Croatia & Bosnia Tour of History and Cultural Exploration

With the help of the travel agency, we traveled from Zagreb, Croatia, cross-country by car through Bosnia with stops in Mostar and Medugorje on our way to Dubrovnik. Then, with friends, we came up the Dalmatian coast visiting Spilt, Trogir, Zadar then on to Plitvice Park and Slovenia. This travel company's arrangements were flawless and their in-country contacts extremely helpful.

We had a fantastic trip with the Zicasso travel company. They helped us plan the perfect itinerary for our family (two adults and three kids aged 17, 14, and 10). They listened to our desires for an active family vacation and went above and beyond with all of the details!

We spent two full weeks in Croatia and had so many memorable and beautiful experiences. They set up friendly, knowledgeable drivers in a comfortable air-conditioned van. The accommodations they booked were all fantastic, from boutique hotels in the middle of the old towns in Zadar and Split to larger resort hotels in Hvar and Dubrovnik.

Our favorite experiences were ones we would have never found on our own, including a private biking tour and dinner at a restaurant in old town Hvar, a boat ride to Trogir, and the Blue Lagoon out of Split, with a stop at the most marvelous island for the most impressive and fancy lunch I've ever had. Other highlights were a history and gastronomy tour in Split; a biking tour outside of Dubrovnik, followed by a cooking class and amazing home-cooked meal at a family home; a kayaking tour out of Hvar; a private boat tour to the Blue Cave, with snorkeling; and a visit to Mali Ston to enjoy fresh oysters on the boat of the oyster farm owner, who explained how they caught the oysters and treated us to the freshest oysters and mussels we've ever had!

Our contact from the travel agency was always very quick to answer questions before and during the trip.

We loved Croatia – the history is amazing, the people are friendly, the food is great, the architecture is stunning, the national parks are gorgeous, and there is so much to do and experience. Everywhere we went, we felt 100% safe, and everything was very clean. The Adriatic Sea has crystal-clear, beautiful water.

You absolutely must visit Plitvice Lakes (stunning waterfalls and lake) and Krka National Park if you have time. It is beautiful, less crowded than Plitvice, and teeming with frogs, which my boys loved finding.

Split was my absolute favorite city. It’s amazing how they have incorporated newer architecture among the centuries-old buildings for an amazing old-town experience. Dubrovnik has stunning ancient walls and fortresses, Zadar is beautiful and has a great waterfront promenade, and Hvar is a vibrant and fun beach town.

The travel agency always set us up with local guides and drivers who really added to our experience. We loved having private tours instead of being with a huge group!

I'm so glad we booked through them and would encourage others to do the same!

The entire nine days of travel from Slovenia to Montenegro were seamless as far as being picked up at the arrival airport and departure as planned. Transportaion was on schedule, which was important to me in a foreign country and eliminated any stress. Each private guide and/or driver throughout our trip was courteous and spoke English, which avoided any misunderstanding about all the wonderful sites we saw.

Lake Bled was absolutely wonderful. The guide parked the van at this family home four blocks from the lake and introduced us to his mother and sister, who welcomed us, and we saw how they lived in this beautiful village. The walk of four blocks to the lake also gave us the opportunity to see more of this quaint place to live. Since the lake does not allow power boats, we and about 20 other people were rowed to the island, where an ancient church was located. We found out that this family, in the past, were the caretakers of the island and our tour guide had to row himself to the shore to go to school and, in the winter, skate to school every day.

Next, we were driven to the castle on top of a small mountain, which had a perfect, 360-degree view of the area. Beautiful!

The next day we went to Plitvice Lakes National Park, with too many waterfalls to count and water that looked as crystal clear as any natural water I have ever seen. The four-kilometer walk upstream was nothing like I've ever seen in the USA.

We spent the night in a wonderful mountain lodge, with individual lodges and an upper-end-style bed and breakfast theme.

Split was a city with parts dating back to the third century, with many Roman influences in its many buildings.

Mostar in Bosnia was very interesting and had a central arch-style bridge which seemed to be a central point for all to see. There was so much we saw that it is too much to describe here.

We also stopped at a wine tasting at the most modern winery I've ever been to. It even had 12 guest rooms, with a pool.

On our way to Dubrovnik, we stopped at Ston to have an unbelievable lunch. At the restaurant, we had an oyster tasting of fresh oysters being farmed several hundred yards from the restaurant. We were served oysters three ways, from raw to fried and baked, and they were the best I will ever eat in my life.

We next went to Dubrovnik, which was particularly interesting to me because it is where Game of Thrones was filmed. Our guide was excellent, as he worked as a "roadie" for the film company, helping set the scenes by taking down modern signs or anything modern, and putting them back after filming. He had large screen shots in a spiral binder and would take us to a cove and hold up the screen shot of the actual scene from the movie to show us the similarity. His behind-the-scenes knowledge of the actors and the reaction from the town and church was beyond expectations. My wife and I were fans of GOT and so excited that we are going to watch if all again one day.

Our last day was in Montenegro, which again was beautiful, and we spent the day next to the water there. We were ferried to a man-made island with an old church on it.

Overall, the Adriatic Sea along the coast of these countries was one of the most beautiful stretches of water you could imagine.

Our expectations of this tour were met and exceeded.

My wife and I did a private, 13-day tour through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro with Zicasso's travel partner. We visited Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Zagreb, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Sarajevo, Mostar, Dubrovnik, and Kotor. I provided them with an outline of the cities and places I wanted to visit and they suggested several additional sites and activities that we may want to include while we visited those locations. After a couple of iterations and tweaks to the itinerary, we finalized the trip outline. Shortly thereafter, they booked our hotels to allow us to make our flight reservations way in advance. We received plenty of communications from them as our trip date approached and a detailed itinerary, with contact information for our guides and drivers, so we knew what to expect.

During the trip, there were a few surprises. When one activity had to be canceled, our travel agents got in touch with us and quickly found a more than acceptable alternative. When a tour time needed to change, they were able to reschedule all of our day's activities to reasonable times. The hotels, guides, and drivers were all excellent. They were easy to work with and we highly recommend them.