Croatia pilot book and itinerary recommendation

[Kiting]

I'm planning to charter a boat in Croatia with friends for a week in August. None of us have ever sailed in Croatia before, so I'm trying to find out about a good pilot book to look at for destination ideas and to use while there.

Does anyone have any views on the best pilot book for the area and/or particular places to go or avoid? We'd like to mainly anchor, with maybe a night or two in a marina to top up on water/fuel. I saw a thread from 2008 saying that the 777 Guide was the best then, but I can't tell if that's still the case.

Many thanks!

 

[Skellum]

Your charter boat should come with a pilot book on board. It might even be a 777 one. Some of the places that I used to anchor in the central Dalmatian area now have mooring buoys.

August is likely to be busy as it’s peak season and a number of Italian boats normally sail across at that time.

Where are you chartering from?

 

[E39mad]

Some great sailing areas wherever you go in Croatia. Likely to be busiest around Split and Dubrovnik areas.

Depends on what you want to do and see. Do you want a marina every night with restaurants and/or night life or a bay to anchor? Do you want to see the Krka falls or see ancient cities such as Zadar or Split?

Personally, I loved the Kornati islands, Korkcula (although will be very busy in August) and Mljet.

 

[Skellum]

A few of my favourites there. I love Okuklije on Mljet. See also Lastovo, Komiza (on Vis) and Vrboska (Hvar).

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Imray Adriatic pilot.
It's all great. went 5 years running before I bought my own boat.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Echo the above, it’s fab, we’re back again in June this year for our 5th or 6th visit. Plenty of threads on here with recommendations, no point in repeating here. The cruising guide / pilot book I’d recommend is the Jane Cody Cruising Companion. Out of print I think but often comes up on eBay.

 

[Halcyon Yachts]

This was the route I took last August:

I used a combination of Navily and Navionics for planning.

Pete

 

[Shaddickp]

The Imray guide is pretty out of date I believe. I like 777 harbour guide as it displays lots of information in an easy way to view. I think it is available now as an App. I sailed a lot in Croatia from 2000 to 2018 and always used 777 , firstly alongside Imray, then in later years alongside Navionics, but now I think Navily is beter for mooring information, it is generally more up to date.
You didnt say whereabouts you will collect your charter, let us know and then we can supply some suggestions.
As for anchoring, as one of the earlier posts pointed out, most places suitable for anchoring have buoys which you pay for, which are not too expensive. Harbours are in my mind very expensive as are the few marinas. There are obviously smaller coves suitable for anchoring without buoys and I expect Navily will provide information on those.

 

[Kiting]

Thank you so much for your replies, everyone! I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner - we had a sudden family illness that took up my attention for a while. In the meantime, my friends with whom I'm going chartered a Salona 45 from Samboat, and we'll be leaving from the Kastel Stari marina on Saturday August 17th. I'm looking at routes now, and very grateful for the guidance here. Thank you!

 

[Kiting]

We'd like to anchor for most of the week, probably with a stop at a marina mid-week so that we can go ashore and explore, and find somewhere nice to have dinner on land for an evening. I'd like to see if we can find somewhere to anchor or hook to a mooring buoy that's in a bay where we can row ashore and find a cafe or something for a day or so, and otherwise I'd like to find smaller quiet coves to anchor in.

 

[Kiting]

Your charter boat should come with a pilot book on board. It might even be a 777 one. Some of the places that I used to anchor in the central Dalmatian area now have mooring buoys.

August is likely to be busy as it’s peak season and a number of Italian boats normally sail across at that time.

Where are you chartering from?

Thank you! We'll charter from Kastel Stari, so I'm thinking either we'll go around the islands, or up to Zadar and back.

 

[Kiting]

Some great sailing areas wherever you go in Croatia. Likely to be busiest around Split and Dubrovnik areas.

Depends on what you want to do and see. Do you want a marina every night with restaurants and/or night life or a bay to anchor? Do you want to see the Krka falls or see ancient cities such as Zadar or Split?

Personally, I loved the Kornati islands, Korkcula (although will be very busy in August) and Mljet.

We'd like quiet bays to anchor in most of the time. We'll leave from Kastel Stari which is half an hour by car up the coast west of Split, and then try to keep costs down by avoiding marinas, except for perhaps a night midweek where we stop to refuel and fill our water tanks. Otherwise I'd like to try to find little bays, and sometimes mooring buoys. It would be nice to stop in a bay where there's a little cafe or something which we could row ashore to go to, and stay there for a couple of nights. I've found those a few times sailing in Greece, but I don't know Croatia at all.

 

[Kiting]

A few of my favourites there. I love Okuklije on Mljet. See also Lastovo, Komiza (on Vis) and Vrboska (Hvar).

Thank you!

 

[Kiting]

Imray Adriatic pilot.
It's all great. went 5 years running before I bought my own boat.

Thanks!

 

[Kiting]

T

This was the route I took last August:

I used a combination of Navily and Navionics for planning.

Pete

This is so great! Thank you very much - I loved watching this! It's a gorgeous video, and super useful, particularly seeing that some of the places you went weren't hugely busy in August. That's ideal.

 

[Kiting]

This was the route I took last August:

I used a combination of Navily and Navionics for planning.

Pete

How did you attach the fenders to the boom to make the swings that the kids were sitting on? I'd love to try that.

 

[Kiting]

The Imray guide is pretty out of date I believe. I like 777 harbour guide as it displays lots of information in an easy way to view. I think it is available now as an App. I sailed a lot in Croatia from 2000 to 2018 and always used 777 , firstly alongside Imray, then in later years alongside Navionics, but now I think Navily is beter for mooring information, it is generally more up to date.
You didnt say whereabouts you will collect your charter, let us know and then we can supply some suggestions.
As for anchoring, as one of the earlier posts pointed out, most places suitable for anchoring have buoys which you pay for, which are not too expensive. Harbours are in my mind very expensive as are the few marinas. There are obviously smaller coves suitable for anchoring without buoys and I expect Navily will provide information on those.

Thank you! We'll be collecting the boat from Kastel Stari, which is about half an hour west along the coast from Split by car. The marinas and harbours look extraordinarily expensive, so I'd like to try to avoid them. One of the most reasonable seems to be Milna town harbour, so perhaps we'll go there for a midweek refuel/water tank filling. I'm trying to figure out whether it would be better to go north to Zadar and back, or spend the week hopping around the islands south of Split.

 

[dunedin]

One thing we did was look up the itineraries of all the major flotilla charter fleets in the area - and map out where they were each day.
These were often good places to visit - but on a day when the flotillas weren’t there. Worked well.

 

[Gladiateur]

Anyone have info on the new marina at Drage ? I believe it’s pretty basic

 

[Sailing steve]

I'd suggest you find out where the "Yacht Week" flotilla is heading and go as far as you can in the opposite direction. I cannot stress how much joy avoiding the entitled and thoroughly obnoxious party people attracted to this will bring to your holiday.

Among the highlights for us on several Croatia charters have been Trogir, the Paklinski islands, Primosten and the trip up to Skradin and the Kaka Park.

It's a great area for sailing - but not so much if you have 10 days of glassy flat calm like we did one year.