Ferries in and around Adriatic Coasts

[Franky]

Mrs Franky is attending a Nursing Conference in Florence late September, and I'm the designated bag carrier again. We have had our eye on late availablity for a European river cruise o/c, but have a limited window of 30SEP-10OCT, and then start our trip home from Munich. By chance, we watched a Rick Stein cooking show last night (fish of course!), and he seemed to be ferry hopping down the Croation coast and stopped off at Split and Dubrovnik. Seemed like he was having a ball. Whilst this is not exactly cruising, has anyone done anything similar? I realise that there are ferries criss-crossing the Adriatic from many ports, but are their more local ferries which do relatively short trips? It looks like the nearest port to Florence is Ancona, and we thought of a ferry up to Trieste, and then perhaps work our way down the coast with no plan other than to be in Munich by around midday on 10OCT16. Glad to hear of any experiences anyone has had in this regard.

Regards

Franky

 

[RB]

Mrs Franky is attending a Nursing Conference in Florence late September, and I'm the designated bag carrier again. We have had our eye on late availablity for a European river cruise o/c, but have a limited window of 30SEP-10OCT, and then start our trip home from Munich. By chance, we watched a Rick Stein cooking show last night (fish of course!), and he seemed to be ferry hopping down the Croation coast and stopped off at Split and Dubrovnik. Seemed like he was having a ball. Whilst this is not exactly cruising, has anyone done anything similar? I realise that there are ferries criss-crossing the Adriatic from many ports, but are their more local ferries which do relatively short trips? It looks like the nearest port to Florence is Ancona, and we thought of a ferry up to Trieste, and then perhaps work our way down the coast with no plan other than to be in Munich by around midday on 10OCT16. Glad to hear of any experiences anyone has had in this regard.

Regards

Franky

My experience is from a long time ago (2004) but we found the overnight ferry experience from Ancona an excellent way of doing things at that time. We caught a train to Ancona, ate & had a few driks & relaxed before the comfortable no-frills cabin night trip to Croatia-we have never been on a cruise but have really enjoyed this, the Alaskan Marine Highway & the Hook of Holland as a means of getting around.
I hope you get some more recent feedback than what I can offer! There has been a Croatian trip report on here involving small boat/sailing hire that you might find-can't find it on my initial search