What to expect of accommodation in Croatia as a digital nomad? We stayed in Croatia from the 15th to the 23rd of March and then again from the 2nd to the 9th of April, 2024. This was during the Danube Kayak + Work trip. These are the places we booked to work online, relax, and do fun day trips.
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Zagreb: Central Airbnb with Balcony
Duration: seven nights
For Croatia’s capital, we needed to find an apartment close to a tram station, the main train station, and the bus station. The reason? We’re traveling with a heavy kayak in a backpack and don’t want to walk around with it more than necessary. That’s when Jonas found this lovely apartment in Zagreb that met our needs.
We arrived in Zagreb by kayak down the Sava River from Brežice in Slovenia. We took tram 4 to the city center, from where it was a 300-meter walk to the apartment. The apartment is self-check-in and one floor up. There’s an elevator, but we never used it. There are a few shops in the area.
Upon entering the apartment, there’s a little hallway to put shoes and hang coats. Then another door opens up into the living room, with side doors to the bathroom and bedroom. When it’s cold, it’s nice to close this in-between door to keep the heat in.
The living room/kitchen area is quite spacious. There’s a lovely big table that was good enough to have an eating area and a working area. The (not smart) TV is a little far from the couch, and I thought the back pillows of the couch weren’t all that comfortable. There was no side table beside the sofa for drinks and snacks, so I swapped that out with one from the bedroom. There’s a reversible aircon in the living room we used for heat.
The kitchen itself is a bit basic, except for the coffee machine, which is the polar opposite. It needed special coffee pods to function. The alternative was instant coffee, so we carved out the money for the more expensive pods. A French press would have been nice. However, there were a lot of nice herbal teabags.
There’s a fridge, freezer, microwave, dishwasher, and two-hob stovetop. There were few pans and pots, but too many cups and glasses. Unfortunately, there were no non-metal tools for using inside the non-stick pans to prevent scraping. However, there were plenty of dishwasher tablets and some vegetable cooking oil.
The bathroom was okay. Above the door is a bathroom heater device typical for this region. There’s a button to heat the water for showers and general use. It’s important to turn that one on at least 15 minutes before taking a shower. There’s a washing machine we used a couple of times, without provided laundry detergent (we used our own). The shower had some mold at the bottom edges, yikes. The showerhead height adjustment thing was broken and hung too low, so I had to MacGyver a solution for the latter. Both issues made me save water, I guess.
The bedroom was absolutely lovely. It’s a big bed with the Scandinavian system: two separate blankets to not fight over them. I stored all the kayak stuff in the closet away from sight. There’s a working desk that I claimed as my office space. The chair for that one was tilted forward and not great, so I swapped it with the single folding bed/couch that was also in the bedroom. The drying rack for the laundry was also in the bedroom.
And then the highlight of the apartment: the balcony. There was a small table with two chairs overlooking the street. It’s not too loud here and there are trees. Of course, the timing of our trip to Zagreb was just right for the beginning of spring.
All in all, I liked the apartment since it was so bright and spacious. Because Jonas had to go to Germany very spontaneously, I stayed here for five days by myself. Would I stay in this apartment again? Probably not for the comfort of living, though it was great location-wise.
Osijek: Airbnb Close to Public Transport Stops
Duration: two nights
This apartment was okay for the amount of time we stayed. After taking a bus from Zagreb to Osijek, we arrived in darkness. The apartment was self-check-in and up one flight of very skinny and winding stairs. This was quite difficult with our kayak backpack. There’s a small hallway shared with another rental apartment.
Once inside, it’s quite pleasant. The living room/kitchen area has a big square table, couch, giant TV, shoe area, and many cool light fixtures. With only two nights spent here, we didn’t use the kitchen all that much, but it was well-equipped and had plenty of hobs. Though it had a microwave and a good fridge, what was missing was an electric kettle of sorts.
This shared space leads to the bathroom, which is a long corridor to the right with a nice big shower, a toilet, and a sink. No notes, it was super nice. However, there’s no washing machine, which wasn’t important for our two-night stay.
There’s a door in that same area that was locked. We will simply never know what’s behind it, but it’s clearly none of our business.
The two doors to the left when entering are bedrooms. The faraway one has two small beds and a desk that I used for work. The second bedroom has a large bed with a good desk in the room. Jonas used that one for work.
All in all, it was a cozy place we enjoyed that was also within walking distance from a lot of businesses in Osijek with vegetarian food options, such as Umami restaurant.
Though nothing was exceptional, we’d probably stay here again if we revisited Osijek at the Drava tributary of the Danube.
