I spent a lovely month laying in the sun on the beaches of Cavtat, Croatia.
The joke was that everyone thought it looked like we were on vacation, but we were still working just as hard. We just happened to have a beautiful location to do so.
Remote Year put us all in really great accommodations. Compared to the dorms we had in Ljubljana, this was a significant improvement. I was at a villa that looked out to the sea. There were 8 other Remotes that also had their own space in the two neighboring buildings. If you want a beautiful seaside vacation in Croatia, I would recommend the Villa Tiha.
Since there were so many of us in the villa, we decided to have weekly “family dinners”. I absolutely loved this time with everyone and looked forward to this every week.
Even when my friend, Jessica, from high school visited, we contributed to the dinner. The theme was a Taste of Home. Naturally being from Ohio, we made Buckeyes. It was a bit difficult to find some of the ingredients but we were determined to educate people on this delicious candy.
The work space was put together by the Remote Year staff in Hotel Croatia Cavtat.The hotel was beautiful but the work space felt a bit like college. After some network issues in the beginning, everything worked out quite well.
We were able to use the hotel’s beaches which were excellent. The beaches in Croatia aren’t the typical sandy beaches I was used to seeing in the US, but instead were rock beaches. Hotel Croatia had their beach set up excellently, and I went swimming almost every day.
The walled city of Dubrovnik (or the Pearl of the Adriatic) is one of the major tourist destinations in Croatia and was only a 20 minute bus ride of 35 minute boat ride away from where we were.
I only ended up in the city four times. It is definitely a great location to see, but outside of touring for a day or two there isn’t much else there. If you love history and/or are a Game of Thrones fan, you should visit!
Only one cafe worth mentioning as most of them had rather generic coffee and a similar. There is nothing wrong with this, it’s just not a place to go if you want very unique coffee shops. I recommend hanging out for a bit in Dubrovnik at Art Cafe Bar.
One rainy day where we thought it would be a good idea to go to Dubrovnik and work from cafes. Unfortunately, this was not a good idea! Apparently everyone else also felt like since it was rainy, Dubrovnik was a better option than the beach. Here are a few pictures of the craziness and crowds. It took us almost 2 hours to go 20 minutes. It was insane!
There is a location near Cavtat and Dubrovnik called Kupari. This is also known as the Bay of Abandoned Hotels. This resort area was basically destroyed in the Croatian Independence War. I found an excellent article that explains this in more detail with lots of history and photos – The Bay of Abandoned Hotels.
My time in Croatia was overall fabulous. It was a relaxing environment to get work accomplished. I also really felt that I was connecting with the other participants in Remote Year.
Sincerely, Cassie 