Cruising the Adriatic: Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina (2012)

You depart from the U.S. for Zagreb, Croatia.

Arrive in Zagreb, where an OAT representative meets you at the airport and assists with your transfer to our hotel. Depending on your arrival time and hotel check-in policy, you may not be able to check into your room immediately upon arrival. Your OAT Trip Leader will advise you of your check-in status and activity schedule for the day when you arrive. Enjoy a short orientation walk in the vicinity of the hotel.

This evening, meet your fellow travelers during a Welcome Dinner at our hotel.

After breakfast at our hotel, we travel overland toward the Adriatic coast to meet our small ship in Zadar, one of Croatia’s true hidden jewels. Originally founded as a Roman colony, this charming peninsula town is replete with 2,000 years of architectural treasures. We’ll view Roman ruins dating back to the third century BC, when the Holy Roman Empire ruled the city, and the16th-century fortified walls built on three sides of the city by Venetians to defend against invading Turks—a prominent remnant of Venice’s often unwelcome imperial power over Zadar until the Venetian Republic’s fall in 1797.

We’ll embark our OAT small ship and enjoy lunch on board before departing on a city tour of Zadar that includes a memorable stroll along the marble, pedestrian-only streets of Old Town, where we’ll discover the medieval churches for which the city is famous including St. Donatus’ Church, an imposing, round, stone building dating from the ninth century whose treasury contains some of Dalmatia’s finest medieval metalwork, and the Cathedral of St. Anastasia, a Romanesque-style cathedral built in the twelfth and 13th centuries which holds the distinction of being the largest church in Dalmatia.

After a Captain’s Welcome Dinner aboard ship, you may want to visit one of Zadar’s charming harbor-side cafés for a glass of maraschino, a liqueur distilled from local marasca cherries that is a centuries-old Zadar tradition.

We’ll depart Zadar early this morning, arriving in Sibenik as we’re finishing breakfast on board. The ancient port of Sibenik, a hillside city that fans out like an amphitheatre and reflects the elegance of late-Middle Ages architecture, is located in one of the Adriatic’s most naturally protected harbors. Our included morning tour will reveal the city’s highlights, including the Cathedral of St. James, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built completely of limestone and marble in the Gothic and Renaissance styles, its construction lasted from 1431 until its completion in 1536. Its impressively detailed stone sculptures include 71 human faces—believed to represent local Sibenik residents—carved into the cathedral’s outer sides.

Enjoy an afternoon at leisure to wander the network of tangled streets and alleys of Old Town on your own, perhaps enjoying local specialties at one of the many lively cafes lining the Dolac quarter in the city center.

Enjoy free time this morning in to explore Sibenik on your own.

Or, join an optional tour to Krka Falls, home to a series of cascading waterfalls that is one of Croatia’s great natural wonders. Over millennia, the Krka River has carved canyons into the surrounding limestone of the Dinara Mountains, creating a spectacular landscape where we’ll view the river’s waterfalls cascading over and around lush, dense vegetation. We’ll also explore the surrounding Krka National Park, which is home to abundant indigenous flora and fauna, including over 200 bird species. It’s a memorable excursion to one of Croatia’s most pristine locales.

After lunch aboard, we begin cruising to Split. Along the way enjoy a Croatian language lesson onboard ship. Upon arrival, we’ll enjoy an evening walk in the stunning medieval town built around the Roman emperor Diocletian's summer palace. Our ship will be docked near Split’s fashionable waterfront promenade known as the Riva. After dinner aboard ship, enjoy a performance of Dalmatian folklore.

This morning in Split, we explore the Imperial Palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is the greatest Roman ruin in southeastern Europe. Built like a fortress with walls 590 feet by 705 feet, the palace was occupied by the Emperor Diocletian from 300-313 AD. As you stand in the peristyle (central court) of this grand structure, its scale is sure to impress you.

The medieval town of Split took shape within the palace walls; Diocletian's Temple of Jupiter was converted into a Christian baptistery and his mausoleum became a cathedral. The entire old section of Split, with the palace as its centerpiece, is a virtual open-air museum with the city's contemporary life bustling through it.

