Croatia Road Trip with a Baby: Dubrovnik to Split, Primošten and Plitvice
Nine days driving Croatia with a four-month-old: Dubrovnik's Old Town and beaches, the Pelješac peninsula and Makarska, pool days in Split, our favorite beach day in Primošten, and Plitvice Lakes with a baby carrier.
We’d been to Croatia before with friends on our buddymoon, so this time I wanted to see it through a very different lens: a road trip up the coast with a baby, stopping for beaches, ending in the mountains at Plitvice. Croatia in early June was warm, the water was clear, and the beaches weren’t packed yet.
This is part three of our 5 weeks in Europe with a baby series. Andi was four and a half months old.
- Route
- Kotor → Dubrovnik → Pelješac and Makarska → Split → Primošten → Plitvice Lakes
- How long
- 9 days
- Who came
- Colin, me and Andi (4½ months)
- Getting around
- A rental car the whole way
- Best for
- Beach lovers. Short drives between stops, lots of clear, calm water.
Dubrovnik
We drove up from Kotor and spent two and a half days in Dubrovnik. The Old Town is all stone streets, stairs and churches. It’s beautiful, and the stairs are real, so this was carrier territory. We wandered inside the walls in the mornings and spent the afternoons at the beach below them, which has the most unreal turquoise water.
The beach setup that saved us in Croatia was a towel in the shade and a little clip-on fan for Andi. It was hot, she was happy, and we did a lot of that.
The Pelješac peninsula and Makarska
On the 4th we drove north, and this was one of my favorite drives of the trip. We went through the Pelješac peninsula and stopped at Prapratno, a small cove with water so clear it looks fake. The Pelješac Bridge means you no longer have to cross through Bosnia between Dubrovnik and Split, which makes this drive a lot simpler with a baby.
We ended the day in Makarska, with its marina tucked under the huge Biokovo mountains.
Split
We spent three slow days in Split, at the same hotel where we stayed on our honeymoon. We walked through Diocletian’s Palace and the market on Fruit Square, but mostly this was our pool stop. After a week and a half of moving around, a few days of lounging by a pool with a piña colada was exactly what we needed, and Andi loved having her feet in the water.
Primošten: our favorite day in Croatia
If you only add one stop between Split and the north, make it Primošten. The town sits on a little peninsula, and the beach has the clearest, calmest water we found anywhere in Croatia. This day has more favorited photos than almost any other on the whole trip.
That evening we drove inland toward Plitvice, and the sunset over the fields was the perfect end to the coast.
Plitvice Lakes with a baby
Plitvice Lakes National Park is a string of turquoise lakes connected by waterfalls, with wooden boardwalks winding over and around all of it. It’s every bit as beautiful as the photos.
Bring a carrier, not a stroller. The boardwalks are narrow, uneven in places, and have stairs. The carrier was the way to go for us. We’d also recommend buying your tickets online ahead of time in summer, and going early before the tour buses arrive.
Croatia with a baby: what worked
- Short driving days. We never drove more than a few hours, and we planned drives around naps.
- One pool stop in the middle. Split was our reset after a busy two weeks.
- Shade and a fan for beach days in June.
- A carrier for Dubrovnik and Plitvice, where strollers struggle.
- Swim diapers and a rash guard for every beach.
Next stop: Slovenia
From Plitvice we drove north into Slovenia for a week in the Julian Alps. It ended up being one of our favorite places of the whole summer: Slovenia with a baby.
