During my semester abroad I was overwhelmed with excitement for how easy it was to travel to so many beautiful countries; thus, I was constantly planning trips. As much as I love planning trips, it can sometimes start to feel like a full-time job. Finding a hotel that fits your budget in a good location while considering your transportation options and planning activities and researching restaurants and considering the needs of your travel buddy all while keeping up with the requirements of your day-to-day life… well it can feel as overwhelming as that sentence was to read. Every time I’m planning a trip, I always reach a point (about 86 open tabs and 7 open browsers in) where the idea of hiring a tour company to plan it for me and saving myself the trouble sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately, I have control issues and don’t do well with handing the fate of my trip over to an outside source. I mean really, you’re telling me that if I pay you x amount of money all I have to do is pack my bags and show up at x location and you’ll take it from there? It just seems too good to be true.
A free weekend came across my desk while studying abroad in Florence and with no time to plan a trip, I decided it was finally time to overcome my fears and put my trust into a tour company. I opened one last tab, searched for the Smart Trip website, and began browsing their options. Smart Trip is one of the two main companies in Florence that host trips for students studying abroad, the other one being bus2alps. After only a few minutes of browsing, I turned to my roommate and said, “Let’s go to Croatia next week.” Being the lovely travel buddy that she is, she immediately agreed and moments later we had booked a trip to Split, Croatia.
Here is the honest breakdown of my experience traveling with Smart Trip to Split, Croatia.
Transportation
Going into this trip, the part I was most weary of was the transportation. I would consider myself a good traveler, but a twelve-hour overnight bus ride isn’t something that really makes anyone jump for joy. Nonetheless, I jumped myself right on over to Piazzale Montelungo (the bus stop behind Santa Maria Novella train station) and got on the double-decker “luxury GT coach.” To my delight, the bus was very spacious and clean. While there was no bathroom on the bus (and who really wants to use a bus bathroom anyway), it made two 20–30-minute stops at rest stations along the way for people to grab food and use the restroom.
As previously mentioned, the journey to Split was overnight with the intention that you sleep the whole way there so you’re ready to start exploring when you arrive in Split the next morning. I was very doubtful that I would be able to pull this off because I don’t remember the last time I was able to sleep on public transportation; however, I was thankfully able to sleep for almost the entire ride to Split. After the guides collect all the information they need from you at the beginning of the ride, they turn off the lights and leave you unbothered for the rest of the ride (apart from the two stops). All the students traveling want to sleep so everyone is very quiet and respectful (just don’t be like me and forget to turn off your alarm for the next morning, oops!).
Since we had to make it back to Florence by Sunday night, the bus ride from Split to Florence was during the day. We got an early start and made a stop at Krka national park for our last adventure in Croatia. We made two additional rest stops apart from the national park and since people weren’t trying to sleep on this ride, the guides took votes and played movies for us (both Mama Mia movies and Spiderman were the winners for us). I spent the rest of the time catching up on reading and listening to music while taking in the beautiful scenery of Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. The bus rides were shockingly painless and dare I say even enjoyable at points.
While there are obviously better things to spend your time doing than being on a bus for twelve hours, you can’t beat the ease and affordability, and filling the time is much easier than you may think. If the bus transportation is what’s steering you away from booking with Smart Trip, maybe reconsider, I promise it’s not as dreadful as you may think.
Accommodation
A few days out from the start of the trip, Smart Trip sent us an email with important information, including the details of the hostel we would be staying in. The email also included a form to fill out in which we could request a roommate. While they had a disclaimer stating that these requests aren’t always able to be accommodated, I haven’t spoken to anyone whose request wasn’t accommodated. So, if you’re an anxious traveler who needs your travel buddy (or buddies) with you at all times, you can rest easy knowing that there’s a slim to nonexistent chance you’ll be separated if you both request each other.
While it’s unclear to me whether Smart Trip books the same hostel every time they travel to Split, we stayed at 101Dalmatinac Design Hostel. We were able to check into our rooms immediately upon arrival so we could quickly freshen up and drop off our bags before starting the day’s adventure. We stayed in a 6-bed dormitory with a private bathroom. Locks were provided for the lockers and the names of the lockers corresponded with the names of the beds printed on the wall (the beds are named after Croatian islands, I stayed in Točac). The hostel was very clean, and they do provide you with towels at no extra charge so you can save money and room in your luggage by leaving your bath towel behind. One benefit of booking with Smart Trip is that you’ll be sharing a room with other students so you can meet new friends studying at the same place as you while also guaranteeing that you won’t be rooming with a creepy middle-aged man. My only very slight issue with the hostel was that the location wasn’t ideal. It was about a 40-minute walk from the Old Town where most of the restaurants and sight-seeing in Split is located. With this said, there is a sidewalk going all the way from the hostel to the Old Town, so the walk is very manageable and safe. Additionally, Uber and Bolt are both incredibly affordable in Split ranging from about €4-5 for the basic options so if you want to save time by taking an Uber, you won’t be breaking the bank. Overall, I really loved this hostel and even if you don’t book through Smart Trip, I would recommend this hostel to anyone traveling to Split on a budget.
