8-Day Discovery Tour: The Delights of Dubrovnik and Beyond

My wife and I absolutely loved out first-time trip to Croatia. We visited Split, Hvar, and Dubrovnik through this travel company, where Ivana helped plan an amazing vacation. She was helpful to provide suggestions and work with creating a detailed itinerary for what we wanted to experience while staying within our budget.

From the moment we arrived we were in good hands, with private vehicle transfers in nice and clean Mercedes-Benz Metris passenger vans or C or E class sedans. The drivers were very friendly, professional, and experienced with a lot of local knowledge. Ivana even came to meet us the following day and welcomed us!

Our hotel arrangements were all great! In Split we had a cute apartment where we were close to the locals, so it felt like we were a part of the community. In Hvar, we had a gorgeous room with an amazing view of the waterfront. What made this special was the restaurant just below that would play live music. I really enjoyed hearing it at night with the window open, the beautiful view of the sky with full moon, and all the lights and people buzzing around. In Dubrovnik we stayed close by to the old town, where we had a nice place with another beautiful view of the waterfront.

Our tour guides were all friendly and very knowledgeable of the history of each city and local towns we visited. We liked that they kept us in the shade as much as possible and gave us little breaks to get a drink or relax. The tours were all at a relaxed paced, and not at all rushed. Each guide would provide recommendations of local shops that offered items unique to that region or town.

We visited two wineries and an olive grove, again amazing! The wineries provided us a private and relaxed lunch experience, while tasting their signature wines, and local mouth-watering cuisine! In Hvar, we had a delicious lunch with an amazing view of the gorgeous countryside. The family hosting us for lunch was super sweet and made us feel at home.

We appreciate all the hospitality, professionalism, and care provided by Ivana and the whole Team in making sure our trip was amazing in every way. So much more to talk about…delicious restaurants, beautiful skylines, historic architecture, great beaches, and friendly people. Most everyone speaks English too!

Our trip was flawless! Everything was organized perfectly. From the moment we were met at the airport upon arrival to the drop-off two weeks later, the experience was amazing.

Zicasso’s trip planner organized a fantastic itinerary, with thorough and enjoyable tours of Dubrovnik and Split; a private lunch at an oyster farm near Ston; a visit to a lovely winery with a wine tasting and delicious lunch; two days of sailing and boating, with day trips to the nearby islands, including lively Hvar; a day trip to a national park; and so much more. It was a perfect combination of relaxation, culture, and adventure.

Our agent was always a phone call or email away, and just a pleasure to work with. She adjusted our itinerary last minute based on the weather, changing the day of our boat tour because of rain. This, too, was seamless. We would highly recommend our agent and her staff.

Zicasso's travel partner organized the perfect, customized, private land portion of an amazing 11-day Slovenia/Croatia trip for me and two friends. She listened to our interests and preferences from the start and offered a perfect itinerary that included some full-day sailing we didn’t expect. These excursions were private and enabled us to experience Croatian islands we would never have thought of including.

So much detail and coordination go into planning itineraries, and our agent had connections with the best local guides and drivers, making the trip a success. They not only showed up on time, but also gave historical, cultural, and culinary input, even adding a stop if requested, such as one with a top coral expert in Dubrovnik.

The hotels chosen were all tops – four-star and central to the old towns (often pedestrian only) of each city, as requested. Entrance fees to all attractions were included and we never waited. Going in the shoulder period of mid-May did help and is highly recommended (until early June and/or September). We avoided crowds and had great temperatures.

I know that if there had been a problem, which there wasn’t in all 11 days, our travel team, with which we had cellphone access, would have been right on it.

I highly recommend this land operator for any type of tour that includes the Balkan countries that should be on everyone’s bucket list. The people are wonderful, proud, professional, and maybe the most hospitable of any country I’ve been to in Europe. They all speak English and go out of their way to help. It’s more reasonably priced than many neighboring countries and they appreciate all visitors as tourism is the #1 industry. The food, wines, and coffee are great too!

We had an excellent 12 day trip to Croatia in early September. Enjoyed a Zagreb and national parks and then spent eight days between Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik. Multiple days on the water with beautiful weather and lovely natural and historical scenery. Will definitely revisit Croatia without reservation. 

Our travel agency and our personal travel assistant were phenomenal. The entire trip was beautifully planned, including daily activities and English language guided tours. We had personal drivers between cities which eased everyone’s anxiety regarding traveling and parking. All the excursions were well thought out as were the accommodations. They made for a truly excellent experience.  

The travel arrangements were fine although there were a couple of hiccups.

The amount of detail provided about each area we visited was quite scant and could have been more generous.  Some explanation and suggestions of places of interest in the particular ares were elaborated upon in an hour-long phone call which was fine except that if the same information had been provided in an email, it would have been available to us to reference for accuracy while we were away.

We were confused with pickup arrangements to our accommodation on 2 occasions. For one, we were instructed to contact the hotel before we arrived and they would make arrangements to collect us. The hotel did not actually provide this service and without a map of the town (Rovinj) in which no cars are allowed, it took us 5 international phone calls and lots of luggage hauling before we got to our destination. Many of the locals could not direct us either! On the second occasion, we had arrived at Dubrovnik by ferry to a wall of hotel pickups but ours was not one of them.  On calling the hotel, who should have been expecting us, we were told that no drivers were available so catch a cab! This would not have been a problem had we expected it in advance.

Overall the other arrangements were great.  The organised excursions with private guides were terrific with a couple of exceptional people making the tours remarkable.