My Bad Experience in Croatia

Sometimes when you’re travelling overseas some things just don’t go as plan, I booked a 7-day sail trip in Croatia with a popular Australian travel company along the Dalmatian Coast. I chose this particular company as they target solo travellers and the past 2 trips I have done with this company almost all travellers where solo, some who I’ve made life long friendships with. I was shocked when I arrived on board to see that I was the only female solo traveller, the rest of the people came in groups with friends and there was even a married couple, the group dynamic was quite disappointing. After meeting everyone I decided that I was going to make the most of it and be positive so I could have an awesome week. Within hours of stepping on board I came down with a cold and became quite uncomfortable with the male to female ratio, cliques and some of the bullying I witnessed against one particular individual.

I found the itinerary to be misleading as the whole day was spent sailing with 2 swim stops and we didn’t dock at the ports until the late afternoon, I love to explore destinations so it was quite disappointing to have limited time in each port. Due to only docking late and spending the whole day onboard there was not much to do on-board other than drink alcohol and sit on the roof of the boat. Overall it was an uncomfortable experience and very lonely considering I was stuck on a small boat with 20 other people. By the third day I really wasn’t enjoying myself, being teary and down was not how I planned on experiencing Croatia, even the trip manager and boat staff agreed with how I was feeling and didn’t blame me for wanting to leave. The morning I decided to leave the universe was on my side as the boat docked around 12pm, I straight way looked on Sky Scanner and booked flights back to Mykonos, Greece where I would spend the last few days of my holiday.

Here’s where the journey really starts, before I left Australia I had to cancel my bank cards due to unauthorised transactions, Sky Scanner was not accepting my Visa travel card to make an online purchases. I had to call home and get my new card details, it took about 5 tries to process the transactions as I had blocked international payments, online payments and the Wi-Fi kept dropping out. About 30 minutes later the payments went through and I was on my way in an Uber to Dubrovnik airport. At the airport I needed to add checked baggage, I’m not sure if the staff just didn’t’ care or if they didn’t know how to put the payment though so I got free baggage for 3 flights, a huge win for me. The first plane I boarded was the smallest most turbulent aeroplane that I have ever been on, have really bad flying anxiety and the whole way I had so many regrets leaving that boat. I arrived safely to Serbia, never thought I would go to Serbia but here I am, my 2 hour stop over turned into 3 hours then 4 hours.

Finally I boarded my delayed flight to Athens knowing that I needed to get ready to run through the airport to my last flight to Mykonos. Once the plane landed I grabbed my bag and ran a marathon through customs and security in a playsuit I had thrown on that morning just to have breakfast, no bra and in sandals, my bag then broke and all my belongings fell out. I ran as fast as I could through the airport to my gate only to miss It by 2 minutes, I stood at the gate watched the bus drive off to take the passengers to the plane. At this point I just stood there and cried I was too drained to do anything else, I went to the customer services desk for Aegean Airways, I will admit that I was freaking out because I have never missed a flight before, the customer service where really amazing at dealing with my situation they where so apologetic for the delay in Serbia and they arranged for a hotel for the night, gave me a food voucher and rebooked my flight for free for the first flight out the next morning, although we weren’t sure where my checked baggage was. To top the day off I got a really angry taxi driver who yelled at me and sped down the highway because my ride to the hotel was not long enough for him, I was so scared. This was the only time I have ever felt unsafe travelling alone.

I arrived at the hotel, showered and slept for 2 hours, went back to the airport and caught the first flight to Mykonos at 4:30am. My bag also arrived, I nearly cried when I saw it come out on the conveyer belt at baggage claim, as soon as I stepped foot outside the terminal the warm air hit me and I instantly felt better, my anxiety was gone and I was also around $3000 Australian Dollars out of pocket for changing my plans last minute. I don’t regret anything, I ended up spending the last part of my holiday in a place I love and felt conformable in. I also taught myself a lesson that I don’t have to do anything I’m not conformable with, I really wanted to stay and just get through the rest of the week and see the sites I wanted to see in Croatia but I know deep down it would have not been a great experience for me and I would of regretted staying. If it was not a boat tour It would have been easier for me to stay as I of been able to have more free time to explore the towns on my own.

I ended up spending a 5 days shopping, drinking cocktails and relaxing on the beach in Greece; this is absolutely how I wanted to spend my holiday. Once I got back to Australia I sent a complaint to this company and they offered me a massive 5% discount for my next holiday with them as compensation. This is also a reminder to get travel insurance when you go on holidays, I paid for good travel insurance and luckily I managed to get most of my money back from this trip. Some day in the future I plan on going back to Croatia to experience the beautiful country in a more pleasant way.

Have you ever had a stressful experience whilst travelling, tell me your story in the comments below.