Breakfast
The breakfast provided by Smart Trip included bread with jam and butter, scrambled eggs, cheese, cold cuts, cereal, orange juice, and coffee. Your guides will text you the times for breakfast the following day in the evening as it varies depending on what activities are planned for the next day to come. The breakfast was exactly what you would expect from a budget tour company breakfast in a hostel. It did the job it needed to do and was good for what we were paying. While I didn’t eat it every day because I like to fit as many restaurants and cafés into my travels as possible, it was very helpful on the final day when we had an early start and no time to find breakfast elsewhere.
Activities
While the only activity included in the cost of the trip was the entrance into Krka National Park, Smart Trip offers an assortment of additional activities for an extra charge. The additional activities offered on Friday were as follows:
- Canyoning (€77)
- Rafting (€60)
- River tubing (€60)
- Ziplining (€95)
- Kayaking & Cliff Jumping (€45)
- ATV tour (price not stated)
- Pub Crawl (€20)
My travel buddy and I opted out of participating in any of these because we wanted a day to explore Split on our own. Also, it ended up raining all day, so all the activities were unfortunately cancelled apart from the ATV tour and the pub crawl. I spoke with some of my fellow travelers that participated in these activities, and they all thoroughly enjoyed both, even with the dreary weather! I think that choosing whether to participate in these activities is really just dependent on your personal preference and budget. I’m sure that they’re all wonderful experiences but it completely depends on what you would like to spend your time and money doing.
While we opted out of the optional Friday activities, we did participate in the party boat on Saturday which cost us €45. We had the best time and if you go on this trip, I highly recommend participating in the Party boat. You bring your own snacks and drinks (we went for mimosas and fresh fruit) and spend the day boating around the beautiful Adriatic Sea. They bring you to the dock with the bus at no extra charge around 10:30am and we set sail around 11am. This is a private boat tour and everyone on there is a fellow student traveling with you, so it’s the perfect opportunity to meet some new friends. Our guides made a shared playlist on Spotify, so everyone got to hear some of their favorite music (thank goodness there were some fellow Mama Mia lovers on the boat).
We stopped for lunch at the island of Trogir where we had two hours of free time before we had to be back on the boat. We also anchored down in the blue lagoon where we jumped off the top of the boat into the freezing cold water, but it was so worth it! The day was about 6 hours long and when you get back to the dock the bus is waiting to take you back to the hostel. This was truly so much fun and worth every bit of the €45.
Cost Breakdown
As I previously mentioned, Smart Trip is a tour company for college students studying abroad so their trips are intended to be very budget friendly travel options. The base cost I paid to go on this trip was €349. This cost covered the transportation, accommodation, breakfast, our four lovely travel guides, and entrance into Krka National Park. I also paid an extra €45 to participate in the party boat on Saturday, making the grand total that I paid to Smart Trips €394. Now, let’s analyze if this cost is actually a fair price.
FlixBus is one of the most popular companies for booking budget-friendly buses to travel around Europe. I did some research on their website and found that a roundtrip FlixBus from Piazzale Montelungo to Split would cost about €175 plus an additional €4.50 if you want to choose your own seat. Another thing to consider here is that the Smart Trip bus drops you off and picks you up directly at your hotel while a FlixBus obviously would not. From the Split bus station to the 101Dalmatinac Design Hostel, it would be a 52-minute walk or an 11-minute car ride so unless you want to drag your luggage through the streets for an hour after getting off a twelve-hour bus ride, you’ll also be paying for an uber.
The price for a bed in a 6-bed mixed dormitory with a private bathroom at the 101Dalmationac Design Hostel is €24,00 per night. Since we stayed there for two nights, it would have cost €48.
In terms of the activities, entrance into Krka National Park costs €20. I also looked on Get Your Guide to estimate how much a party boat would cost and while the pricing was wide ranging, I’m going to estimate €50 for the sake of this analysis.
With all of this taken into consideration, booking this trip on my own would have cost me about €295 for transportation, accommodation, entry to Krka national park, and a boat tour. Meaning that the amount of time and energy I saved not having to plan the trip myself as well as the cost of breakfast and having four wonderful tour guides available to help at any moment only cost me €56.
Overall Conclusion
I can confidently say that my prior hesitance to book trips through tour companies has been shattered thanks to my wonderful experience traveling with Smart Trip. If you’re a student studying abroad in Florence, I highly recommend looking into the trips Smart Trip is offering during your semester. Taking advantage of every opportunity to travel while studying abroad is so important, but I understand that it can be overwhelming to plan a whole trip that fits by yourself. Using a tour company can help ease some of the stress of travel and I can vouch that Smart Trip is doing a wonderful job at helping students see the world without breaking the bank. For all my control freaks out there, consider pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and handing over the finicky tasks of travel planning to a tour company for your next trio.
