Livingstone Beach House

Mia made our stay easy from the start. She met us on arrival, checked in the next day and stopped by several times, with lots of useful tips before and during the visit. She was quick to respond and even lent us a SUP board for a few days, which we were grateful for. We were impressed by how welcoming people in Croatia were: locals were lovely, our kids played with theirs, and restaurant staff, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, and even airport staff were polite and relaxed. We'd love to see more of Croatia, it's won us over. We stayed in the corner Livingstone beach house with the garden. The house was pretty, clean, and spacious, with four floors and plenty of stairs, so we had to keep an eye on our small children. The view and beach access were the real highlights. The infinity pool was clean, roomy, and very private, with a clever design that made it feel like floating in the sea. Our family had it to ourselves the first week, then another family sometimes joined at the weekend. The garden became our living room, especially in the shade of the beautiful tree during the heat. We had lots of drinks and barbecues there. A few things to know: the road behind the house is busy and noisy, and walking there didn't feel very safe. Planes passed overhead about every 20 minutes because of the airport, though that didn't bother us. Trogir's beautiful center is about a 15-minute brisk walk away. We sometimes took €5 Ubers and went by boat once. The town has restaurants, bars, two museums/castle, small shops, and grocery stores. We liked Konoba Trs, Pizzera Murtila, Wild West, and Mare. We got meat for barbecuing from Mesnica Škokić, found good coffee at Tinel, and went to bar Choice for cocktails and a stunning harbour view. With three small kids we didn't try the nightlife, but the town is lively at night. Shopping is mostly in small tourist shops; the malls are outside Split. We liked that, since it keeps the city feeling authentic. We chartered a boat with a skipper for half a day, and it was worth every euro. With the kids, we kept the trip short, visiting the blue lagoon and two smaller bays where we swam, saw fish, and had a cocktail from the cocktail boat that came by. My mom and I also went to Split for a day by taxi, €30 one way, since the boat times didn't work for us. We took a great free walking tour there, and found plenty of nice restaurants too.