We return to our ship for lunch onboard. Then our afternoon is spent sailing up the Dalmatian Coast to the island of Hvar, where we’ll anchor in the evening and enjoy dinner on board.

After an early breakfast, we set out for a tour of Hvar Island, the longest of the Croatian isles. Occupied since at least 3500 BC, beautiful Hvar has been ruled variously by the Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, Austrians, and French, without ever losing its character as a place of fresh fish, wild herbs, and verdant vineyards. Today it is still known as one of Europe’s most beautiful islands, benefiting from warm summers, mild winters, and more than 2715 hours of sunlight in an average year—making it arguably the sunniest spot in Europe. During our tour we’ll discover Hvar’s Venetian flavor, reflecting the island’s long history of rule by that city-state.

After lunch onboard, you’ll have free time to explore Hvar on your own. Perhaps you’ll discover why Hvar is known as “the island of lavender,” or sample some of the isle’s famous local wines. Or maybe you’ll enjoy a stroll around Hvar town’s port, admiring the yachts and fishing vessels moored there.

After dinner onboard ship, we settle in for a relaxing night while our ship sets sail for an overnight cruise to Dubrovnik.

Today we enjoy a tour of Dubrovnik, Croatia’s crowning jewel. With its old section, the Stari Grad, surrounded entirely by white stone walls, Dubrovnik gleams like the proverbial City on a Hill. Our tour today in this historic gem includes visits to the Rector’s Palace, a Franciscan Monastery housing one of Europe’s oldest pharmacies.

Regarded today as one of the world’s most exquisite walled cities, Dubrovnik’s character reflects its storied past as an independent city-state that rivaled Venice. Also known by its Latin name, Ragusa, this was a fortress city that served as the base for a fleet of ships that carried trade between much of Europe and the Middle East. The city-state’s period of autonomy extended from 1358 to 1808. In recent times, some of Dubrovnik’s historic sites sustained damage in the Balkan conflicts of the early 1990s, but the city has been peaceful for more than 15 years and largely restored under UNESCO supervision. OAT has contributed to this restoration work through donations from Grand Circle Foundation.

After lunch back onboard, your afternoon is at leisure to explore Dubrovnik on your own. You might wish to climb the city’s ramparts or visit some of Dubrovnik’s hidden museums.

Tonight, discover the warmth of a Croatian welcome when we enjoy a Home-Hosted Dinner in a nearby village.

After breakfast, we cruise to Croatia’s southern neighbor, Montenegro, a small Mediterranean country at the foot of the Balkan mountain range. Our destination is Kotor, a picturesque walled city nestled at the head of Europe’s deepest fjord. During a talk this morning, we’ll learn the turbulent history of Kotor Bay, a strategic port that has been variously ruled over the centuries by Bulgaria, Serbia, the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian Republic, Napoleon’s French Empire, and Austria-Hungary.

 

Our afternoon tour will reveal the architectural splendor of this ancient Montenegrin city, recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ruled by the Venetian Republic from 1420 to 1797, the city features fine Venetian Baroque architecture in its Old Town, one of the largest and best-preserved medieval areas of the Adriatic region. Our tour of the Stari Grad (Old Town) includes a visit to the Maritime Museum, which highlights the long and proud sailing traditions of Kotor, including navigational tools and maps dating back to 1168.

This morning, take time to discover more of Kotor at your own pace.

Or, join an optional tour to Montenegro’s cultural heart and one-time capital, Cetinje. Today, this tiny city, built in the 15th century, retains enough importance to Montenegrins to hold the official residence of the President of Montenegro. Here we’ll enjoy a guided tour of the summer palace of Nikola I, Montenegro’s only king, who ruled from 1860-1918. You’ll also have free time to explore the cultural treasures of this ancient royal town, including the 15th-century Cetinje Monastery, with its fence made out of barrels of captured enemy rifles, and the National Museum of Montenegro.

