What a visitor's money does in Croatia: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Euro (EUR) · 1 EUR = 1.15 USD · 1 EUR = 0.86 GBP
Croatia switched from the kuna to the euro in 2023 — any guide telling you to bring kuna is out of date. Prices in Dubrovnik are the highest in Croatia by a wide margin.
Avoid: Euronet, Auro Domus, machines inside the old town walls
Use: Zagrebačka banka, PBZ, Erste, OTP
A short ride in Dubrovnik: €5–10 across town — middling
Well under the street taxis, which is why the taxi drivers protested about it for years.
This is Lika, inland and nothing like the coast: roast lamb, cheese from Pag, and strukli — a baked pastry of cottage cheese. The restaurants at the entrances are functional; the village konobas twenty minutes away are better and half the price.
Eat konoba-style away from the Riva — peka, grilled fish and šporki makaruli. The green market and fish market just outside the palace walls are worth a morning.
Gregada is the island fish stew, cooked with potato and white wine. Peka — meat or octopus under an iron bell covered in embers — has to be ordered hours ahead. The island makes serious wine from Plavac Mali, and the good bottles never leave Croatia.
Old town restaurants charge a heavy premium. Walk out to Lapad or Gruž for seafood at half the price. Try black risotto and Pelješac red wine.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
DubrovnikCroatiaA walled stone city above the Adriatic
Plitvice LakesCroatiaSixteen lakes falling into each other down a limestone staircase, crossed on wooden walkways
SplitCroatiaA Roman emperor’s palace that became a living city
HvarCroatiaLavender fields and a Venetian harbour, with the clearest water in the Adriatic off the islets outside it