The long road from Dubrovnik to Hvar

We woke up extremely early on Tuesday morning to get to the main Bus Station, where we would be getting on a bus to Split, and then a ferry from Split to our next stop, Hvar (pronounced Phwar, not Hivar.. as previously thought).

The ride takes between about 4.5 to 5 hours depending on the traffic, and it goes along the Croatian cost, giving some amazing views.

Looking back towards Dubrovnik

My very first stamp in my British Passport!

It was a very long trip, with only one toilet stop about an hour into the journey, and then nothing after that! So I had to hold for about three hours until we got to Split.

Going up the coast, you cross into Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Border Patrol board the bus and check everyone's passports. We knew this and were expecting it, but there were lots of people who had to search their bags for their passports as they were unprepared!

We arrived in Split about about 2.30 p.m. and we were able to get tickets for the 3.00 p.m. ferry to Hvar. We didn't spend any time in Split, all we saw was their waterfront, which is apparently the best part so I didn't feel like we missed too much.

We weren't too keen to get on the ferry after over five hours on a bus, but luckily the trip was only an hour, and we arrived in Hvar just after 4.00 p.m., where the owner of the apartment where we were staying picked us up from the Bus stop.

Hvar Harbour

Hvar is known for being a party island, popular with young backpackers and Sail Croatia holidays. We were slightly off season by about a week or so, and we were staying out of the centre of town, about a 15 minute walk away.

Our apartment was simple, but clean and quiet and had amazing views over the sea. We dropped off our things and had a shower to wake ourselves up before heading out to explore to town.

Even off season Hvar Town was quite busy, the majority being young backpackers, so we were glad we hadn't gone any later in the month. Our first stop was to look for some sea shoes. Croatia has amazing clear water, but the downside is that it is full of Sea Urchins, which only live in super clean water.

Lots of spiky sea urchins everywhere!

We found some sea shoes quite quickly, they seem to be available in just about every store for about 12 Euros each. Not the most attractive shoe around, but it made us feel a lot better about swimming.

We grabbed some dinner in town, and headed back to enjoy the sunset on our balcony. We were also looking forward to an early night, we were exhausted by the huge amount of travelling we had done.

The view from our balcony

Rocking our awesome sea shoes