We’ll come back together for lunch on board ship as we sail, then we stop in Montenegro in front of the town of Perast, so we can all take small boats to visit the Baroque “Our Lady of the Rocks” shrine. According to legend, local fishermen saw the Virgin Mary in the reef here in 1452, and began a ritual of dropping a stone each time they sailed by, eventually creating the island where the church now sits. The isle is, in fact, the only man-made island in the Adriatic—created by scuttling old ships and depositing stones around the small crag where the Virgin was seen until the picturesque church was constructed in 1630.

This evening we cruise north to the island of Korcula, docking just outside the fortified towers of Korcula Town.

Today we explore Korcula, the largest island in an archipelago of 48 and the site of a picturesque medieval town. After breakfast, we’ll soak up the character of the city on an included walking tour. We also get acquainted with Korcula town’s history—which included centuries of rule by Venice—with a visit to its local museum. Then we’ll call on the spot believed by many historians to have been Marco Polo’s birthplace, where one stone wall of his original house remains.

Then learn about the historical importance of the Roman Catholic Church in Korcula as we visit St. Mark’s Cathedral on the main square, which features a detailed Romanesque portal by Bonino of Milano depicting Adam and Eve on either side and St. Mark perched at the top. Inside the cathedral, we’ll see a 16th-century painting by the master Tintoretto above the main altar. Even more treasures await as we visit the Bishop’s Treasury—a sketch by Da Vinci, drawings by Raphael, and paintings by Italian masters like Carpaccio are highlights.

We return to our ship for lunch onboard before a discussion about Croatia Today. You are then free for the afternoon to continue exploring Korcula Island on your own, relax, or revisit the medieval streets of Korcula Town.

This evening, enjoy an authentic Dalmatian dinner onboard, followed by a demonstration of klapa singing. This a cappella singing style is an informal tradition in which friends gather to sing in four-part harmony, and is perhaps the most definitive of all Croatian music forms.

We arrive in Neum before breakfast. This morning, we tour Mostar, the principal city of the Herzegovina region. The city is named for the watchtowers (mostars in Bosnian) of its historic bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The bridge spans the Neretva River, which divides the town into Muslim and Croat sections and was designed by the Ottoman architect Mimar Hayruddin in the 16th century. The stone structure was built over a network of wooden supports and the ruling sultan told Hayruddin he would be executed if the bridge collapsed once the supports were removed. Though Hayruddin dug his own grave in preparation, he lived because the bridge stood—for four more centuries. When the original structure was destroyed by a bomb during the Bosnian conflict in 1993, UNESCO helped fund its rebuilding as a symbol of unity—using a combination of steel and original white stone which had been salvaged from the wreckage. Its eleven-year reconstruction took two years longer than its original building.

We stop for lunch in the quiet rural village of Blagaj which is best known for it Byzantine fortresses but is actually much older—it has been inhabited for 9,000 years. A Dervish monastery rests nestled among the cliffs over the river Buna here, and a serene grace pervades the area.

We return to our ship late this afternoon and enjoy a port talk before a special Captain’s Farewell Dinner this evening.

Today we say farewell to our ship’s crew and travel overland to Opatija, a seaside resort nestled under the pine-covered slopes of Mount Ucka near Istria.

On our overland journey to Opatija, we’ll stop for lunch at a local restaurant, arriving at the coastal resort town in the late afternoon. Opatija has been a popular all-season resort destination since the mid-19th century, when fashionable aristocrats from around Europe came here to rejuvenate. For several years, the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I used to enjoy his winters in Opatija. You can still see many of these late 19th-century luxury hotels and villas scattered along Opatija’s mountainous coast.

After dinner at our hotel, you should take the opportunity to stroll along the Lungomare, a famous waterfront promenade that stretches for 7.5 miles along the Gulf of Kvarner, linking Opatija to the town of Lovran.

After a morning in Opatija with lunch on our own, we journey overland to Zagreb, where you can enjoy your final evening at leisure.

This morning, transfer to the airport for your flight home. Or begin your Zagreb post-trip extension.