After an absolutely amazing day in Dubrovnik, where we did so much it felt like 3 days, we spent a lot of time on the water on Wednesday. And trust me… I am definitely not complaining! A beautiful boat, sunshine and breezes, refreshing drinks, and the best company we could ask for.
Wednesday, September 1
Trstenik & Ston
Our longer day on the water heading towards Trstenik meant we also got to have 2 swim stops.
At our first swim stop, we had a chance to use the jet ski, which was a gift to the group from our Primary (thanks Les!), and a total and utter blast. It was neat to see how the crew swung the jetski out to the side of the yacht from the very top and then slowly lowered it down. We all took turns and the driver was great – fast, but safe.
We also spent some time floating around on the kayaks. (You’ll notice hubby is having a great time being carted around by his strong and athletic wife. Ha!)
Then we had lunch on board (delightful!) before arriving at our second stop, just outside of Grgic Winery in Trsktenik.
I was continually impressed with the quality of the food onboard as well as the beautiful presentation.
And while they say you should wait an hour after you eat to swim, we said the heck with it, and enjoyed our second swim stop to the fullest!
After we cleaned up, we headed over to the island on the yacht’s dinghy for our wine tasting!
Grgic Vina (3.5/5)
The winery turned out to be pretty interesting. They talked a lot about how Mike Grgic and how he put California Chardonnay on the map, winning first place in a blind tasting competition against French and US Chardonnays and white Burgundies. The historic win is now called the “judgement of Paris” in the wine competition world. You may now be familiar with Grgich Hills Estate in Napa Valley, CA. Grgic also experienced significant loss to their vineyard and around 25,000 bottles of wine in a fire in 2015.
Our tasting included the Croatian wines, though. Plavac Mali and Posip. To be honest, we weren’t huge fans of either. But we had a great time trying them and learning about the winery and history.
After our wine tasting we took a bus over to Gospa Loretska, a little Franciscan Monastery that has a donkey farm across the path (2/5). It was unique and had a beautiful view at sunset, but there’s really no reason to go there in my opinion.
From here, we walked to dinner, which was an incredible experience!
Agroturizam Antunovic (4/5)
Agroturizam Antunovic is a small hotel and restaurant owned by a local family that provided a truly unique dinner experience for our group! They also have a farm where the yummy, fresh food comes from.
The room we dined in was packed tight with tables for us and the ceiling was full of dried meats (which we ended up snagging a bit of on the way out!).
The wonderful staff served cheese with dried meats, salad, the traditional Peka (meat cooked under a bell with potatoes), and of course, wine!
Peka is a must-try in Croatia because it’s truly Croatian. And while it was pretty good to eat, the real fun of the meal was seeing it all made. It’s cooked over a fire and then a bell is placed over the meats and covered in charcoal. The oven was in the outer room of the restaurant where we could gather and watch the process. It had started before we arrived, however it was fun to see the family finish up the cooking and then have a chance to eat it fresh!
A short walk and a bus ride had us back to the yacht for a good night’s sleep!
Thursday, September 2
Brac
We were excited for our stop at Golden Horn beach from the day we learned about the trip. The beach actually shifts with the tide and wind and the view from above is so magical. Because there isn’t a place to dock in this area of Brac, our boat dropped anchor a ways out, and we were ferried in on the dinghy.
Golden horn beach (4.5/5)
We were surprised to find that Golden Horn Beach is completely filled with rocks and pebbles. You wouldn’t know from the photo from above, but there is no sand. We were surprised, although there really isn’t much sand in Croatia at all. Everything is pretty rocky.
We decided to walk to Bol town first (a good 15 minute walk), then spend some time at the beach at the end of our time there. We ventured into a few clothing stores in Bol and then found a great little gelato spot called Varadero Gelato (4.5/5).
Honestly, the man working the shop was super rude, but the gelato was really good. I got peach, my friend got pistachio. She’s very picky about her pistachio gelato – says the more “olive green” it looks (I think it looks dirty nasty), the better. And she proved accurate at this place!! They had great pistachio gelato.
We then walked along the cute little walkways before taking the trek back to the beach.
When we got back to the beach, it had become SUPER windy. Had it been calmer it would have been amazing! Maybe the lesson is to enjoy the beach earlier in the day if possible. We still hopped in the water and swam for a bit and had a great time.
I will say, however, that our dinghy ride back to the yacht was the most eventful part of our day. The wind had the waves rolling pretty good, and our little dinghy was riding them as best we could.
