In the final episode of their three‑part Croatia series, AskRobAnything, Rob and James travel to the island of Korčula. They arrive by a €20 catamaran from Hvar, stay in a compact old‑town hotel (room 8, third floor, no lift, king‑size bed, air‑conditioning), and explore the walled historic centre. The vlog blends personal impressions with practical information: the crystal‑clear warm sea, the Venetian‑shaped stone walls, the claim that Marco Polo was born here, and the bustling influence of cruise ships. They detail food and drink costs (Aperol Spritz €15, pizzas €14‑19, pasta €24‑26, salads €16‑17, local white wine €6), breakfast around €11‑12, and the €20 hop‑on‑hop‑off boat that visits nearby islands (Pagida, Lambada, etc.). They advise bringing water shoes for sea‑urchins, note the heat (up to 37 °C), the prevalence of smoking, and the higher price level compared with Split or Hvar. The hosts reflect on whether Korčula could be a long‑term stay (budget‑dependent) and conclude that while they may not retire there, they will return. The video ends with a recap of tips for future visitors and a sign‑off.
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Korčula was the final stop in our Croatia test and the third in this series of videos, and within a day James had declared it his favorite location. The water was clearer, the old town was compact, and you could swim right outside the walls in beautiful crystal clear warm water. However, this was also where we paid €15 for one Aperol, faced 37-degree heat, and shared the streets with cruise passengers well into the evening. So was Korčula actually the winner or simply the most beautiful place to visit for a few days? Let's go and find out. But let's first go back to the beginning. From Hvar Town, the catamaran took around 90 minutes and cost €20 each. The crossing was straightforward and the ferry arrived on time. It also dropped us within walking distance of Korčula Old Town, which gave the island a strong start for anyone traveling without a car like we were. Now before we share our first impressions of Korčula Old Town, let's check out our Old Town hotel room and show you what you can expect if you're staying in the center of town.
Let me quickly show you around our room, which is room 8 on the 3rd floor. Excuse the mess, we're just packing to leave. There's James. The rooms in these old towns are all pretty small, so expect a small room, but 2 really important things for us: king-size bed, which is very comfy, and air conditioning.
Word of warning though, no lift in this hotel.
Yeah, no lift and we're on the 3rd floor, so it'll be fun taking it down. And then a very compact bathroom, it's got a big nice shower.
Our first impression was that Korčula was the prettiest of the 3 places we visited. The walled old town is compact, the waterfront surrounds it, and swimming is possible within meters of leaving your hotel. But almost immediately we also noticed how much the atmosphere depended on the cruise ships and how busy the place was depending on how many cruise ships, both big and small, were in port.
And then if you carry on walking down here, there's lots of restaurants with lovely views.
Korčula may feel peaceful today, but these narrow streets have witnessed centuries of change. People have lived on this island since prehistoric times. Ancient Greeks later settled here, followed by Romans, medieval rulers, and most visibly the Venetians. Much of the old town we see today took shape during centuries of Venetian influence. Stone walls and defensive towers protected this small peninsula while the streets were laid out in a distinctive fishbone pattern. It helped control the wind, bringing cooling sea breezes through the town while offering shelter from stronger northern weather. At its center stands Saint Mark's Cathedral, built and altered during the 15th and 16th century. Korčula also has a famous historical claim. Local tradition says that Marco Polo was born here in 1254, and a house near the cathedral is presented as his family home. Most historians associate his birth with Venice, actually, and no firm evidence has settled the argument. Whether born here or not, his story has become part of Korčula's identity. As you walk beneath its towers, past worn doorways, and across polished stones, history here does not feel locked away. It remains part of everyday life, and it's such a beautiful place to just go for a wander and try and stay cool out of the midsummer sun.
So plans for the next couple of days while we're here. Tomorrow there's apparently a hop-on hop-off boat, €20, and it takes you to all these little islands around the bay. €20 each for a day, which is pretty good value really. And then we'll share our thoughts on whether we feel like we could spend longer periods of time here or even retire here. Capturing The amazing color of the water. One thing to say is if you do come here, make sure you've got some water shoes like we have got. Because there are a lot of sea urchins that are not gonna— not dangerous, but they're very spiny, so they can easily cut into your foot.
Conobar Maestro. And these are the most expensive Aperol Spritzes I think we've ever ordered. Nearly €15 per drink.
And sadly, we ordered them before we looked at the price.
Well, they don't give you the menu, you have to scan. By that point, I've already ordered them.
So for €15, taste it and tell me if it's the best Aperol you've ever had.
It's all right, last night's was better.
Drink with a view. Stopped at Pensatoria restaurant, which is definitely a meal with a view. And just to give you a sense of pricing, here's the menu. So pizzas are sort of between €14 and €19, which isn't too bad. Oh dear. Pasta €24 to €26, and salads €16, €17. So James has gone for a sweet and salty salad, some pizza bread— oopsie— and I've gone for the Miss Capriccio pizza, and we— all the wines, dry wines, are all local wines, so we don't know what's what. So we just went for the cheapest one at €6 a glass.
Our food has arrived.
James has got the arugula salad, which looks nice, some pizza sticks, and I've got a pizza which I can feel the heat emanating off the plate, but looks good. We haven't had a bad wine. So this, they're all local wines, and this is a €6 white wine.
All the wines are dry, and actually it's really nice.
