with more roasted vegetables on the side. Michael went all out and had their specialty, a steak! served with mixed vegetables and chunky chips. 

We spoilt ourselves and also bought a bottle of some fine Dubrovnik special wine, which tasted super fruity and lasted us 2 days! This was the most expensive meal of our trip, at £60. but for two courses and a bottle of wine in a 5* Steak House I consider it amazingly reasonable, especially with the superb service we received from all the staff!

We were the last people to leave the steak house, so headed straight to bed ready to hit Dubrovnik City in the morning!

Day 2!

We woke up bright and early to make the most of our day, alarms set for 7am, but I didn't want to leave the comfortable bed so lounged around for half hour or so, and then we headed down to the breakfast buffet. They had everything you could think of, plenty to drink (5 different times of infused water, coffee, tea, herbal and fruit tea, milk, 4 different juices etc) full cooked breakfast, a number of cereal, fruit, crumpets, toast, muffins, yogurt, pancakes (the list seriously is never ending!) 

Again, the service was amazing, we were greeted straight away, put in a beautiful ocean view table and were allowed to just head and get our food, I'm not a big breakfast eater, so just enjoyed some scrambled egg and mushrooms, Mike on the other hand went all out and filled his plate, spilt his tea and juice but was happy as larry with his breakfast. 

(Happy Bus Selfie!)

After food we headed back down to the harbor, and went to the local bus station, where a bus leaves Cavta every 40 minutes to go to Dubrovnik. A bus ticket (single) cost 25Kuna each. So around £2.50 each, each way. The bus was comfortable, and picked up from around another 6 stops on the way. It was so straight forward and dropped you just up the hill from the Old Town.

There were no signs for Old Town, but lucky people had spray painted arrows with labels to guide the way! We had to walk down a lot of steps (Again) but it only took around 10 minutes to reach the old city walls. Dubrovnik is where they film Game of thrones! Not a massive fan of the series myself, but it's major bragging rights to all our friends who absolutely love the show.

Again, we had pizza for dinner, because it was raining really heavy and the nearest restaurant sold some amazing recipes. I had a summer salad pizza (cucumber/tomatoe/asparagus) Michael had a craving for some seafood, so he went all out again and had a squid, kappers, shrimp, muscles and other stuff I can't remember on his plate! We paired it with a cocktail called Sorbeto! It tasted amazing! Made using Prosecco and Lemon Sorbet! 

After food we went for a walk around the town. The Old City Walls were stunning, I loved the little lanes and small boutique shops. The architecture of the churches and main buildings were breathtaking, I specially loved all the carved statues that were places on roofs. We were lucky enough to hear a band rehursal in one of the churches, with a stunning painted ceiling and light by candles at the back and front of the aisle. 

After a very long walk around the city in the rain, we headed back to our bus and back to Cavtat. Spent the evening in the pool again, and the sauna, and the wet room and back for another shower to get ready to go out for some food!

Still raining, but lovely and warm, we headed back to the Cavtat harbor and found another restaurant on the front! This one was central of the harbor and had another gazebo, heaters and a blanket just for me! Again, the staff were fantastic, great English, and actually made an effort to have a conversation with us before and after our meal (talking about Britain, Education, War, Weather, everything!)

I had a 4 cheese lasagna, and Michael had an amazing burger, that was filled with cheese!  The food was beautiful, but I couldn't finish it myself, so shared it with another local stray cat <3

After a lot of walking we headed back to bed again ready for our final day in the morning! WAH!!

Day 3!

Reached out last day in Cavtat! RIP HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! Michael had been nagging to rent a boat since the second we stepped off the plane. Luckily boats were very accessible and within an hour we were fully booked and collected by mini bus to take us to our boat.

When we arrived at the small port the staff were cleaning out a very luxury looking boat (swivel chair and steering wheel included) we were super excited, before we found out ours was actually the little motorboat the younger brother brought over for us! (Still excited to get on it!)

The staff advice us to head to the Island straight in front of us, because they owned it and it had restaurants for us to use. Once we arrived to the island, we realized the jetty was way too high for us, so had to abort the mission and wanted to go to a small beach, the waves were quite rough, and would often make us air born! (again, super fun!)  I couldn't ask for anything more! As a mermaid I love the ocean, in the sunshine, with my sweet man chauffeuring me about I was in heaven. It was perfect.....

until the moment we tried to tie up on a small bridge near a rocky beach. The waves were strong and made the bottom of our boat hit the rocks, so we untied quickly and tried to get away, but silly me forgot to put the rope into the boat and it got wrapped around the motor. UH OH!!!!!!!

The waves pushed us into a pebble beach, Michael jumped straight out of the boat to try and stop it hitting the shore. (I had nice sandals on, I was in no rush!) Eventually we gave up, and I jumped out to help and try and release the rope from the motor. Which didn't happen so we had to call for help. My man was not happy in the slightest, I for one thought it was hilarious and a story to tell my kids later in life. (All Michael's fault, his daddy had bad luck in Croatia too) We had to be rescued by the men that let us have the boat, two hours earlier than we paid for. They were so nice, and didn't even mention it. Offered us sarnis and beer after too. 

We walked back with our picnic in hand before sitting at the opposite side of the harbor to tuck in. After our very stressful (But very funny) shipwreck, we headed to the pool at the hotel, threw some cocktails down us (I asked for a Sex on the beach, and returned to a Raspberry Kiss, followed by a Harry Potter, not that I'm complaining) and spend a few hours sunbathing outside! It made no difference to our milky skin tone though.

After a few hours lounging around between the pools and the balcony, we headed to get ready for out last night in Cavtat. Both dolled up, we watched the sunset from the pool balcony and got some pretty nice photos to go along with it! (not that I have any of me haha)

(Happy as ever!)

(So hard to get a photo of us both together!)

We chose to dine at the restaurant across from the bus station, a bit posher than the previous night, we were served by a lovely man called Mario! Really friendly and a little bit cheeky, just how I like it!

For dinner, I had roasted vegetable risotto, I'd wanted risotto the whole holiday, and we chose the best place to go! 

Michael chose the mixed grill, with more grilled vegetables and a side of fries. The boy ate enough meat for both of us this holiday! We went all out whenever we wanted, and were never disappointed! 

Along with our meals, we ordered beer/wine and I'm pretty sure a purple rain, but after some wine in the hotel room, a few cocktails at the pool and more drinks with dinner I was too tipsy to even remember.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to spend our last few Kuna, which only went on more cocktails at the piano bar. We'd missed the Piano player the previous nights by being too early/too late so a nice quiet evening at the bar was just what we needed to wind down ready for a long day tomorrow.

The piano player was fantastic, we knew most of the songs he played (Beatles, Elton John, Celine Dion and more)  Once the music had stopped we decided to head back to bed, ready to get up bright and early in the morning :(

GOODBYE!!

We woke up after a fantastic sleep all set to go home, even though we didn't want to.

I filled myself with loads of free breakfast to get me through the day! and discovered the pancakes way too late!! As you can tell by his face he didn't wanna leave. 

This wasn't the end of our adventure, we had a little tour of the museums in London, but I think this post is long enough so we'll save it for next time!

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Over all, I loved it! 11/10. The area was really quiet, and wasn't ruined my tourists. The builds were traditional, and everybody we met were friendly and polite. I'd 100% book it again, even at double the price we paid, because it really is worth it! I'd highly recommend it to everyone and anyone interested in going to Croatia as a whole, but specially the Hotel Croatia Cavtat!

                  Have you been Croatia before? Would you go after reading this post?
                             Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!