Erdut: Staying at a Croatian Winery ⭐
Duration: one night. Book your stay at Winaria in Erdut here
Since we kind of illegally re-entered Schengen country Croatia from non-Schengen country Serbia, we didn’t dare to stay longer than one night. Big mistake, because this place was wonderful and in general nobody gave a shit that we arrived here via the international waterway known as the Danube.
The countryside property has been recently renovated, but it keeps its rustic feel. The space we rented was divisible for more than two people as well – in which case the price goes up – but we used only one bedroom. At first, we were a little afraid this could mean we’d have a shared kitchen and bathroom with potential strangers, but there were neither other people renting this place in early April nor would this have happened if there were. Assume they’ll set up the online booking thing differently in the future.
From the street, there’s a gate that leads into the interior garden, which is very spacious and has a barbeque/sitting area. The entrance to our rental was covered, which was nice for keeping semi-wet kayak gear outside for the night.
Inside, there was a nice long hallway for keeping our shoes and jackets. Unfortunately, this door didn’t lock, though we never felt unsafe and just locked our bedroom door at night instead. The hallway leads directly to most of the other rooms.
Adjacent is the kitchen, which came with some provided welcome wine from their winery named Danubio. We enjoyed the welcome gift a lot. There were also some spices and cooking basics provided in the kitchen, which was wonderful because we ended up making gnocchi for dinner here. Everything worked, though using the electric kettle for tea made the overhead lights dim. There’s a big table that would be suitable for work.
The kitchen leads to the living room, which has a nice couch and another table that could also work as a desk. We put a laptop on the small table to watch The Blacklist instead of plugging it in via HDMI with the TV, because that would have been too much work to unpack. The living room also has a small fireplace for colder days.
One of the living room doors led to a small hallway that led to two bedrooms with two single beds each. This place can house a lot of people if necessary. As just two people for one night, we didn’t have use for these rooms.
The other exit from the living room leads back to the main hallway and also onto the bathroom, which has two bathroom stalls with a toilet and shower each and also two sinks. The water was hot and we liked it.
The hallway finally leads to the master bedroom, which features a big double bed, a small desk to work from, several wardrobes, and another small bed. So in total, one could stay here with like… seven people? Insane number, but okay. The big bed was comfortable and each side had a nightstand. We slept well here.
It’s hard to capture the vibe of this place without falling into easy descriptors like ‘rustic’. There are so many cool items in the interior from paintings to an old Singer sewing machine, some kind of radio, and an ancient wash basin without a water connection. It’s legit a very cool place, hence the ⭐
As for Erdut, it’s of course cool to visit the ruined castle. With one more day, we would have also gone to the nearby palace with the largest wine barrel in the world that’s actually in use, which can hold up to 75.000 liters of Graševina. Though there was nothing on our two maps, there is a small NTL supermarket in Erdut in walking distance from the accommodation. This is quite a game-changer if you want to stay longer. They had things like gnocchi and cheese. Had we known, we would have stayed longer (and not brought over sandwiches from Apatin for the following kayak day to Vukovar as well).
Vukovar: The Worst Accommodation in Croatia
Duration: three nights. We don’t recommend this place, so book a better stay in Vukovar here
This place was our third choice after two other hotels in Vukovar canceled on us because of a local football match. I originally wanted to stay four nights in Vukovar, but we reduced it to three. This hotel normally goes for about €100 per night, though we only paid €50 because Booking comped us for the other two rejections. Let’s just say that you’d be a fool to spend €100 per night for this hotel somewhere on the outskirts of Vukovar.
It’s behind the main restaurant building where guests can park their cars. It was on the ground floor, so people could look in if we didn’t roll down the blinds and there was always fuckery going on with cars driving on and off.
The little entryway has some places to put our kayak and a wardrobe to hang some stuff. Nothing wrong with this.
This hallway leads straight to the bathroom, which has an okay shower, toilet, and bidet. Again, nothing wrong with this.
The bedroom is spacious enough and has a desk with a chair that Jonas used for working from. The bed has two single mattresses and two nightstands. I worked from the bed, using a shelf from the wardrobe to put my laptop on. There’s a reversible AC in the room and one okay armchair with a little side table. The TV was small and far away, so we watched on a laptop in the evenings. Though it looked like there would be a fridge in the room for this price, there wasn’t, so no place to keep our drinks or food chilled.
This hotel with a motel design had breakfast included in the restaurant building, but all the vegetarian stuff was mixed in on a platter with the meaty stuff. We asked them to keep things separate for the following two days, but that didn’t work. So I had to dig the stuff that didn’t touch meat out and then Jonas ate the rest as a flexitarian. The coffee was excellent, though. That’s the only Italian thing they got right.
