What a gem of a country Croatia turned out to be. So much so that we found ourselves comparing it with Norway for its consistent beauty and scenic drives.

I think it’s the first country we’ve visited that we’ve done or seen something exciting every single day.

We’ve explored walled old towns, driven along spectacular coastline, seen dolphins, climbed a mountain, swam in the warm Adriatic in the south, and the very cold in the north, peered into a 500m deep crater lake, seen countless beautiful lakes, rivers and waterfalls, driven inland through beautiful farmland, basic rural life and dense forests, seen shipwrecks without even entering the water, walked along the edge of a picturesque gorge, had a beachside mud bath, driven through gorges, hiked in autumn coloured hills, wondered round narrow alleys and probably the oddest sight being a walk inside an abandoned hotel.

We knew Croatia would be good, but it’s blown us away. The people are super friendly and speak great English. The roads are fantastic quality. It’s a country which is well set up for tourism with clearly marked hiking trails. If a little too set up in some cases though, with auto-camps everywhere. We managed to sleep in scenic pullouts for free every night, but I think it would be impossible to do in peak season. We did find it quite expensive for food, but some things like veg or fruit in season were very cheap. Plus the national park fees are very pricey, but heck, it was all worth it.