A car under five metres costs €52.00 on the Vis–Split ferry in season and €16.20 on the Korčula crossing. Those are the published 2026 tariffs. Only twenty-four of Croatia’s 68 registered coastal routes will carry it at all, and no catamaran will.
The tariff, not the advice
Most driving guides for Croatia are written from experience and offer none of it in a form you can check. This one is written from the two published 2026 tariffs in this site’s source bundle, because the real cost of a hire car on this coast is not the hire and it is not the fuel. It is what happens at the water.
| What you bring | Vis – Split, off-season | Vis – Split, in season | Korčula – Orebić, off-season | Korčula – Orebić, in season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On foot | €7.20 | €9.10 | €2.50 | €4.40 |
| Car under 5 m | €40.60 | €52.00 | €10.40 | €16.20 |
| Car over 5 m | €69.80 | €88.50 | €16.40 | €20.60 |
| Motorcycle | €12.10 | €15.50 | €3.70 | €6.40 |
| Bicycle | €7.20 | €9.10 | €2.50 | €4.40 |
The pattern is the same on both lines and it is steeper than people expect. On line 602 a car under five metres in season costs €52.00 against €9.10 for the person driving it. On the short Korčula crossing it is €16.20 against €4.40. The vehicle is not a supplement to the ticket; it is the ticket.
€88.50
a car over five metres, Vis to Split, in season — against €9.10 on foot
Try the calculator against the third column. Croatian state tariffs carry an islanders’ rate that runs all year and is roughly half the visitor fare or less. It is a residents’ fare and is not available to you, but it is worth seeing, because it shows that the seasonal visitor price is a deliberate structure rather than an operating cost.
Crossing
Travelling as
Tariff period
Now put that against the network. Twenty-four of the 68 registered coastal routes carry a vehicle, and every one is a conventional car ferry. All thirty-three catamarans on the register — the fast, frequent, direct services that make island-hopping practical — are foot-passenger vessels with no vehicle tariff at all. Hiring a car does not slow you down at the margin. It removes a class of service from your options.
Budgeting the crossing as a ticket with a small vehicle supplement
The instinct is that a car adds something to a fare. On line 602 in season the foot fare is €9.10 and the car under five metres is €52.00; over five metres, €88.50. A motorcycle is €15.50 and a bicycle €9.10.
Those are one-way figures, so an island visit pays them twice, and the tariff rises on 29 May and reverts on 27 September regardless of when the extra sailings are added. Two island crossings with a large car in August is a meaningful line in a holiday budget, and it buys you the slowest boats on the route.
The euro, and reading a Croatian price at all
Croatia adopted the euro on 1 January 2023, replacing the kuna at a fixed 7.53450 HRK to €1, and joined the Schengen area on the same day. Every tariff on this page is published in euro. Any Croatian price you find quoted in kuna — on a forum, in an old guide, in a cached page — predates that change and should not be treated as current, whatever the conversion arithmetic says. The currency page covers the practical side.
Common questions
Which crossings will actually take a hire car?
Twenty-four of the 68 registered coastal routes, all of them conventional car ferries. None of the thirty-three catamarans takes a vehicle, and the catamarans are the fast services.
How much does a car cost on a Croatian ferry?
It depends on the line and the date. Two published examples: line 602, Vis to Split, is €40.60 off-season and €52.00 in season for a car under five metres; line 634, the Korčula crossing, is €10.40 and €16.20.
Is there a cheaper fare I am missing?
There is an islanders' tariff on the state lines, published year round at well under the visitor rate, and a separate public-service tariff. Both are residents' and official fares. Neither is available to a visitor.
Where is a car actually worth having?
Where the boats are irrelevant. Istria is a road peninsula; the inland national parks and the Zagreb hinterland are not reachable by coastal line at all. On a Dalmatian island itinerary the car is usually the thing slowing the trip down.
If the trip is built around islands, read the network overview before booking a hire car, and the Split day-trip page for what a foot passenger gets that a driver does not.
What do you need to work out next?
The car question is decided. These follow from it.
Where to stay
Which base needs a car and which does not?
Only twenty-four of 68 coastal routes will carry one.
Getting around
How do the regions actually join up?
Cres at 405.7 km² and Krk at 405.2 are the two largest Croatian islands.
When to go
When do the vehicle fares change?
Tariffs switch on 29 May and revert on 27 September.
Planning
How would a full circuit by car work?
Only 24 of the 68 routes in the coastal register take a vehicle.
Ferry data: Agencija za obalni linijski pomorski promet (ZOLPP), 2026 state coastal line register and per-line timetables. Currency and Schengen accession: Republic of Croatia, 1 January 2023.