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A trawl on a website listing private accommodation brought up a number of choices and we emailed a couple of them, finally picking Rooms Firule. Before we arrived we had a steady correspondence with Ivica who arranged for us to be met at the airport. Our plane arrived very early but our ... Read review
Advantages: Close to Firule beach, good standard, private, helpful owners Disadvantages: Only partial sea view, no chairs on balcony
...there. The nearest beach is Firule beach which is regarded as the best of the town beaches. To get there go out of the house, turn right and go down to the road (down a couple of steps). Turn left and then at the corner bar turn right and after the tennis courts take the stone steps on the left down to the beach. It’s a small cove and nicely secluded and less noisy than the other beaches.
There is a mini market just steps away and ... ...and we really don’t mind walking. Accommodation in the centre is much more expensive and often the rooms are very small. Rooms Firule is a good choice, especially if you come by car.
Usually I wouldn’t book accommodation in advance for Croatian coastal resorts. Whether you arrive at the bus station, the train station or by ferry, you will always find someone with a room to rent. However, in September 2009 we were arriving by plane on a Saturday evening and wondered who would want to be at the station waiting for travellers at 9.00pm on a Saturday night.
A trawl on a website listing private accommodation brought up a number of choices and we emailed a couple of them, finally picking Rooms Firule. Before we arrived we had a steady correspondence with Ivica who arranged for us to be met at the airport. Our plane arrived very early but our lift was there and we were whisked to Split. When we were near the house, Marija’s (the owner) son pointed out a supermarket and some restaurants and he drove down to the port to pick up his mother who, as it happens, WAS looking for people to fill her rooms. Her son doesn’t speak much English but does speak a little German. Marija speaks English and German (as well as Croatian obviously) although if she knows you speak German she’ll communicate mostly in that language (and at a fast tempo).
The house is a large family house and, I suspect, in summer the Brdar family all live in the lower floors, while the upper floor is let to tourists. We were given a choice of two double rooms and chose the one with the small balcony. Both rooms were reasonably large but the balcony clinched it for us. The balcony turned out not to be much use anyway as there were no chairs on it and none in the room that could be put out there. The other snag was that is never really got any sun, though it was nice to get a little cooler air (as much as you get in summer in Split) at night.
The bathroom was between the two rooms. It was quite large and had a bath-tub with a shower over it; we had to switch the water on to heat ourselves but it didn’t take too long to get enough for two showers. Thankfully the other room (nor the one off the living room) was only taken one of the three nights we stayed here and even then we didn’t have any problems as we left at 5.00am before the other guests got up. Clean towels were put out on a dresser in the hall outside the bedrooms. The washing machine is, as is the custom here, in the bathroom.
We had use of the kitchen and dining room. The kitchen was pretty well equipped and even had nice extras like a coffee machine - a shame we didn’t have any "proper" coffee to use. There was one slight issue in that the fridge was very full and we had to move stuff around to get our breakfast supplies; we wondered whether the food was overspill from the family’s other fridge.
A balcony accessed from the kitchen/diner has a partial sea view but still no chairs. We sat on the ground instead and enjoyed a cold beer in the warm evening sun. A clothes line stretches across this balcony, our swimming things were dry in no time.
If you come by car there is parking space in the large drive way. This house looks huge but two families share it and a tyre business occupies part of it too. We didn’t experience any inconvenience from this at all.
Although you aren’t in the centre (it’s 600metres from Split centre), it only takes ten minutes (fifteen is you dawdle like us) to walk there. The nearest beach is Firule beach which is regarded as the best of the town beaches. To get there go out of the house, turn right and go down to the road (down a couple of steps). Turn left and then at the corner bar turn right and after the tennis courts take the stone steps on the left down to the beach. It’s a small cove and nicely secluded and less noisy than the other beaches.
There is a mini market just steps away and a supermarket five minutes away. There are several bars and restaurants nearby too on the way to the beach.
Other than our arrival we hardly saw the owners but the evening before we were due to leave we tracked them down and asked if they could arrange a taxi to the bus station the next morning; in spite of leaving at 5.00am, Marija’s son once more took up the role of chauffeur and kindly drove us into town.
A double room costs €40 per night except for the high period 01.07-31.08 when you’ll pay €50 per night.
You can get accommodation nearer the centre (we were very central back in 2003) but it was good to be here to get to the beach easily and we really don’t mind walking. Accommodation in the centre is much more expensive and often the rooms are very small. Rooms Firule is a good choice, especially if you come by car.
