One the final morning of my week-long trip to Croatia, I awoke to the most amazing view ever from my hotel room balcony at Villa Dvor. I’d arrived late the night before, slightly sozzled with that good Croatia wine from dinner and so hadn’t really paid attention to my surroundings before promptly falling asleep!
The next morning, however, after the mandatory “WOW”s and Instagram snaps 😉
I managed to properly soak in how amazing the view at this hotel was! Turns out, the hotel is perched onto the side of the hill (almost like it’s part of the hill) and so the views from all angles here are pretty spectacular.
But first thing first – breakfast! Breakfast was out on the terrace of the hotel, watching the rising sun slowly light up the Croatian countryside…
We left the hotel shortly after breakfast for one of the parts of the trip I’d been looking forward to for quite a while – white water rafting on the Cetina river!
…which by the way, I know nothing about as I’d never done it before.
It’s safe to say I was more than a little bit excited!
The photos from this point onwards were either iPhone or GoPro photos as I had to put my DSLR away.
Our instructor, Stefan Barbaric (I kid you not, that is his real surname) from Rafting Pinta explained how there are different levels of difficulty here with river rafting and that the course we would take is for is a 3 out of a possible 5 for difficulty and so we didn’t need prior experience to complete it! (Phew!!!)
We piled on-board and within minutes we were off!
Rafting down the river is one of the best ways to see parts of Croatia as a whole than you would normally get to see! It makes you really appreciate how truly beautiful it is while having so much fun at the same time!
We started off slow and before long, we were rafting underneath waterfalls (cold but refreshing and also hilarious watching everyone scream when the water hits them) and trying to manoeuvre through rocks and rapids.
We had a pit stop for a few minutes to take in the views (and get in some photos while we were at it). Random fact, when I took this photo, Lloyd was actually stood right next to a snake and had no clue. The water snakes here are harmless and it was only a couple of minutes later we noticed it was there. Harmless but still freaky though…
I went all out on my rock photos (and as far away as possible from where the snake had been)…
I almost forgot to mention, we saw some eagles and turtles while on the river too…
Finally we were back on our way, rafting through the winding rivers (of which I was only able to get a photo once we were in relatively calm bits as my arms would be free them and not pre-occupied with paddling).
We also had a terrifying jump off a cliff into the river. Okay, a bit of context here – Stefan asked if wanted to stop for a bit to climb up this cliff and jump into the river. From the raft, it looked pretty easy so I though – “Hey! Why not?” Once we climbed to the top, I suddenly realised how tall it was an kinda panicked. There were a few false starts to begin with before a panicked (eyes-shut) “F*ck it! I’m jumping!” moment. Don’t worry, I opened my eyes almost as soon as I jumped and I’ve gotta say, it was totally worth it! There’s video evidence too which I will get up on our YouTube Channel soon enough. 🙂
Finally, we made our way to the end of the 4 hour course on the River Centina – the reward for which was lunch at Restaurant Kastil in Radmanove Mlinice on the river side.
Lunch was the Croatia feast we’d grown accustomed to by this stage…
Accompanied with more home-made wine…
…before heading back to our hotel, getting changed and hotfooting it to the airport.
I had to stop to get some more of that view before we left though…
All in all, our trip to Croatia was one that most definitely stands out! It was one filled with firsts, fantasy dragon -a-la-Game of Thrones, beautiful beaches, picturesque villages, great wine and food, and so many other reasons to make me want to head back to Croatia as soon as I possibly can!
Check Out The Very Best Of Great Britain!
