To the Balkans from Singapore

We had planned for a trip to Croatia in 2020 and Covid happened. 4 years later, we finally visited Croatia, and many things surprised us during our trips. We travelled in Sep/Oct as Summer crossed over to Autumn.

Travelling post-Summer has obvious perks. We avoid the summer crowds, the higher prices, and enjoy a slightly cooler weather. However, the overwhelming feedback we got from locals was how much hotter the season feels and how erratic the weather can be. So we packed our sunblock, umbrella, and waterproof jacket.

This post is a trip overview, and our future posts will have details of the places we visited, subscribe to be informed when the posts are out.

Trip Itinerary and Overview

Singapore ✈️ Istanbul ✈️ Dubrovnik 🚘 Kotor 🚘 Mostar 🚘🚢 Brač 🚢🚘 Split 🚘 Zadar 🚘 Zagreb ✈️ Doha ✈️ Singapore.

We read to be wary of Istanbul taxi drivers, so we booked our airport transfers using Klook. At Dubrovnik, the shuttle bus transfer was convenient and affordable. At Zagreb, we found it cheaper to Uber than use the airport shuttle service (Uber was 16€ vs shuttle at 8€ per pax).

Visiting UNESCO Sites

Singapore hawker culture was inscribed on UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020. Did you also know that UNESCO has 4 “lists”? They are World Heritage Sites, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Man and the Biosphere Programme, and Global Geoparks.

As we visited the attractions, we realised that we stumbled unknowingly on many UNESCO sites because of the deep history and culture of these areas. This prompted us to read more on UNESCO sites and maybe one of our future trips could be inspired by UNESCO’s list.

Make Sure to Bring Euros €

We used a combination of cash, Wise and our miles credit cards during this trip. Some places in Croatia only accept cash, one restaurant we went to gives 10% discount to customers who pay using cash. Having € is a must. Croatia and Montenegro use €, and while B&H uses BAM, they can accept € and most places return your change in € too. We didn’t handle BAM at Mostar.

We could feel inflationary effects during this trip as prices are much higher compared to our trip to France just 2 years ago. Despite Euro being slightly cheaper this time at 1€ to S$1.44, many ticket prices have risen, and so have menu prices. Turkish Lira was ₺25.2 to S$1.

We ran out of € along the way, and withdrew € from the ATM with Wise. Kent Bank ATM was the only one that didn’t have an ATM charge. However, we did notice that Wise used a higher forex for cash withdrawal compared to using the card.

Getting the right eSIM wasn’t as simple as we thought. We couldn’t find one eSIM that could connect us in all the countries we are visiting, and most Europe eSIMs do not include Montenegro and B&H. In the end, we bought one eSIM for Istanbul and another eSIM for Croatia, Montenegro, and B&H.

Driving in Croatia, Montenegro and B&H

It is left hand drive in Croatia and expect a lot of small, tight spaces when driving around old towns/cities. Consider buying full insurance with your car rental as minor swipes and damages are bound to happen. We had a couple of minor dents and scratches for our rental. Routes offered by Google were decent, but try to choose toll roads as much as possible, the toll fees are worth the smoother road conditions.

Car rental companies levy additional charges for cross border driving. Queues at Sixt counters were always the longest, probably because they are the cheapest. We pre-booked with Sixt also, but had issues collecting our car as Sixt does not accept digital driving licence. They claim that Croatia police only accept physical licence. This is clearly not the case since I was later able to go rent a car with Avant without any problems. There is no need for an IDP in Croatia as our driving licence is in English.

Some of our hotels include free parking, else it could cost between 10€ to 15€ for overnight parking nearby. Parking fees depend on the zone and cheaper parking could just be at the next street. Most street parking have a meter to buy a ticket (which you then place on your dashboard) using cash or credit card. Gantry carparks issue tickets which you pay at the station, usually near exits, before you exit using cash or credit card. Some places only accept cash. Parking fees are more expensive during peak seasons.

Most gantry carparks charge on an hourly basis, not per-minute pricing. Parking at Trogir was the most expensive - gantry parking near the Old Town costs 4€ per hour! While 1 hour would be enough to explore Trogir Old Town, exceed even by a minute and it will be another 4€. If you don’t mind some walking, search for “Plodine” or “Marisa shopping center” in google maps. It has basement parking and it was free when we were there.

We rented a hybrid car that used Octane-95 petrol. The prices were the same in all parts of Croatia and cheapest in Mostar, despite the rental guy telling us that Croatia prices are cheaper this time of the year. The prices we observed - Croatia 1.43€/l, Kotor 1.40€/l, Mostar BAM2.36/l (~1.18€/l).

Like most countries, drivers in Croatia are quite impatient. There are a number of speed cameras, and I was advised to take note of speed limits, but clearly some drivers don’t. Ignore them and drive safely, you are driving on unfamiliar roads anyway.

🚻 Only Brač has free public restrooms and you can find them on google maps. Elsewhere, there are almost no free 🚾, and it is usually 1€ IF you can find one. You may be able to find free WC in shopping centres that are reserved for staff or people with disabilities. We find ourselves making sure to use the WC when at the restaurants, petrol station or ticketed places.

This is also the first time we tried Qatar Airways’ Q-Suite and visited Hamad International Airport. We loved it, so much so we feel the need to blog about it, subscribe to get notified once it is out.

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