Things to do
Apart
from swimming and
exploring the local area by walking, what other places can you
visit within a day's travel?
If you didn't see Dubrovnik
when you passed through the airport, then do spend a day there.
Because it is a very special place
- a world heritage
site - that parking outside the old town could be difficult in the
height of the season. For that reason, either take a bus
all the
way from the local main road, or take a local bus having parked quite
well outside Dubrovnik.
The same applies to Split
where Diocletion's palace is the main attraction - although like
Dubrovnik and Venice, it has these fabulous little streets
packed with architectural curiosities. Split
is approximately 2
hours drive away.
Another day trip would be to take
your car on the ferry from Ploce
to Trpanj on the Pelijsac
Peninsula. Then drive across to Orebic
(actually there are buses which meet
the ferries). From Orebic, another ferry (20 mins) will take you
across to
Korcula Town
Another lovely mini- version of Dubrovnik. The advantage of
taking your car is that you can come home by another route, via Ston
and Mali Ston. Again
these are charming old places, but there is a famous
restaurant there which specialises in locally produced oysters (which
are a very reasonable price).
You can see the oyster beds as you drive up the main
road from Dubrovnik.
You can also get across to Hvar
Island from Makarska.
However it takes over an hour to get
to Makarska. When you get over to Hvar, it is a very long island
and will take hours to drive from one end to the other (where the old
and famous town is). It may be quicker to drive up to Split
and do the ferries from there - as they are more frequent and arrive at
the correct places. Or you could start one end of Hvar and
leave from the other.
Mostar
is another interesting place to visit and it is only 45 minutes
away. Although they have rebuilt the famous bridge which was
destroyed in the recent Yugoslav war, there are still many damaged
buildings. It is a strange mixture of medieval and modern, with a
river running in a deep cutting through the middle of the town.
You can also see the famous mosque in the centre and the adjacent
burial ground connected with the last fighting. It is gradually
recovering and offering facilities for tourists - such as
canoeing on the river. Bosnia uses a different currency
from Croatia, but it doesn't seem to matter too much. It is
useful to know that Bosnian supermarkets are open on Roman Catholic
holidays and vice versa. So you should find some food shops and
cafes open. There is more information about this trip on the Komarna
website - http://www.komarna.co.uk/index.html.
The advantage of visiting the
popular tourist areas is that the restaurants and shops are more
developed and they almost always speak English.... they don't always do
in Metkovic.