Croatia sailing holiday with kids – More Sailing review

With 1,244 islands off the coast of Croatia to explore, you could easily spend years trying to visit them all – so the idea of a Croatia sailing holiday with kids is a very tempting way to make a start.

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We’ve visited a couple of islands over the years, including Hvar from Split and Lokrum from Dubrovnik, but when More Sailing Croatia invited us along to try out a taster of one of their itineraries, we jumped at the chance to cruise along some more of the coast.

Well, when you’ve seen the ridiculously clear turquoise water of the Adriatic and had a taste of some of the gorgeous little island towns, who wouldn’t say yes to trying out a Croatia sailing holiday with kids?

Setting sail from the marina at Trogir, not far from Split, we were spending three nights aboard, giving us chance to stop at three separate islands along the way. Here’s what we thought.

More Sailing Croatia review: need to know

More Sailing is a Swedish company running skippered boat trips in various destinations, including Croatia, which depart from one of the two marinas near Trogir.

There’s also a choice of boats, most of which sleep eight – our 42ft Lagoon 42 catamaran is one of the most popular, although there are slightly smaller and slightly larger eight-berth options, as well as options sleeping 10.

Most trips are eight days long, and there are options to hire the boats exclusively if you’re thinking of coming with extended family. Otherwise most boats have four double cabins, so you can book as many as you need for your family on board (and there’s an option for any spare adults to share a cabin, if you’re happy to do that!)

There’s a crew of two, including a host as well as the skipper, who provides breakfast and lunch each day, with a few snacks thrown in, and drinks. Each night you’ll moor up at a different marina where you can head out for dinner at one of the restaurants which line the waterside.

The marinas also have shower and toilet facilities and you’re encouraged to use these while you’re moored up – well worth knowing in advance, as we’d assumed we’d be using the en-suite bathrooms attached to the cabin.

It’s hard to argue with the environmental reasons behind this, reducing what’s discharged at sea and conserving water, but it took a lot of us by surprise, so bringing shoes you can shower in and a bag to carry everything to the wash block is a good plan.

The cabins have air con while you’re moored up, as well as plug sockets which work off the marina electricity. While you’re sailing, there are USB chargers too if you need an urgent top-up – we had portable battery packs with us just in case as well.

And, needless to say, there’s no WiFi, even at the marinas (at least the ones we stopped at) – data was surprisingly good, even out at sea, but if you don’t want to use your own roaming plan, you’ll either need to embrace the digital detox or sort out an esim in advance.

You can get 10% off an esim with Saily using my code mummytravels10, or Airalo is another good option

It’s a good idea to pack light too, although there was a surprising amount of space in the cabin’s storage (even considering that ours seemed to be storing multiple spare life jackets!)

If you’re planning to bring a hard case with you, you can leave it at Trogir marina during the trip (although you’ll need to have other bags to bring your possessions down to the ship) but there’s room for smaller cases if you don’t mind storing them down the side of the bed.

There’s also a shared indoor seating area in case you’re unlucky with the weather, by the little kitchen (where our meals were whipped up and where breakfast was laid out each day).

Just outdoors is the dining table, under a covered area, with space for all eight of us to sit and eat, then various seats and cushions around the boat where you can enjoy the sun or dry off after a swim.

Even with a full boat, it rarely felt cramped – while my daughter was the only under-18 on board, we had a lovely mix of fellow passengers, who were happy to chat and socialise but also to give other guests their space. Obviously you never quite know who you’ll be sharing with unless you book out the whole boat though.

But, of course, a Croatia sailing holiday is more than cupboard space and WiFi, so with the practical side out of the way, on to what the trip really entails.

Croatia sailing holiday with kids

I’ll start by saying that this is possibly the most relaxed I’ve been all year – if that alone hasn’t sold it, it’s a big thumbs up for any family holiday.

Our days quickly fell into a pattern: up for breakfast at 8am, relax on deck for a few hours as we travelled to a little cove, stop for a swim and some lunch, then possibly another quick dip before cruising on to the marina by late afternoon/early evening.

The biggest decision? Which of the comfortable cushions to relax back on with my book – there were a couple at the back of the boat, which tended to be shadier, and another couple at the front which were often sunnier, plus two nets if you didn’t mind a bit of spray coming through.

The age of your kids definitely makes a difference though. At 13, almost 14, my daughter was very happy to play a few games of UNO or relax with one of her stash of books and enjoy the opportunity to do nothing for a couple of days.

I did bring snorkels and water shoes as well but in the end we didn’t really need either. There were shoals of silvery fish around the boat every time we moored up, but the water is clear enough that you can get a glimpse without needing to go under – in May, the sun hadn’t quite taken the chill off the water either.

