Hungary and Croatia: Land of Rainbows and Green Waters

Tell Me Why…

Wondrous Natural Beauty, Ancient History, Friendly People

How many places can you, within the span of two weeks, see more than a dozen rainbows, witness grand old buildings that light up the sky, visit one of the world’s most wondrous national parks, walk the bullet marked streets of a recent civil war and be surrounded by scenes from the Game of Thrones? Our trip through Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro included all of that plus so much more. A Turkish style bazaar next to an majestic stone arch bridge. A Roman palace from the 4th century turned into a city. A stunning bay encircled by towering mountains and beautiful old towns. And to top it off, wonderful people excited to share their part of the world with you.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Take Me Along with You

When a planned trip in September 2018 fell through due to work schedules and family obligations, we quickly starting looking for locations that would be perfect for an early October visit. I remembered my niece’s trip to Croatia in the fall of the year before and how spectacular it looked. After a quick review of her blog, The Boundless Wayfayer, I had the framework of a trip and started planning. Thanks for the suggestions Lexie and for agreeing to be a contributor to Oh, the Places You Go (guest posts coming soon!).

As always when planning, we made adjustments to our original ideas as we found amazing alternatives to busy places (hello Trogir!) and added bucket list spots such as the spectacular Kotor, Montenegro. What we ended up with was an unforgettable trip at a really reasonable cost even with planning done just over a month before going.

Budapest, Hungary

Our two week trip started in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, rich with Roman, Hapsburg and Communist history. Budapest is split in two by the Danube River, the green, hilly Buda on one side and the busy, metropolitan Pest on the other. We stayed in the lovely, quieter Buda but walked easily almost everywhere, traversing the Danube on the Chain Bridge when we wanted to spend time in Pest.

Pest is where you can find the impressive Parliament Building which dominates the riverscape, day and night. St. Stephen’s Basilica with its sweeping bell tower views of Budapest as well as the Dohany Street Synagogue, the largest in Europe can also be found here. And while there are thermal baths everywhere, the famous Szechenyi Spa Baths are located in Pest.

The Buda side is dominated by Castle Hill with Buda Castle (Royal Palace), St. Matthias Church and the fairy tale like Fisherman’s Bastion. In Fisherman’s Bastion that you can take in sweeping views of Buda Castle as well the Danube and Parliament Building. It is an amazing place to be when the sunsets and the crowds dissipate. Castle Hill has a number of wonderful restaurants around giving you a reason to stay and see the magical glow the area takes on at night.

While it is easy to spend many days in Budapest, you don’t want miss out on some of the great sites close by. We used public transport to to a day trip to see the ruins in Aquincum and visit the quaint nearby town of Szentendre. Szentendre can apparently be very touristy and crowded but we luckily (?) got there just as a massive, unexpected downpour began which cleared the streets quickly. This left us a bit wet but with rainbows all around and empty streets to explore. This small town on the banks of the Danube had a great promenade along the river and wonderfully colorful streets.

Varazdin, Croatia

From Budapest, we traveled to Zagreb, stopping in the UNESCO town on Varaždin in Northern Croatia. You can get from Budapest to Zagreb by train or bus but neither was a good option when we went. So we got a car service, Day Trip, to drive us rather than dealing with a potentially difficult border crossing and incurring additional car rental fees for picking up and dropping off in different countries. Plus it allowed us to make a side trip to the Baroque preserved city of Varazdin, once the capital of Croatia with its gleaming white, turreted Stari Grad (Old Town).

Zagreb, Croatia

Zagreb, the current capital of Croatia is vibrant and full of cafes, open air markets and lovely flower lined houses and gardens. We only had one night here so spent most of our time in Gornji Grad (Upper Town), exploring picturesque historical sites, hidden alleys & lanes, and strolling around the Strossmayer Promenade.

One of the highlights was visiting the Croatia Museum of Naive Art. Many artists whose work are in this museum were peasant farmers that painted in the winter with no formal arts education. Despite the lack of training, some of their work is truly extraordinary.

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

We picked up a rental car in Zagreb to drive a couple hours to see the famous Plitvice Lakes National Park. I don’t think I have adequate words to describe the stunning beauty and uniqueness of this area but hopefully my pictures can do it justice. It is comprised of 16 brilliant green lakes, cascading one into the next at all different levels of the park ending in some spectacular waterfalls.

