Practical Guide to Yacht Chartering in Central Croatia
Split – Trogir – Agana – Sibenik – Primostein – Baotic
While NauticEd has been chartering in central Croatia many times, this is a documentation of our June 2022 flotilla trip. It provides useful practical tips and must-sees and must-dos.
Shameless self plug: NauticEd are expert Mediterranean yacht charter agents. We don’t charge a fee – you get the same price as going direct but you get our vast knowledge of who are the best companies and the ones to stay away from. We can search over 5000 boats with the many different companies saving you time and money. If you are thinking about going to the Mediterranean, we will get an array of options to you asap – contact us with your desires.
Most of the flotilla boats in our fleet were chartered out of Marina Baotić (Pronounced Bowtich – the ć has a “ch” pronunciation). This marina is extremely modern with nice bathroom/shower facilities, a small grocery store on site, several good restaurants, water and electrical hookups, and wide ramps and docks.
Our Itinerary kept us close to the beaten path but not on. Given the popularity for Croatia chartering these days, it is a good idea to know a little about where the crowds will be and avoid if possible.
The interactive map below shows our route throughout the week starting from Saturday night in the marina and returning back to the marina the following Friday night. Most all Mediterranean charters are run this way – board late Saturday afternoon and stay in the marina then return back to the same marina the following Friday and disembark early Saturday morning. Thus Med charters are multiples of 7 nights.
Click the square frame at the top right to enlarge the map.
Below we present a day-by-day happenings report of our flotilla we organized to Croatia so you can follow along with the map and gain some insights as we go.
Prelude: Marina Baotić (Bowtich) – Trogir – Split
Airport: (Google Map) You fly into the Split airport but the airport is actually very close to Trogir village and port (a 10-minute drive to the west). The Trogir area is where many of the charter companies operate from. Split itself is about a 40-minute drive to the east.
Split: (Google Map) Do not miss a few days in Split. If you are a history buff of any sort, you have to do a guided tour of Split. Use Viator.com to book a tour. We stayed in an AirBnB inside the walls of the Split Palace. The area and Palace is bustling with restaurants with incredible food and entertainers in the main Palace square. The Split Palace was built in 300 AD by the retired Roman emperor Diocletian – subsequent invading armies caused many modifications to the palace but much of the original is still standing and being used. You may not have heard of Diocletian. That is because at the time he was known for being the largest killer of human beings. Once the Catholic church took over the area they wiped him from the history books to dishonor his life. The history is fascinating and a stay over with a tour of the palace is well worth your time.
Trogir: (Google Map) Don’t miss a night or two in Trogir. This small walled-in village was built around 1000 years ago. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of restaurants and a gorgeous promenade to walk off a stuffed belly. One such restaurant we enjoyed was Restaurant Capo but do the back street location as they have two locations. From Trogir, we took a minibus day trip to Krka lakes and falls which was a good day trip stopping at several places on the way – Sibenik and Primosten. The tour company we used to organize this was South Tours located at the west end of the Trogir Island (Google Map). I would highly recommend them to do this tour and to organize other local tours on land prior to your charter.
Marina Baotić: (Google Map) Day 0 is always base arrival day, provisioning, and settling in on the boat. Marina Baotić (pronounced Bowtich) is a new large marina with clean facilities. It is the marina where the charter companies we used for our flotilla operate namely Ultra Sailing and Yacht and Fun. Both of these companies we represent through our NauticEd Sailing Vacation Agency. We’re happy to book your sailing vacation with these companies – just contact us. With NauticEd, you get the same price as going direct but we provide our expertise and service that goes along with it. Marina Baotic is about 1 miles west of Trogir by car and 0.5 miles by water Taxi. (Google map) Many charter companies operate out of this Marina but there are others close by in other marinas also. In Marina Baotić there is a small grocery store but there is not really enough variety to get everything you need. A 10-minute walk away is a larger supermarket (Tommy’s) where you can get most things you will need. But Tommy’s is just far enough away where you’ll need to get a cab back. But don’t provision too much. Virtually everywhere you go are grocery stores and more than likely you will be eating out a lot in the local marina townships. Back in Trogir there is an amazing food and fruit market including cheeses and prosciuttos whereby you can pick up much of what is needed there and cab it or water taxi back to the Marina.
Getting Around: We found a local private driver, Joske (Pronounced Yosko) who would drive us anywhere around the area. WhatsApp +385 95 852 6630. He is great for an airport pick-up and any driving around the area. Joske speaks perfect English. Uber also works in Croatia. After our sailing trip we did rent a car and drive to Dubrovnik – we rented from SixT company who allowed a drop-off in Dubrovnik. The roads are perfectly easy to drive and they drive on the Euro/American side of the road. SixT is a good company and the cars were new. Do note however that many European rent cars are Manual stick drive. If you’re not used to driving a manual, check to see the availability of an automatic.
Money: Presently Croatia uses Kuna but they are shifting to the Euro in 2023. There are plenty of ATM machines around however do not use machines marked Euronet as the exchange rate is horrendous. Instead use an ATM machine that is associated to a local bank and make sure you don’t allow the ATM machine to convert to your currency. Rather tap the button to allow your own card to do the conversion NOT the ATM machine. Your own card will give you a much better exchange rate. Also the same for purchases – don’t allow the shop’s credit card machine to do the conversion just accept in Kuna/Euro and let your own card do the conversion.
Below are some pics of the Split – Trogir – Krka Falls area which we visited prior to our Croatian Sailing Vacation. When you hover on a pic, at the bottom right is an expand arrow. This gives you access to the full photo.
