Hotspots, to do’s and low FODMAP food tips on Krk, Croatia
In the beginning of July, I visited Krk in Croatia for a long weekend with my boyfriend Matic. I thought it would be nice to share my hotspots, to do’s and of course low FODMAP food tips on Krk with you in a little travel guide! Would you like to see blogs like these on my blog more often?
Leave it to the Croats and Slovenes to give places the most unpronounceable names ever. Preferably with as many consonants and as little vowels as possible 😉 Krk is pronounced like the name “Kirk” and is an island in the north of Croatia, the second largest island in the Adriatic sea. I visited the Croatian coast two times before for a short time when I went to Vir and to Pula, and the main thing I remembered, as all Dutch people do, were the stone (not sandy) beaches. Croatia didn’t appeal to me that much, at least not as much as other sun destinations, such as Italy.
Most Slovenes, my boyfriend amongst them, are crazy about Croatia. Croatia is thé favourite holiday destination for Slovenes and when I speak to somebody there about Croatia, they cannot stop talking about how amazing the Croatian sea is. So, I was ready to be surprised 🙂
About Krk
Krk is a large island. When I imagined it before I thought it would be a small island with one our two villages, but that is not the case. The distance between the most northern town Omisalj and the most southern town Baška is 40 km. It takes you about 40-50 minutes to drive from north to south. You can reach Krk over the bridge. There is one bridge that takes you from the mainland to the island. In the peak season, it is good to remember that it can be very busy at the bridge, as it is the only way to get on and off the island. Especially on the “changing days”, when people leave and new people arrive. We left on a Monday and we were very happy that we made that decision. On Sunday there was a very long traffic jam on the road to get off of the island. You have to pay for the bridge but this is only when you enter the island. When you are leaving, you don’t have to pay. The cost is 35 kuna per car. This is a little less than 5 euros (1 euro = 7.5 kunas). Because of the distances on the island, it is most comfortable to have a car on the island. There is public transport, but if you want to see the different parts of the island, it is a lot easier to have a car.
To stay
There are plenty of places to stay on Krk. Krk is quite a popular tourist destination and therefore there are a lot of accommodations to stay. Hotels, campings and apartments. Many Croats that are living on the island have apartments in their homes or in the garden of their homes that they rent. If you ask me, that is the best way to get to know Krk. You are almost “at home with the locals” and they usually love to tell you about the best places to go. You can find plenty of apartments on Airbnb, but also on Booking. We booked our apartment through Booking.
We stayed in Apartments Silvija in Omisalj. This is the first town that you pass when you enter the island. Silvija has three apartments on the lower floor of her house, that she rents to tourists. Our apartment had everything we needed. Our own bathroom, a kitchen with everything we needed, a two person bed and our own little terrace. It was not very luxury, but it was good and everything was there. I am always happy (also because of my IBS) to have my own kitchen with a fridge, so I can get some groceries and have breakfast in the apartment and also cook a meal there sometimes. Our apartment was about 200 meters from the sea. One public beach that was a bit busier, but if you looked around a bit better, you could also find hidden beaches that were almost private. Perfect! Silvija was super friendly, she gave us information about the island and told us which places we had to see. The apartment was situated in a calm neighbourhood, which was something I really liked too. The prices in Croatia are a lot lower than what we are used to in Europe. For 50 euro’s per night, we could stay here with two persons, in the peak season. I can really recommend this place. You can find the apartment we stayed in here.
To do
Because Krk is a large island, there is enough to do and to see. We were only there for 3 full days, so we didn’t see everything, but I do have some tips for places that you must see!
Malinska and Punat
Malinska and Punat both have a little harbour. Both are quite little towns. It is nice to stroll around in the harbour and to have a drink on one of the terraces or to have an ice cream. When the sun sets it is especially beautiful in the harbour. This picture was taken in Malinska.
Krk
Of course, we could not leave the island without having seen the town of Krk. Krk is a beautiful old town. The city still has its medieval city walls and a church and a castle that are definitely worth a visit. Krk also has a small harbour, a park and lots of restaurants and bars along the water.
Stara Baška
Baška is one of the busiest places on Krk. There are a lot of beaches, restaurants and there is a sandy beach, something that is quite unique for Croatia ;). Many tourists visit Baška and therefore we decided to, after a tip from our hostess, to go to Stara Baška (old Baska). This was a véry good choice. In Stara Baška it was a lot less busy and there are a lot of beautiful hidden beaches. At first, I wanted to stop at the first beach that we saw, but Matic had other plans. He said that he found a nice beach, but that we would have to walk a bit to find it. It was quite a lot of climbing and I didn’t like that in 35 degrees, but when we finally arrived it was very much worth it. We ended up in a very beautiful bay with a small beach and there were only a few people there. It was gorgeous!
On the picture below you see the most famous beach of Stara Baška. You cannot miss this beach because it is one of the most beautiful beaches of the island. If you drive towards Stara Baška (which can only be done in one way) you will see it. People just park their cars next to the road and walk down to the beach. We did not go to this beach because we went to the beach on the picture above. But we did stop to take some pictures. All the different colours and the water is so clear. Very very beautiful!
Njivice
On the last day, we went to the beach in Njivice. We heard that you could swim at the camping there (camp Njivice). Of course, it was a bit busier than at the beaches that we went to before, but we could take a shower on the camping before we left. That was very nice because we would drive back to Slovenia directly from there in the afternoon. No idea if it was actually allowed to be on the camping if you were not a guest, but we saw everybody walking in and out there to go swimming.
After the beach, we walked into the town of Njivice and that was also a cute little place. If you walk through the village, you end up at a pier where you have several beach bars. A nice place to have a drink!
To eat
The first thing that I always do when I arrive at a holiday destination is looking for a large supermarket. In a large supermarket, you have the biggest chance to find low FODMAP and gluten-free foods. Konzum was the supermarket that we used to go to. In Omisalj was a very big Konzum and they had a lot of diet foods there. Several kinds of vegetable milk, a lot of gluten-free products and I even found a delicious chocolate granola from the brand Sam Mills (funnily I found out when I got back that they had just started to sell it in my local supermarket too, yay!). With the things that we found in Konzum, I made low FODMAP breakfast and lunch in our apartment every day.
Krk is famous for its fresh fish, this makes sense of course because it is an island. Usually, the fish dishes are quite “clean” and therefore good for people eating low FODMAP. I had a fish with potatoes and some veggies and that was a very good low FODMAP meal. I eat this fish in a restaurant in Stara Baška, but there are many places on the island where you can eat fish.
On our first night, we ate at Villa Isabella in Omisalj. This restaurant scored very high in Tripadvisor and it was a very good choice. We had a beautiful view over the water and the prices were good. Matic and I went for the traditional Croatian cevapcici. A must try in Croatia! I knew that this dish would contain a bit of onion and garlic, but sometimes I just eat it anyway. I know that it will give me some stomach problems, but it is usually not that bad. I find it important to continue to eat small amounts of onion and garlic now and then, so my body doesn’t get totally unaccustomed to it.
Krk is also famous for its sheep cheese, Žhlatina wine and prosciutto. If I did not eat low FODMAP, I would also have tried the Kvarner scampi. The sauce that they traditionally serve the scampi in contained too much garlic and onion for me, so I skipped the scampi. Luckily there was enough to try!
That was it! I hope that you got some inspiration from my tips! If you have more tips for Krk, let me know in the comments below and also if you would like to see posts like this one more often 🙂