Search
Ingrid's world adventure - Croatia and La Tomatina
Staff member: Ingrid // Trip date: Sep 2011
Ingrid's world adventure - Croatia and La Tomatina
The next part of our trip was done without our Eurail passes.
We were lucky enough to score a couple of seats in a car with some Croatians we had befriended at Sziget festival. So they drove us into Croatia. We spent around 2 weeks in Croatia doing a combination of visiting my husbands relatives and also being tourists.
Because we were with relatives we were driven most places and in fact didn't travel alone until we reached Split where we took a ferry to the island of Brac. Brac is the closest island to Split and if you are short on time then it can even be done as a lovely day trip from Split. We stayed for 2 nights in the beautiful town of Bol. Bol is home to one of the most well known beaches in Croatia, the Golden Horn. After visiting Brac we needed to get to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately there are no train services from Split to Dubrovnik so the only option is a bus or if you are on one of the close islands to Dubrovnik then you also have the option of taking a ferry. But from Brac our best option was a ferry back to Split and then a bus from there to Dubrovnik.
The bus cost us around AUD$25pp. It is a beautiful bus ride so I would recommend doing it during daylight hours. It takes the coastal road rather than the freeways and winds its way along the water for almost the whole 5 hour trip. A small section of the coastline belongs to Bosnia so make sure you have your passports handy as you'll need these when crossing over the border. The bus stopped for rest breaks three times along the way so there was plenty of opportunity for toilet breaks or to buy extra snacks and drinks.
Dubrovnik itself is a beautiful old town. We really loved our couple of days there. We stayed down near the bus station and ferry port which is in fact where most of the cheaper accommodation in Dubrovnik is found. It's about a 10 minute bus ride from there into the old town. It's very easy to take the bus as there are so many of them and they pretty much all go straight to the old town so you don't have to worry about getting lost either.
I would recommend walking the wall if you have the time. It is quite expensive - almost $15pp for an adult (students get a big discount) and it takes about an hour and a half to walk all the way around, including time for photo stops along the way. Well worth the time and money though as the views out over the coastline are breathtaking.
From Dubrovnik we flew to Barcelona and stayed overnight before travelling to Valencia for a 5 day La Tomatina festival tour. It was the first time we have travelled in an organised group package tour so it was definitely a different experience for the both of us. Over the next 4 days we basically had everything planned for us, which was a nice change from independent travel for a while. A guided tour of Valencia's beautiful old city gave us great tips on where to visit, eat and drink in our spare time, and also where to purchase some cheap clothes and shoes for La Tomatina (because as we found out first hand - you won't even want to consider keeping what your wear for the fight!) Over the course of the tour we also got taken to a Paella party with Sangria (both originating in the area), a guided bike ride to the Valencia beach, a day trip out to the lovely coastal town of Peniscola (pronounced Pen-ish-colla), a Tapas dinner and also a great Flamenco music and dance show.
The highlights for us would definitely have to have been the Flamenco show and when we had Paella for two on the beach (served traditional style in the huge pan it was cooked in).
The La Tomatina festival day itself is staged in the small town of Buῆol (pronounced Bunyole). Its humble population of 9,000 swells to a staggering 40,000 for the festival, and about 35,000 people are crammed into one narrow street in the town centre for one hour of fruit-hurling chaos. It was a once in a lifetime experience, a lot of fun but also complete and utter mayhem.
The following day it was goodbye to Valencia & Spain as we took a flight back to the other side of Europe, to explore Romania.
More staff stories