The restaurant itself wasn’t open to the public, so it was also useless that we couldn’t get a pizza or a salad from them in the evenings. So we either ate out in downtown Vukovar, ordered food, or walked to the nearby supermarket to get some cold stuff and baked goods.
Going to Vukovar required us to get a Cammeo taxi ride, which worked well enough. Booking reimbursed us for the taxi costs as well. Vukovar itself was a really cool town with an interesting history, so it’s truly a shame we had to spend most of our time far away.
Oh—and the owner had an absolutely giant German shepherd dog that was truly terrifying. Very weird form of ‘hospitality’ to have that wolf-dog just walking around freely. The owner was also often smoking outside and he kind of did his best to make me feel uncomfortable, not knowing I have seen some shit as a solo female hitchhiker in both Italy and Croatia before. The whole unenthused attitude of everyone who worked there plus the audacity of the pricing just made me think this place is a front for money laundering.
It’s better to skip Vukovar than to stay here.
Ilok: The Best Accommodation in Croatia ⭐
Duration: four nights. Book your stay at Studio Apartman Dora in Ilok here
Traumatized from our experiences trying to book a place in Vukovar, we sought contact with our hosts in Ilok early. We asked for the phone number of a taxi driver in Ilok, but they offered to pick us up instead. So when we arrived in Ilok after a long day of kayaking the Danube with a leaky boat, we messaged them to tell us of our arrival. The husband picked us up from the location, brought us to the ‘studio apartment’, and gave us a tour. We used German as our language of communication with the hosts.
The studio apartment is more like a little house next to the host’s house. It has a little veranda with plants, which leads to the front door a few steps up. Inside, the little hallway has space for shoes and coats. There’s a door to the bathroom and a gate to the living room/bedroom. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos before moving all our stuff inside. So please excuse the many random personal items that shall be in the pictures. The bathroom is very nice and some shampoo and body wash was provided. No need to flip a switch to get hot water.
The living room has a nice couch and a very comfy chair with blankets for cold evenings. I used the couch for working with a shelf from the wardrobe as a hard surface for my laptop. The two single beds facing a big TV were right next to the couch. It’s maybe a little cramped with the setup, but it worked. We sometimes connected Jonas’ laptop to the TV to watch, and sometimes put his laptop on the small table in front of the couch. Both worked.
The kitchen has a very small table that Jonas used for work. This was okay, but not ideal. The kitchen had enough tools to do some basic cooking, though we did ask for a bigger pot to cook pasta. But it’s kind of nice when the hosts are next door so you can borrow stuff you need.
A little room next to the kitchen has the fridge, which came with two types of local cheese and two types of kulen sausage that Jonas ate. A warm welcome, I think! And this space also had the promised washing machine, which we used twice.
Outside, there’s a big outdoor table that we used for all our meals. We were really lucky with the weather and it was wonderful to eat outside rather than at the small kitchen table inside that doubled as Jonas’ desk. There are also some nice plants in the garden, including some grapevines, lest you forget you’re in a Croatian wine region. The only downside is the neighbor’s dogs, who are triggered by nothing and then bark incessantly. But that’s outside of our hosts’ control.
The hosts were truly nice people who were so hospitable. They helped us with finding stuff to fix our leaky inflatable kayak, took us on a short drive to see outside of town, and gave us recommendations on wine. On the day we had to kayak to Novi Sad in Serbia, they even drove us from Ilok across the bridge to Bačka Palanka in Serbia and dropped us at our launch spot.
Now, the final reason why Ilok receives a star and was our favorite accommodation in Croatia: the cats! The hosts have one tuxedo cat named Pero. The neighbors across the street have five cats, one black, one white, three tuxedos. And then there are a few more visitors that sometimes come through the garden and want to say hello.
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Osijek: €98 total for two nights on Airbnb. That’s €49 per night. Find it here on Airbnb
Erdut⭐: €50 total for one night on Booking. We really should have stayed longer! Find this winery house on Booking
Vukovar: €150 total for three nights on Booking. That’s €50 per night, but that’s only because the other places in Vukovar canceled on us, and Booking refunded us the difference. The real price per night is €100, which is crazy talk. Though I don’t recommend the place, you can find it here on Booking
Ilok⭐: €184 total for four nights on Booking. That’s €46 per night. Find this holiday home here on Booking
That’s a total of 17 nights in Croatia, which comes down to an average of €49 per night.