Ferries from Italy to Croatia

Thirty-two direct routes cross the Adriatic between Italy and Croatia, the largest count in this directory. The figure flatters the choice, because two unrelated products sit inside it: overnight car ferries from the central and southern Adriatic, and fast passenger catamarans from the north that sail only in summer. Settle which of the two you need and the rest of the planning follows.

Ancona, the crossing that runs all year

Jadrolinija works Ancona to Split as line 53 in every month of the calendar, and no other link between the two countries does. Through winter and the shoulder seasons the ship leaves Ancona at 19:45 and ties up in Split at 07:00, a little over eleven hours with a cabin in the middle. From early July to the start of September the pattern doubles: a 22:00 overnight sailing and a 10:00 daytime one that berths at 19:00. Cars travel on this line. SNAV puts a second cruise ferry on the same water from 1 April to 4 October 2026, which matters mainly because it disappears again for the winter.

Bari for Dubrovnik and the south

Bari to Dubrovnik is Jadrolinija line 54, sailed by the Dalmacija, and it takes vehicles. The 2026 schedule opens at the end of March and closes on 21 October, with nothing in between seasons. Daytime departures from Bari around 11:00 reach Dubrovnik at about 19:00, while the evening sailings run some ten hours overnight. Bari to Split, line 56, follows the same seasonal frame and is overnight only, Split 22:00 to Bari 08:00.

Zadar is a catamaran, not a car ferry

The route name misleads here. Ancona to Zadar is Jadrolinija line 51, a catamaran to the Gaženica terminal in roughly four hours, with up to five departures a week. Its published 2026 timetable starts on 26 June and ends on 30 August, and the operator counts only lines 53, 54 and 56 among its ferry services. With a vehicle in tow, Zadar is reached by road from Split rather than by this boat.

The northern catamarans

From Venice the product changes completely. Venezia Lines runs two air-cushion catamarans, San Frangisk and San Pawl, fitted with 280 tourist and 30 VIP seats and no vehicle deck, to Poreč, Rovinj, Pula and Umag, plus Piran on the Slovenian coast. Baggage follows airline logic: one hold piece, one cabin piece, and a bicycle only if you reserve its place in advance and pay the surcharge at booking. Trieste is the second northern gateway, with Poreč and Rovinj among the crossings listed above; its operator publishes no season on its own site, so take those dates from the route pages.

Which one to book

With a car, the answer is Ancona for Dalmatia and Bari for the far south, and only Ancona will serve between November and March. Without one, and bound for Istria, the northern catamarans cover the water in a fraction of the time and land you in the old towns themselves. The mistake to avoid sits between the two: a summer catamaran booked for a trip that turns out to need wheels at the far end.