I know Croatia ferries are complicated but cheeez. . .if you’re putting together an article pushing “Island Hopping in Croatia” at least read the damn schedules. A recent article from the Guardian newspaper was so riddled with errors it was virtually unusable. Here is my letter to the travel editor:
Dear Travel Editor,
I’m all for encouraging travel to Croatia (I make my living from it!) but the Island Hopping article was mis-conceived and inaccurately reported. I’ve been travelling to Croatia for 13 years first as a guidebook writer for Lonely Planet and now as publisher of www.croatiatraveller.com. I can assure you that island-hopping in Croatia is far from simple. Intra-island ferry service is and always has been rather limited. The services are designed to bring islanders to work, not bring tourists to the islands.
Contrary to the assertion in the first paragraph, catamarans and car ferries do not “run daily between most islands”. The article mentions catamarans linking Rab and Pag plus Hvar, Vis and Korcula. That’s five islands out of 1100. Brac Island and Hvar Island also have catamaran links but not from Hvar Town, only from Jelsa and Milna. The catamaran from Jelsa is at 6am!
The only other service linking the islands is the coastal car ferry which runs twice a week most of the year and about 4 times weekly in July and August. This line provides car ferry service between Korcula, Hvar and Mljet Islands. There’s also a car ferry line between Krk and Cres islands. The ability to shuttle between two or three islands does not, in my opinion, constitute an “island-hopping” holiday.
The worst of it is the suggested itinerary linking Dubrovnik, Sipan and Korcula which is completely impossible. Ms Thorpe has clearly misread the catamaran schedules. The catamaran from Dubrovnik to Sipan is at 7.10PM! Unless she means the ferry to Sudarad on Sipan Island? In any event the catamaran from Sipan to Mljet Island is at 8pm. And it goes to Sobra, not a place from which you can visit the lakes etc. Nor does it then go on to Korcula. That catamaran is in the morning. It’s a mess.
Another serious and easily verifiable error is the statement that on the Jadrolinija website “you can pre-book tickets - essential in high season.” Go to the website where it clearly states that online booking is limited to the coastal and international lines. The other catamaran lines–Krilo, GV and Rapska Plovidba– have no online booking whatsoever.
Here are some other, lesser errors: Rab Island is lovely but not really a “major windsurfing destination”. It ranks far behind Bol and the Peljesac Peninsula. “Pag’s summer party scene” is confined to Novalja on the northern end of the island. Pag Town is as rowdy as a church picnic.
It would be good to publish a correction to this article and try to avoid such sloppiness in the future. One way to do that would be to consult my site, www.croatiatraveller.com which thoroughly explains the ferry schedules. I’ve also attached my downloadable ferry guide which has all the Dalmatian schedules referred to in the article.
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