The steps down to the cabins have clear sections too, so you can even watch the fish through those without getting wet.

But if you’ve got younger kids who are going to quickly get bored, it would be worth putting this off until later. And I can’t even imagine trying to take a toddler on board – it would be far too easy for them to go over the side, quite apart from making you very unpopular with the other passengers!

The itinerary is left deliberately flexible to work with the day’s weather and passenger requests, although as More Sailing has to book marina berths in advance, you should always have an idea of where you’re ending up each night.

Every morning, you’re supposed to get a briefing on the outline for the day, although that didn’t end up happening on our trip, so it was definitely more of a magical mystery tour. If you’re happy to surrender control and go where the winds take you, it simply adds to the relaxation – our crew was also happy to answer questions even if they weren’t volunteering the information.

Along the way, we stopped at Milna on the island of Brac for the first night, at Stari Grad on Hvar for the second and little Maslinica on Solta (next door to Brac) for our final stop – longer trips could take you further afield, such as to Vis, a little further south.

The emphasis is definitely on the sailing rather than the destinations we stopped at, so if you’re hoping to spend lots of time exploring, this isn’t the right trip. You do get the evening to look around, so you can happily wander to the little souvenir shops by the dock, sit by the water with a drink and enjoy a leisurely meal.

But you won’t get further than the harbour, many of which are quite small, and as it’s evening when you arrive, any local landmarks or attractions would be closed anyway.

This definitely isn’t a bad thing: we very quickly got into the habit of hitting the marina facilities and taking a stroll, then finding somewhere to eat – even the smallest marinas had half a dozen choices or more, there was always something to suit my vegetarian daughter, and we found some genuinely fantastic food.

As a bonus, one night we even spotted an octopus drifting through the water a few minutes from our boat, which is hard to beat as evening entertainment!

The food on board is impressive given the size of the little galley kitchen – you share any dietary requirements and allergies before boarding on the More Sailing portal, and we had a WhatsApp conversation about some of my daughter’s preferences to ensure there was plenty she would enjoy, from a huge bowl of falafels one day to a dish of tofu the next.

Breakfast had plenty of hits as well, including cinnamon apple oats, although if you’re hoping for real coffee to set you up for the day, there’s only instant on offer.

Lunch featured some great salads too, along with and a spread of meats and cheeses to welcome us on our first afternoon – add in some delicious Croatian bread and sweet treats, such as lemon sorbet with fresh raspberries and freshly whipped cream, and I’d have been very happy to eat that all week.

You also get unlimited drinks, including wine and beer, although you are asked not to break open the alcohol before 11am. For non-drinkers, there are several fruit juices, Fanta and iced tea along with water.

It’s also worth knowing that if you think you’re running out of any drinks, there are more supplies stashed away in various places around the boat, although these should get stocked up regularly.

Sounds pretty idyllic, right? And in many ways, it really was – but it’s only fair to highlight the downsides we experienced as well.

While our crew were both lovely, there was unfortunately a definite lack of professionalism and communication at times – having spoken to More Sailing, they’ve promised to address it directly, but if I’d paid full price for my trip (usually around £2,000+ per week), I wouldn’t have been impressed.

Some of the issues were surprising, such as having the safety briefing at our first stop, three hours after we set off… While we certainly didn’t seem to be in any danger on the calm waters of the Adriatic, even the shortest boat tours and trips I’ve done have covered that before departing, just in case.

More Sailing Croatia holiday: the verdict

The bottom line – would I recommend a More Sailing Croatia holiday or go on another one? Absolutely… with a few provisos.

If you’re hoping for five-star luxury at sea, things like using public marina facilities, navigating an occasionally alarmingly wobbly plank to embark/disembark and the slightly disorganised communication often made this more laid-back than well-oiled machine.

And if you’re hoping to do lots of exploring on land, this isn’t the focus – these trips are about enjoying being on the water during the day, even if you do get a tempting taste of the little towns and villages where you moor up every night.

But with Croatia’s fabulous coastline, the chance to swim in the clear waters of little coves only accessible by boat and relax in the sun with a few glasses of wine, is just blissful.

It could definitely work well for extended family with older kids too – teen cousins for example, or with active grandparents – and the idea of having your own boat is genuinely tempting, so you can all hang out together.

And for a holiday that leaves you feeling utterly chilled out? I’m still wishing I was sitting on deck with my book!

For more things to do in Trogir with kids before and after your sailing trip, as well as ideas for Split with kids, check out my top picks

Disclosure: My trip with More Sailing was free for the purposes of review of a Croatia sailing holiday with kids – all opinions remain my own.

Images copyright MummyTravels

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