Opatija Travel Forum

We're planning a holiday & will need to get from the hotel biokovo in Makarska to the hotel kristal in Opatija.
Probably on a monday.

Can anyone offer any advise on the best way to do this or any of the questions below ?

We're having trouble finding a flight from Split to Rijeka (Krk) or direct to pula & I believe we cant book internal flights from outside croatia, is this right ?

The ferry seems a good option, does anyone have an opinion on this.

What about car hire, how long would it take to drive ?

How easy is it to get from either Pula or Rijeka airports or ferry terminal to Opatija ?

Sorry, forgot to mention that we'll be travelling in the first week of September.

I'd take the ferry, which is a pleasure in itself, along this beautiful coast. You can check out ferry schedules at http://www.jadrolinija.hr/pdfs/en%20000%20Duzobalna%20Rijeka%20Bari.pdf.

Opatija is only about half an hour from Rijeka, and there are frequent buses.

Enjoy!

There is at least one (overnight) bus going from Dubrovnik to Pula that allows you direct bus link from Makarska to Opatija. This takes approx. 10 hours.
You can also take a bus from Makarska to Split (they departure almost every hour). From Split there are several direct buses daily to Opatija and 13 buses per day to Rijeka. Rijeka and Opatija are connected by frequent local buses.

The alternative to this rather tiring bus trip is ferry from Split to Rijeka. This is an overnight ferry so it's not very scenic but you can book a cabin and arrive fresh to Rijeka after a 12-hours ferry ride.

If you rent a car you'll have two options - slower and at times rather poor coastal road, that is on the other hand very scenic. Or take the new A1 highway from Split to Rijeka that goes inland and (I'm guessing here, maybe someone will correct me) it shouldn't take more than 5 hours to reach Opatija. (Take exit Zuta Lokva and continue by local road to Rijeka.)

Flights? As far as I know there are no flights on this route.

p.s. Robin was faster as I was typing this answer. I'd also choose ferry, and if I were a driver and wanted to be there quickly would probably take the highway.

Flights are a problem; I believe all internal flights go through Zagreb. Ferry is definitely the most scenic and relaxing but check the Jadrolinija schedule (www.jadrolinija.hr) to make sure it jibes with your schedule.

Thank you for the info.
We think we will probably use the jadrolinija ferry, does anyone know or have a timetable for Split to Rijek / Rijeka to Split, for September this year as their web sites timetable doesnt list this far ahead.
If anyone used it last september & can remember times (especially Monday) that would also be useful.

we considered car hire but we dont seem able to book through all the usual international companies. every time we enter dates & destinations they nearly all say unavailable. Does anyone know why ? Can you only hire once in the country or something ?

Please feel free to add anything in these postings that you think may be of use to us.

I just checked and Jadrolinija does have sailing schedules for September: Click on Sailing schedule / Search schedule.

For the list of rent a car companies I suggest you to search for "rent a car" on www.hr (Croatia's homepage). You'll get a list of car rental websites in Croatia.

HTH