Naturally as with any known “bucket list” place, Plitvice can be quite crowded but there are ways to feel enveloped in its wondrous beauty without fearing being knocked off the boardwalks by hordes of visitors. Stay overnight and get up early. Explore the most popular areas in the early morning and then get off the boardwalk and get up high out of the crowds at mid-day. Have a picnic lunch in the hills on an Upper Lake Trail. Walk the boardwalk as the sun is going down and the crowds disappear.

We stayed two nights at the nearby town of Grabovac at Zrinka House and would highly recommend it for its lovely rooms and even lovelier host. Zrinka not only made sure we got a filling breakfast but also packed us a lunch for each day. She gave us wonderful recommendations for the rest of our trip which were incredibly helpful.

Zadar, Croatia

The trip from Plitvice to Trogir was stunning as we went through the mountains of Croatia. Our timing was fortuitous as the trees were giving great hints of the full fall color that was sure to be within days. We made a day trip to Zadar on the recommendation of our lovely host Zrinka. Zadar is a lovely coastal town with a mix of ancient Roman, Byzantine and Venetian architecture and a sea accordion. What’s a sea accordion you ask? Steps that have underwater pipes in them that sound musical notes when filled with water. Definitely something worth experiencing at least once in your lifetime.

Trogir, Croatia

Trogir was such an serendipitous find for us. When looking for lodging in Split, I came across an Airbnb with an amazing view overlooking the old town of Trogir. Trogir is about 1/2 hour from Split by car (an hour by ferry which is available in high season). We like visiting smaller towns so this gave us the opportunity to explore something different while still incorporating a visit to the busy port city of Split.

So what made Trogir worth visiting? Lovely waterfront promenade, quaint old town, beautiful sparkling blue/green water, sensational rainbows (can’t promise that for you, sorry!). Our Airbnb host ran a boat touring company so we spent a full day on the water floating over the famous Blue Lagoon as well as exploring secret hidden coves. Lunch was at a little island that felt like traveling back in time with its old stone buildings, turquoise doors and moss growing everywhere

Split, Croatia

How many places in the world can you visit where you can walk through a 4th century Roman palace that was abandoned then taken over by refugees a few centuries later and turned into a city? My guess is not many, which is where the allure of Split comes in. We stopped by Split on our way to Mostar to explore the old palace Diocletian built and visit the ancient 7th century church, Cathedral of Saint Domnius. Since the “palace” is actually this city’s living heart, it is more a labyrinth of streets packed with people, bars, shops and restaurants. (Game of Throne fans, you will recognize various streets of Meereen and Braavos in Split.)

Navigating Bosnia

From Split, we went to Mostar following the advice of Google Maps and getting totally lost both traveling in and out of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So if I had one piece of advice if you will be spending any time driving through Bosnia and Herzegovina, it would be to have a physical map and determine which border crossings are open before heading out. On our way to Mostar, Google took us to a closed border crossing and kept routing us back there when we tried to find another way.

As part of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, Bosnia and Herzegovina got access to the sea at Neum, a 22 km corridor which splits Croatia in two, So even if you don’t go to Mostar, if you travel by car from Split to Dubrovnik, you will be traveling through Bosnia and Herzegovina to get from one to the other. So you will need to cross the borders in and out of Bosnia.

Mostar, Bosnia

The Tale of 2 Cities would be an apt description of Mostar. On the one hand, you have the wariness of a people whose memories of the 1990s civil war linger as do the scars, including bullet marked and bombed out buildings. The atrocities that happened here are recorded in the Museum of War and Genocide as a reminder that we all must remember what happened so as not to repeat it.

On the other hand, in the Kujundžiluk district, you feel transported back in time to the Ottoman empire, when Mostar served as a meeting point of the East and West. As you walk the narrow streets of the old town, you will see mosques and Orthodox churches, 16th-century townhouses, traditional hammams and Turkish tea houses. Many people day trip to Mostar but I highly recommend an overnight stay. At night and early the next morning, you can enjoy wandering the open air bazaars and the majestic arched stone bridge, the Stari Most without the crowds that come during the day.

When is a Road, not a Road?

Traveling from Mostar to Dubrovnik was an adventure to put it mildly. If we had gone directly, it may have been smoother but we chose to go Blagaj Tekija, a 600 year old monastery tucked into a cliffside close to Mostar. While the side trip was an interesting site worth checking out, Google got completely confused after that. We were taken down winding mountain paved roads that slowly turned into dirt roads then became a little path completely surrounded by trees and hedges. After this happened a couple times, we backtracked almost all the way to Mostar to regroup. Next time, paper maps!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Picture perfect limestone buildings, amazing sunsets, fascinating history, all this and more awaits you in the “Pearl of the Adriatic” (so named by Lord Byron). As Dubrovnik is the most visited site in Croatia, you can expect some crowds but with planning and luck, you can time it so these don’t affect your experience here. Avoid summer if possible and use this cruise schedule website or one like it when planning.