Example of a typical breakfast menu and prices. So you think, looking about €11, €12 for breakfast. Good morning everybody, we are off on a day at Island Hopper. €20 for Hopper Hopper for this. 3 islands. We're now heading off from Koh Chang to the first island. We've just arrived at our first island, which apparently doesn't have very much here except for a monastery and lots of deer. It's nice to get away from all the people and just go exploring the island on our own. There isn't too much here, it looks like a couple of well, a cafe and a little shop selling things, water and so on.
You could actually walk all the way around the island if you were inclined, but it was a bit too hot. But we did find our own private beach, but again, you need your sea shoes if you want to go into the sea.
So on to the next island. Okay, we're on to island number 2 now, and you can see the monastery in the distance where we've just been.
Stonemasons and stonecutters.
Apparently there's lots of white beaches and the sea looks— well, not white beaches, but white stone.
There's a lot of white stone which makes the water look turquoise.
We've stopped here on a little boat in the shade to go for a swim in the sea because it's really warm and that looks really inviting, doesn't it, Jane? Welcome to Lambada, the third island we see, well, the third place on our trip, and this is actually part of Korčva itself, so it should be a little bit more developed. We're going to go in search of the old town and somewhere to have lunch.
The first sandy beach we've seen.
Tiny little beach, but the sandy sand goes all the way out there, so that would be a very nice place to swim. Hvala, hvala vi pleite.
After a late lunch, we started our trek back to Korčula, and actually the first stop of Pagida Island was our favorite place. Now the €20 hop-on bus was one of the best value things we did in our whole Croatia trip and was great value for money compared to everything else. It provided an easy escape from Kotor town, access to quieter swimming spots, and a chance to explore nearby islands and Lombardo without hiring a car. Now the taxis go every 30 minutes, they're really prompt and on time, so it is a really easy way to get around. And you buy your tickets on dock for the day. You can either buy them to one island or you can buy them for a day trip like we did for €20.
Having our final aperol spritz before we head home tomorrow.
What do you think of Korčula?
Love Korčula.
Out of all three, it's my personal favorite.
Could you see yourself staying here for a long period of time?
Yeah, if you had a budget, that's for sure.
Yeah, it's not cheap, is it? Although we did find somewhere to get, um, aperol for €10, which we think is cheap, which is crazy really, isn't it? Because you could buy a bottle of aperol for that price.
Oh, considering that in Italy we were getting it for €6, Greece was €7 or so. Yeah, Croatia is very expensive. I mean, all that broth.
Yeah. Okay, so we made a few notes about things to be really mindful of if you come to Croatia. And first of all, in Split, well, we thought the drinks were expensive there, but they're really expensive here. But if you, if you get away from the Riva, the river area, then you can buy drinks a lot cheaper, sort of €7 instead of €11. I think in Split, one thing that's really annoying, and I know this sounds really hypocritical of us, is that it's so full of Instagram people, people trying to get that beautiful shot, that it becomes really annoying in the end. And I just want to say, because people have accused us of trying to be like influencers like that, but we're not trying to be influencers. We're just trying to make useful YouTube videos basically. So we found that a lot of the Instagram videos that you see are not really real or representative of what the area is like. Another thing to say is that Croatia is a big wine producer in this region, particularly white wine, and that the house wines are really good. We haven't had a bad white wine since we have been here, and this is a good case in point. And because we're South African, or, you know, adopted South Africans, we always ask for ice with our wine to keep it nice and cool because they don't tend to put anything in an ice bucket, so it's just going to get warm, especially in this heat. One thing to say, especially about the whole of Croatia, is that everybody seems to smoke. So it's not like a lot of parts of Northern Europe or America where or even South Africa where people aren't smoking anymore, there are a lot of people smoking, so we could be sitting next to a table here of people smoking. Moving on to Hvar. First of all, I want to say that I think we made a really good choice at staying in Stari Grad rather than Hvar town center because I think it's prettier and it's way, way, way quieter, and there are lots of ferries that you can catch in Stari Grad that takes you to other parts of Hvar Island. So if you are staying in Hvar Town itself, don't just stay there because you're missing out on the beauty of the rest of the island. So it's worth saying that if you want to go to other parts of Hvar, then Stari Grad is a good place to do that. But if you're coming into Hvar or other bigger parts of Croatia, then you need to go into Hvar Town itself, which is what we did to get here. And as we've already said before, the buses and the ferries are bang on time, so just make sure you're at the bus stop or the ferry stop a few minutes before. I think Hvar is about as expensive as Split. Korčula, where we are now, is more expensive, so be prepared to spend quite a lot of money. When you're visiting smaller towns away from Split or the main, the main areas, then things definitely become cheaper. We didn't book any restaurants in advance but we still managed to get in. And this is— we're recording this in late June. Final thoughts: if you are going to swim in the sea, then be careful of the sea urchins because they're little black blobs everywhere. And definitely buy some water shoes because that's going to make it a lot easier getting into the sea and walking across the pebbles. But definitely do go in the sea because amazing. It's warm and I hate cold seas. So, and it's crystal clear as well. So those are our kind of tips of things that we've learned during this trip that may be useful for you as well.
So that brings us to the end of our 3-part series on Croatia. And whilst this might not be a place that we want to retire to, it's definitely a place that we will come back to and explore more. And I hope these videos have been useful and inspirational for you too. But otherwise, this is James and Rob signing off for now, and we will see you next week.
