We spent our last full day in Dubrovnik on a fantastic adventure, kayaking and cycling around Croatia's gorgeous Elafiti Islands. There are approximately 1.3 million adventure tour companies to choose from in Dubrovnik, but after spending way too much time in the TripAdvisor review vortex, I decided on the Paddle and Cycle tour with Outdoor Croatia, in part due to the great reviews and largely due the fact that it didn't involve jumping off of any cliffs. Crazy people...
We met up bright and early with our fellow group members and our tour guides and took the ferry to their offices on Lopud Island. At that point, everyone was split into our respective groups and we were given the quick and dirty on sea kayaking. Colby and I had kayaked once before when we went to Hawaii, so we weren't total novices, but Outdoor Croatia used kayaks of a higher level, and there was still plenty for us to learn--including how to don our fancy kayak skirts!
The waters were fairly calm in the morning, so we were able to ease into the technique without too many waves to overcome. Colby and I were in a double canoe, so I sat in the front and Colby was in the back controlling the rudder. We set off for the island of Šipan and its harbor town of Šuđurađ, about 3 miles away.
Once we dragged our kayaks onto the shore, we gathered our bikes and set off for a pedaling tour of the island's olive groves, vineyards, crumbling villas and a moldering village church which offered a sweeping view over the island from the roof. From there, we continued on to the other side of the island where we stopped for the best fish we have eaten, quite possibly ever.
After lunch, we had another short ride to a secluded beach where we had some time to swim and bake on the rocks--or in Colby's case, hide under a blanket to protect his alabaster skin! I made fun of him, but poor guy actually ended up with sunburned EYES, so I felt kind of bad about that later when he all he could do was lay in bed in the dark with his eyes closed...
We wrapped up the cycling portion of our tour with one of the biggest hills I've ever had to bike up, before climbing back into our kayaks for a much rockier trip back across the water. We had a little bit of time to explore Lopud before we boarded the next ferry and once we were back in Dubrovnik, our fantastic tour guide was kind enough to drive us back to our hotel.
And sadly, that was the end to our time in Dubrovnik--what ended up being my favorite part of Croatia, closely followed by Plitvice Lakes National Park which came just a few days later.
Your trip looks amazing! Seriously I want to go there right this second and I'm not even a huge fan of kayaking, ha.
Posted by: katelin | November 27, 2014 at 02:20 AM