We day tripped during the busy hours and used the early morning and evenings to explore the magic of Dubrovnik. Late in the evening, you can walk through the narrow streets and explore the nooks and crannies sometimes without anyone else in view. Then it feels like you have truly stepped into another world. You can almost imagine you have time traveled to the 14th century or jumped into Kings Landing from Game of Thrones. Even the broad streets and outdoor restaurants, while lively have a festive, not crowded atmosphere as the cruise ship tourists have gone back to their ships.

Day Trips

Only short distance from Dubrovnik, is the magnificent Bay of Kotor, Montengro, truly a bucket list worthy site. This is one day trip I would highly recommend. Our destination was the town of Kotor where you can climb past a monastery up a thousand steps to a commanding view of the entire bay. If you have time, I would recommend making stops all along the bay as there is much to see and do.

Another easy way to escape the mid day rush in Dubrovnik is to take a short 15 minute ferry to the beautiful island of Lokrum. Lokrum is a lush green oasis that has a large medieval monastery, botanical gardens, and a early 19th century fort. There are peacocks and bunnies everywhere from when this island was the holiday home of Archduke Maximilian Ferdinand of Hapsburg . But the best part of the islands were the serene coves that scattered the island, perfect places for a dip in the Adriatic on a nice day.

Maybe Next Time…

Although we did so much in two weeks, there were some places I wish I had time to see:

• Terror Museum: This Budapest museum is extremely popular and we did not time it well the couple times we went to visit. We would make sure to be there really early if we went again
• Museum of Broken Relationships: This museum in Zagreb is located in the beautiful baroque Kulmer palace in the Upper Town and claims to be a unique emotional journey around the world through hundreds of break-ups.
• Tihany, Hungary: This town, which is the 2014 recipient of the most beautiful renovated village in Europe award, is home to the Benedictine Tihany Abbey, a twin-spired church situated above the beautiful Lake Balaton.  
• Exploring more of the thousand islands in Croatia
• Visiting more of the Istrian coastline

Wish I Had Known…

• Google Maps does NOT work in Bosnia!
• Tour groups going to Plitvice had discovered the late afternoon as a time to visit. Luckily, most of the crowds were right at the beginning of the Lower Lakes and had disappeared by evening.
• The streets around Dubrovnik could be incredibly steep and difficult to drive around.

Armchair Exploration

To make the most of your trip by exploring ahead of time, I would recommend these resources for help understanding the culture and history in Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. Have any recommended resources? Please comment and share them!

For European destinations, one of the best resources I’ve found for learning the culture and history from a local is Rick Steves Audio Europe App. It’s free and you can download it for iPhones, iPads and Android. Most notable among the many offerings for Croatia and Hungary were the following.

• Budapest: A walk through of the highlights of Budapest
• Hungary I: Budapest: Two Hungarian tour guides talk about the “Paris of Eastern Europe”, hot springs and Hungarian food.
• Mostar’s Bridge: Tour Guides talk about how Mostar, after suffering intense damage in the Bosnian War has become an attractive destination and its ongoing efforts to bridge old conflicts
• Croatia’s Coastal Hits: Local guides recommend uncrowded places to explore on coast of Croatia
• Home Sweet Croatia: Jennifer Wilson explains what it was like to relocate her family from the Midwest to the Croatian mountain village of her ancestors (see related book below)

Other valuable resources:
Books mentioned are linked to IndieBound through affiliate links. Purchases made through these links help independent bookstores and provide us with a little commission to help run our site.

• Lonely Planet Croatia (Travel Book)
• DK Eyewitness Budapest (Travel Book)
• Chasing a Croatian Girl by Cody Brown (Memoir): This is the lighthearted story of American Cody McClain Brown’s adjustments to life in Croatia. After falling in love with an enigmatic, beautiful Croatian girl
• Running Away to Home by Jennifer Wilson (Memoir): A middle class, Midwestern family in search of meaning uproot themselves and move to their ancestral village in Croatia. Note: This author is featured in Rick Steves Audio above
• Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum (Non Fiction): In an award winning book, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway.

Tell Me More, Tell Me More

Really? After all that? Well, actually, I’ve got lots more…just need the time to write it. Detail posts coming soon! Links will appear below when new detail posts are written. Subscribe below to receive an email when new destination posts are added.

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