Croatia is a hotspot for tourism these days. Many people head to one of the places on the country’s long coastline by the Dalmatian sea. There are so many beautiful places to explore in Croatia, however, due to the high number of tourists, the prices has gone up remarkably. Therefore, we could only afford to spend a short time in Croatia and we only visited two places, Pula and Zagreb. On this page you can read all our Croatia travel tips for these places to make your trip great. For more tips and ideas, head to the bottom of this page, where all our blog posts about Croatia are.
Croatia Travel Map
Croatia is full of places to stay and it’s not difficult to one. There are many hostels, hotels, guest houses and AirBnB to be found. What can be difficult is to find accommodation if you’re on a tight budget, especially during high season. Due to the high prices for accommodation in Croatia compared to the neighbouring countries we stayed a shorter time in Croatia, and only visited Pula and Zagreb.
Where to stay in Pula
In Pula we stayed at hostel Most Apartment. It’s a nice, small hostel with the friendliest owner. We were the only people at the hostel when we were there, which was great. There’s a huge veranda where you can sit and work or just relax with a coffee or a drink. The kitchen is small, but usable.
It’s located just outside the centre, but as Pula is small that doesn’t matter. We usually prefer staying outside the centre and tourist areas to experience some more authentic parts of a city.
Where to stay in Zagreb
In Zagreb we opted for an AirBnB, which was located just outside the city centre (see map above for location). This area was great to stay in, easy to walk into the centre or hope on one of the trams just outside our door. As long as you have access to a tram nearby where you stay you will be ok, as the tram system is very easy and cheap to get around on.
Croatian food differs a bit depending on what part your in. Along the coast it’s more fish and Mediterranean. In Zagreb the food was a bit more hearty with a lot of meat, cabbage and potatoes, and big portions.
It’s easy to find places to eat in both Pula and Zagreb, but personally i preferred the food in Zagreb. Have a look at our Zagreb travel guide to get more inspiration on where to eat.
In Zagreb you can also find all price ranges, in general we found Zagreb a bit cheaper than Pula, at least if you keep out of the most touristy area of Zagreb.
Croatia offers lots of different activities; beach and island life, historical sights, city life, nature reserves and skiing at winter.
Pula was more about historical sights whilst Zagreb is the capital city with more to offer. See our travel map above or blog posts below for more tips about what to do in Pula and Zagreb.
We flew into Pula and ordered a Uber to drive us to the hostel. There are not lots of Ubers in Pula, and you might have to wait for a bit, but we were lucky and got one in 5 minutes and for considerably less than a normal Taxi. If you do not arrive as late as we did there are also busses leaving form the airport into Pula which is the cheapest option.
Between Pula and Zagreb we hopped on a bus for about 6 hours. Which was ok, except there was no toilet on the bus, and only 1-2 stops where there was time to go to use a bathroom. But we got to see a lot which is important for us during our travel.
Travel within Zagreb
Zagreb has a big tram network which is easy to use. Just make sure to buy the ticket in one of the kiosk next to most stops to save some money, as it’s cheaper than if you buy it on the tram. You can buy tickets for 30 mins, 1 hour or for a few days. However, Zagreb is very walkable and we rarely used the tram.
There are many tram lines going by the train station and the bus station, which makes it very easy to come via train or bus.
Cost of travel in Croatia
We try to live on a budget of €1000 per month per person, which gives us €2000 in total for the two of us each month, which gives us €66 per day for the two of us. As we knew Croatia was more expensive than our other destinations, we spent a shorter time here to make sure our budget was enough for the month.
We are not super cheap when we travel as we still want to experience the places we go to. We tend to choose accommodation where we can cook, at least breakfast. But we do not usually eat all our meals at home.
Below you can see how much we spent in each category. The total cost for 6 days for the two of us was €503,50, which ends up being €84 per day for the both of us, which is a little bit over our daily budget, and the reason for not staying in Croatia for too long.
- Accommodation: €196 39%
- Food: €197 39.2%
- Activities: €11 2.2%
- Travel: €65 13%
- Coffee: €15 3%
- Alcohol: €5 1%
- Miscellaneous: €14,50 2.9%
Categories Explained
Accommodation: we opt for places with a kitchen, where we have a private bathroom. We prefer staying in apartments and we usually do not go for the cheapest option, but still keep it under midrange.
Food: in this category all restaurant visits and supermarket purchases are included. We try to keep this cost low but we really do enjoy trying local food. Included in this category is also drinks with dinner and lunch, we usually drink water or a soda to lunch and a beer or a glass of wine with dinner – however all alcohol outside dinner is not included in this category. Restaurants are kept to budget and midrange places, we tend to go to a nicer restaurant about once a month to celebrate.
Activities: all actives are included in this category, such as museums, entrance fees to attractions etc. However, we do try to keep this low as we prioritise other parts of our travels.
Travel: this category includes all transport between places as well as within cities. Here we try to opt for the cheapest options. We only use taxi/uber when we need to and walk a lot within cities. The biggest part of this category will be the busses we take between destinations.
Coffee: we love to try to find the best coffee places everywhere we go. Therefore we decided to have a coffee category which includes all coffee we drink except for the coffee we have for breakfast. We usually have one or two coffees stops per day.
Alcohol: all alcohol that is not consumed during dinner is added to this category. We are not big drinkers, but enjoy a beer or a glass of wine from time to time.
Miscellaneous: in this category we add things like toiletries, cigarettes, medicines, ATM charges, Sim cards + data etc.
All our blog posts from Croatia
Best Coffee in Zagreb
Where is the Best Coffee in Zagreb? There are loads of places where you get a cup of black gold in and around Zagreb, but some of the best coffee in Zagreb can be found at the Cogito Coffee Shop, they have several shops dotted around the city and pride themselves...
Zagreb Travel Guide: What to do and where to eat
Zagreb is a beautiful city that we both really enjoyed! There’s loads of things to do and see and some great places to eat. This Zagreb travel guide is based on our experiences during our 5 days spent in Zagreb. We will not add the most touristy spots in this...
What to Do in Pula
Pula is the biggest city in Istria, Croatia, and the eighth biggest city in the country. It’s located at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula. Pula is known for its large number of old Roman structures, the most acclaimed of which is the Pula Arena, a...