Our deckhands driving the boat told us “welcome to Disneyland” and then we proceeded to take a absolutely crazy ride back to the yacht during which we got soaked more than splash mountain! We were roaring laughing, though. It was such a memorable experience!
Pucisca (3/5)
The Black Swan then took us around to the other side of Brac to a little area called Pucisca. Here, we visited the Stone Masonry School (3.5/5) and learned all about the limestone on the island and how it is carved into the beautiful pieces you find in Croatia and across the world!
There were a bunch of kiosks around the port, which had great little limestone gifts catering to tourists. We picked up our Christmas ornament (we get one in every country!) and a few gifts here which were inexpensive and unique. There really wasn’t much else to do in this little town, though.
Captain’s Dinner
Thursday night was our Captain’s dinner on board and it was such a fun night!
Earlier in the day we had been given the cutest little captain hats with the trip’s Whitney Warrior’s logo, so we wore them proudly for our dinner.
To kick off the evening, the captain and his wife gave a little speech to thank us for spending the week with them. They are seriously the sweetest couple! I’m sure I mentioned this earlier, but the wife designs ships and the Black Swan is the only one of her designs that they had kept as their own.
After some drinks and photos, we moved to the dining room for our formal dinner.
The dinner dishes were beautifully presented and so delicious!
And to add to the atmosphere, we were treated to a performance during dinner, courtesy of one of the deckhands. We all agreed he sounded a lot like Ed Sheeran. All in all, it was a lovely evening.
That night our yacht docked pretty close to a few other boats, and a few of us did some people-watching from the back of our boat while sipping some cocktails. One of the nearby boats had a party with one old man and a bunch of young & trendy visitors. We joked about it being like weekend at Bernie’s.
Friday, September 3
Brac to Split
The next morning we sailed from Brac towards Split, and stopped for our final swim stop of the trip. It was sad to think the cruise was really coming to an end and we all soaked it up as best we could. `
My friend and I ended up both wearing orange bathing suits and were enjoying our favorite Aperol spritz drinks. So we had to make a fake Aperol ad! I wonder what ad we could have made with hubby’s final swim stop photo…
It was a great final day on the water!
After we all got back on board, had an on-board tasting of Prosciutto that was aged 3 years as well as some cheese aged 8 months – all from the hills behind the island of Pag.
We were then shown to the dining room to enjoy some champagne and an Olive Oil tasting courtesy of our captain’s son. Everything was really REALLY delicious and I had no idea how different olive oil could taste.
Once we arrived in Split, we had one final night to sleep on the boat while it was in Port. So we went exploring in Split for a bit before turning in for our last night. We had a hard time finding a dinner spot with availability, though. We had actually wanted to go to a seafood place down the alley from here, but they were fully booked with reservations and couldn’t take us. We tried one other place that was on our list, but found the same situation. We guessed that it was because it was a Friday night. So we wandered around looking at menus and landed at Cicibela.
Cicibela Food and Wine Bar (3.5/5)
They had one table left for us inside and it was a really cute little seating area. We had both great and not-so-great dishes. Here’s the rundown…
-The wine suggestions from the server were solid, and we started off very happy!
-The bacon-wrapped shrimp were decent & hubby liked the chili sauce that came with it.
-The mussels were salty & tasted frozen. A few were still cold. Yikes! Skip this one.
-Risotto was good
We had great service, but the food definitely wasn’t what we were hoping. If you’ll be in Split on a weekend evening, I recommend making a reservation a few days in advance.
Ela’s (4/5)
After dinner, we wandered around a bit and found ourselves at Ela’s, where we snagged another scoop of gelato. This one was pretty good for being in the primary tourist area of Split!
Black Swan (5/5)
Our last night on the boat we spent drinking out on the deck with our friends and recalling our favorite parts of the trip. What a wonderful experience to have with such wonderful people! It’s always sad when it’s over, though.
I have to give an incredibly big kudos to the Black Swan captain, his wife, the staff, and the Katarina tour guide Diana. We had the most incredible time on the trip! The boat was in perfect condition, the food onboard was gourmet and delicious and they paid special attention to all of the guests on board to ensure a wonderful experience for all. They absolutely knocked it out of the park, and I would HIGHLY recommend them to any traveler!
Next up, we step on land and say goodbye to our yacht mates as we embarked on a few days of exploring on our own. And the land was just as exciting as the sea! Can’t wait to share it with you.
XO,
J
