croatia for family with older teenagers

I am consudering Croatia for our family hols this July. Luckily our tens (16 and 18) still want to come with us! We love sea and beach and water activities as well as soking up local culture. Any recommendations please, as never been before!

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Go to Bol on Brac. Lots of water activities and a great beach!

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thanks- will look in to it

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Hi Sazza,

We have a holiday home in Bol (which I%26#39;m afraid we don%26#39;t rent out) but I can endorse Barry%26#39;s recommendation. Bol is a top spot and we take our nephews there each year (a touch younger than yours but boy do they love it). Apart from the water sports, there is also a big tennis centre and plenty of opportunity to do day excursions to local sites or across to Hvar. Its pretty lively at night, there are plenty of restaurants, an open air cinema and several disco/bars so be warned that you may not see much of your children before noon! In July the place will be busy, mainly with Italians, so check out accommodation early. There are a few package holidays (Thompson I think) or you can sort everything out yourself (flights to Split and self catering accommodation etc - it really is pretty straightforward to get to) - see sites like www.bol.hr for self catering If you do go the do-it-yourself route, flag something up on this site and if I see it I%26#39;ll try to give you the low down.

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Thanks very much spitfire! Want to try the do it yourself route, so will look at site you suggest. We also want to see dubrovnik, for a few days in first week, do you think tht would work? Should we hire a car? All this nightlife in Bol , does it actually make it TOO noisy for the oldies (us) to enjoy?? Is it like Aia Napa or something rather quieter??!

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sorry Sazza been away. And sorry too that as soon as I recommend bol.hr they go an re-launch it and half of it, the english and the links to accommodation, isn%26#39;t working (though you can get to teh accommodation but with difficulty)!

It perfectly feasible to get to dubrovnik and you have a choice, either take a few days out and motor down there or you can go on an organised day trip from Bol (about £40 pp) - this is doable, and gives you about 3-4 hours in Dubrovnik - but its a very long day and Dubrovnik deserves longer and comes into its own when the heat of the day has gone along with the cruise ship tourists. So you can either go back to Split and go on a coach, or hire a car in Bol (you%26#39;d have to book ahead but Hotel Kastil have trendy little softops for c £40 a day) and go under your own steam. Just be prepared to find somewhere in Dub to stay with parking.

The very centre of Bol will be very noisy until about 3:00 am every night, but that%26#39;s just one bar around hotel Kastil so make sure your accommodation isn%26#39;t just there or at least has air-con with decent double glazing (most do) We live 5 mins walk away and don%26#39;t often hear it so the noise does dissipate pretty rapidly. I have a feeling you guys aren%26#39;t that old (in spirit anyway!)

As for your query on a rental villa....hmmm.....I don%26#39;t think I know of one with a pool. With the sea being so, like there, and so beautiful the locals think you are mad if you talk about a house pool, although the big hotels do have nice pools, mainly for the Germans.

You%26#39;ll find it quite hard (but not impossible) to rent a whole house. Most are apartments within a house and the owners tend to live there too. I%26#39;ve heard great things about Villa Giardino (see trip advisor) but that is more a small hotel than an apartment, and Alistair Sawday recommends Villa Nena over by the monastery which looks very nice. I%26#39;m afraid its a question of trawling through the websites or hope someone has a strong recommendation. I can recommend apartment Krunic as friends but it sounds like you%26#39;re after something a bit more upmarket.

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Thanks very much spitfire, you have been very helpful. I did have a spot of bother on bol site, but got the general idea. I am hoping to hear back from Villa Giardino, it looks lovely. Had a feeling pool may not be necessary!Think we will fly to Split, hire a car, travel down coast to Dubrovnik, maybe stopping off on way. Couple of days in Dubrovnik, then back up to Bol for final restful week. That way we are near Split for return too. Sound a good plan?

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sounds perfect...the drive between split and dubrovnik is lovely. Don%26#39;t forget that on the way up from Dubrovnik, you don%26#39;t need to go all the way back to Split but can hop over to Brac from Makarska and its only 20k to Bol from the ferry point at Sumartin. The only problem with that is that the ferry is quite small and capacity is limited so arrive early to be sure of a place.....Makarska is lovely so there%26#39;s plenty to do and see whilst you%26#39;re waiting and you%26#39;ll all be on croatian time by then so nothing will faze you!

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thanks, can%26#39;t wait for croatian time!

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Hi, we are also planning to go to croatia this year with our kids 15 %26amp; 17. sounds like we want exactly the same as your family, can you tell me how the trip went. we intend to travel in late june early july.

many thanks

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Hi there,

We are traveling with a bunch of older teenagers (17 to 19) this June. We picked Hvar for the water activities and boating and CLUBS and Dubrovnik and area for sightseeing and history.I hope they will have a great time so they keep on traveling with us.

I haven%26#39;t been there either so any recommendations are really appreciated!