North of the Wall: Dubrovnik and Sailing in Dalmatia

Croatia, Croatia. When planning a trip to the Mediterranean, countries like Italy and Greece will be on the list. But not everyone considers Croatia. If you get anything out of these recap posts, then I hope it's that you add Croatia to your upcoming travel destinations. After leaving Rome, we took a plane to the beautiful city of Dubrovnik.

If Dubrovnik sounds familiar then you're probably a Game of Thrones fan. So many scenes from the show were shot in this city. We even did our own GoT walking tour in the old city to see where the scenes were filmed. For the Croatia part of our trip, we stayed in an airbnb with two of our friends who are also from the Bay Area.

Remember my Maldives post from a few years ago? Well the friends we stayed with in Croatia are people we actually met while traveling to the Maldives in 2015. We met them at an airport traveling from India to the Maldives. The husband, Kelly, was in Bangalore for work and his wife tagged along. It was basically the same story as me and the hubs. We realized that we were staying at the same resort in the Maldives and that we were all from the Bay Area. I guess it was kismet, and we've been friends ever since.

They love to travel so we were happy that they agreed to visit Croatia at the same time that we did. They explored Dubrovnik with us before the four of us chartered a boat across the Dalmatian Coast. They stayed on the boat longer than we did and visited Croatian wine country. Kristin, the wife, also runs a wonderful travel blog with great stories and photos that you should visit called Beyond Ordinary Guides.

"I guess it was kismet, and we've been friends ever since."

Dubrovnik was one of the best cities I've ever been to, especially on this trip. Like Venice, it had a ton of great alleyways and historical structures. The people were lovely and the food was some of the most memorable. Even though there isn't a ton to see in this city, it still felt like home. The city looks great from every angle.

After a few days in Dubrovnik, we headed off to our boat tour.

This allowed us to spend a handful of days exploring the Dalmatian Coast on a private boat. We visited bays, bars embedded into the sides of cliffs, caves, and sailed across the islands. Two of those islands were Korcula and Mljet.

We also happened to be in Croatia while they played a very important game in the World Cup. And just like that, I was a futbol fan. Sadly, they lost to France in the finals yesterday.

"We visited bays, bars embedded into the sides of cliffs, caves and sailed across the islands."

And yes, boat life was nice. Very relaxing and unique. I was able to finish my book, listen to music on a hammock and sail around to places that most people couldn't get to. But after a few days, that was all I needed, which is actually hilarious because guess what? This wasn't my last time on a boat on this trip. More pics on Insta!

Note: I was too tired to edit these photos. They are presented in their raw form.