Croatia Accommodation on a Budget

I have a little confession to make. I am not the typical let’s always stay in a hotel wherever we go somewhere– type.Yeah sure, that’s the easiest way of accommodation, you can have food, drinks, and all the comfort you can imagine. But looking at the fact that we are students, with a very limited budget, we can’t really afford to stay in hotels when we travel, even if we necessarily wanted to. But the good part in this is that, I don’t actually want to stay in hotels. Maybe when I get older I will feel the desire for a little bit more luxury, but for now I am more than fine with having to stay in a tent, or, if we are in a group, in a bigger villa or guesthouse. And either one goes especially well in Croatia, where we’ve spent our last two summer holidays and had a blast! Anyways, I know some of you plan ahead for the summer, and I thought maybe these tips could help you.

1. The CAMPING experience

location: Porec, Croatia  camp: Bijela Uvala  season: mid-July, 2011

I have to say I was more than impressed with the standards and awesome quality of this camp. Before this experience, I had no idea that these camps were so clean and you can literally have anything you want in it. We paid 15 euros/day, including electricity, eco-taxes and such. For a few extra Euros you can even have your own fridge (which we didn’t purchase, but kind of missed it sometimes)! Trying to be a bit more practical, and loving to prepare our own food, we took a little electric thingy on which we could actually cook (for ex. we made spaghetti, instant soup and such). This doesn’t mean that we haven’t eaten anywhere out, but we didn’t have to do it every day, saving some serious money. I was very surprised to see how clean everything was, not only the campsite, but the toilets and showers as well. Oh, and don’t worry about overcrowding and not having space and place where you can wash your face or take a shower, because there were a lot of them, and even though at 7-8 pm you had to stand in line (for 3-5 minutes -not an eternity), you could practically shower at any time of day, and still have hot water. The other thing that I liked very much was that the sea was actually very close! You didn’t have to walk for half an hour, you just got up, had breakfast and went swimming. If anything was left in the tent, you just went up and got it. There were shows, parties and events that took place in the campsite every night, even though this was considered a “family camp” (imagine how it’s like in student campsites). The sea was also clean and not at all crowded, mostly because only the ones that actually stay in the camp can “use it”. We were lucky because most people were just sitting around and sunbathing (because they were on holiday for 3-4 weeks), not at all in a hurry to get into the water, so most of the time we had the whole place to ourselves. When did we make reservations? 3-4 days before departure. We weren’t sure we’d find anything vacant, but luckily we did. All in all, it was a truly wonderful experience and I would do it all over again if I had the chance.

our humble little campsite in Porec

2. the VILLA experience

location: Gdinj, Hvar Island, Croatia   season: mid-August, 2012

A very different experience from what we’ve had before. We reserved the villa probably a week before our journey started. The place looked amazing from photos, we were 8, and we didn’t want to stay separately, and also, a hotel was out of the question because we wanted to cook (we actually bought all the products from home, transported them all the way to Hvar, then prepared them there). We agreed on a meeting point in one of the cities, where we would meet the owner who’d take us to the villa. The first impressions were quite scary, as we went down on a rocky path (non-asphalted), with some terrifying rifts on one end of the road. We initially thought we made a bad deal, but we were wrong. We arrived to a little bay with only a few houses on its shore. The quiet and stillness of the place was absolutely breathtaking. It was just what we wanted. Peace and quiet, and the most crystal-clear water I’ve ever seen- just perfect for snorkeling! The sea was only a few steps away from our little house. The rooms were decent, but nice. The kitchen was well prepped, had all the dishes, a fridge and a stove, which was practically all we wanted. The electricity was solved by solar power, but we didn’t have any problems with it (we stayed up every night, never ran out of light). Also, the “shower” was practically two 20-25 liter black sacks, which we had to fill up with water and put it out in the sun to warm up. It was funny, but we divided it up every day so everyone could get a bit of water, nobody complained. In fact, it was kind of nice to do something eco-friendly as long as we were there. We paid 15 euros/day/person (yes, it was cheaper than the camping), so it was a really economical choice and our goal was fulfilled: we were extremely close to the shore, had an unbelievably clean beach and water, and we were probably in one of the most uncrowded beaches on all Croatia.

the villa in Hvar, photo taken from the shore

So tell me, what kind of accommodation do You prefer? 🙂

Related posts:

Poreč Tips UNESCO: The Old City of Hrvatska Beaches of Porec Hvar from the “Vár”