Croatia travel tips

Is Croatia safe?

4 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.

5.0 average across 4 guides · Very safe
Dubrovnik, CroatiaPlitvice Lakes, CroatiaSplit, CroatiaHvar, Croatia

Dubrovnik Very safe

Very safe. The genuine problems are crowds and heat — when several cruise ships dock the old town becomes barely walkable. Do the walls at 08:00 and check cruise schedules before booking.

Comfortable: Dubrovnik Old Town · Lapad · Babin Kuk

  • Slipping on the polished limestone streets in rain, which sends more visitors to hospital here than anything else

Plitvice Lakes Very safe

Safe, and the rules exist for the landscape rather than for you: swimming is forbidden anywhere in the park and enforced, because the travertine barriers that make the lakes are alive and fragile. The walkways have no handrails in most places and are slippery when wet — this is how people get hurt here. Tickets are capped daily and sell out in summer; book online. Winter closes some routes entirely.

Comfortable: the boardwalks · both entrances · the village guesthouses · Rastoke

  • stepping off the boardwalk — there are no railings for most of its length, the wood is slick when wet, and the water below is fast
  • swimming anywhere in the park — it is forbidden and enforced, and the lakes are deep and cold
  • the boardwalks in ice — they freeze from November and parts of the route close
  • the 10am to 2pm crush in summer — one-way boardwalks mean you move at the speed of the queue

Split Very safe

Safe city. Ferry ports get chaotic in August — arrive early and book vehicle ferries ahead. Watch your footing on the polished palace stone when wet.

Comfortable: Diocletian’s Palace · Riva · Bačvice · Marjan

  • Bačvice — at closing time
  • Bag snatching in the palace alleys in high season

Hvar Very safe

Very safe. Hvar town is a summer party destination and the harbour front gets loud and drunk until the small hours in July and August — noisy rather than threatening, though the town fines public drunkenness and bare chests, which catches people out. The sea urchins on the rocky entries are the commonest injury; water shoes solve it.

Comfortable: Hvar Town · Stari Grad · Jelsa · Vrboska · the Pakleni islands

  • the harbour front in Hvar Town at closing time — the island’s one loud hour, and the town fines public drunkenness heavily — the signs are not decorative
  • scooters and quads on the island roads — hairpins, gravel, and the commonest way a holiday here ends in hospital
  • the sea urchins on the rocky entries — water shoes, everywhere on this coast
  • the bura wind — it cancels ferries with a day’s notice or none

The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.

The guides in Croatia

aerial view of buildings near oceanDubrovnikCroatiaA walled stone city above the Adriaticwaterfalls in the middle of green treesPlitvice LakesCroatiaSixteen lakes falling into each other down a limestone staircase, crossed on wooden walkwaysaerial photo of citySplitCroatiaA Roman emperor’s palace that became a living citywhite ship on body of water near city buildings during daytimeHvarCroatiaLavender fields and a Venetian harbour, with the clearest water in the Adriatic off the islets outside it