Zaton, Croatia is an idyllic little village that rests on a placid little bay on the Adriatic sea. It is located a few minutes away from Dubrovnik and makes for a relaxing getaway from throngs of tourists while providing easy access to that great city.
The drive from Split to Dubrovnik was a short one. My dad and I spent about 3 hours on the road. At Dubrovnik, we returned our rental car then spent a few hours killing time as we waited to meet up with our adventure tour group that we had booked.
We booked an 8-day adventure tour with Huck Finn Adventures. Normally I'm not a fan of tour groups, but this one seemed like it would be fun. Plus I was traveling with my dad. He's not as easily amused as I am. I would be fine with sitting around, drinking beer, and taking pictures of clouds all day. My dad is more into actually doing things.
After a few hours in Dubrovnik, we were picked up by our tour guide. We drove in the tour van to Zaton where we checked into a room. We had the evening free as the tour guide collected everyone from our tour group. The next day our adventure would begin.
Tour groups are a trade-off. You trade a lot of freedom and flexibility for cool places and fun activities. I loved Zaton as soon as I saw it. I also knew that there is no way I would have ever stayed there if I was on my own.
The village is quaint and beautifully maintained. And the waterfront looks like a park or a resort.
We stayed in Villa Leona and the room was very nice. Google is saying that you can book rooms at this site. I think that if you have your own transportation, it would be an ideal place to stay when visiting Dubrovnik.
We didn't do much that night. We just enjoyed the relaxing area and had some dinner. I wandered around for some photos.
I don't know if any dolphins live in this harbor, but it looked like an awesome place to grow up. How cool would it be to be a kid here, getting on your family's boat and exploring the nearby islands?
This little cat was just hanging out by the water. Usually cats have an aversion to water so it was surprising to me that it spent so much time sitting on the step that would occasionally get wet.
The next morning we got up at a reasonable hour and met the people who we would be traveling with for the next 8 days. There was a family with mom, dad, and two adult sons. There was a brother and sister. And there was me and my dad.
It was a nice small group and everyone seemed like fun people to be with. Our tour guide was also great and I wish I could remember his name because I'll be calling him "the tour guide" for the next 8 posts and that's going to get old quickly. Maybe my dad remembers.
We all loaded up onto a boat and headed off for our first adventure! The activity that day was sea kayaking around an island.
We parked our motorboat on an island and everyone got kayaks. The kayaks fit two people so we paired up and started our journey around a fantastic island.
The water was crystal clear and the weather was perfect. Almost everyone in our group was new to kayaking so there were some comical moments as everyone tried to get used to using the kayaks.
After an hour or two of kayaking, we pulled up to a beach for lunch. The location was jaw dropping. The shade of the vine-covered trellis combined with gentle sea breeze felt like the best kind of daydream. And the food was made extra delicious by the hunger that we had worked up on the sea.
The place where we stopped looked incredible! I wouldn't have been opposed to staying here for the rest of the day, but we had to continue on our adventure.
My meal was a big chunk of meat and some potatoes. It was excellent.
After lunch we spent a little time relaxing and letting our food digest. We swam a little bit, but mostly just hung out and relaxed.
I didn't get many photos after lunch. The gopro photos didn't turn out too well and I didn't want to get my phone wet. We changed our kayak pairing after lunch. The brother and sister were really struggling with the kayak so I paired up with the brother and my dad paired up with the sister. That seemed the best way to ensure that we would make it around the island before nightfall.
I tried to do an animated gif, but it wouldn't display. It's here.
At one point we stopped for cliff jumping. It never looks very high on camera, but when we were standing up there, it felt dangerously high. The jump was a lot of fun. I always like that feeling of terror when everything in your body and mind is telling you not to jump, but you force yourself to do it anyways.
We also stopped at a few caves. To get into this blue cave we had to swim under the rocks to get in. The photos didn't turn out very good, but it was fun to see it.
After we went around the island, we parked our kayaks and got into the motorboat. We went back to Zaton to get cleaned up, then our guide drove us to Dubrovnik for dinner. I'll post about that tomorrow.
I hope you enjoyed my post about the lovely little village of Zaton and the adventure that we had. Tomorrow will be about Croatia's most famous and arguably most beautiful city. I hope you'll join me as the adventure continues!