Croatia | holiday | living - All about Croatia

With close to a million visitors the National Park Plitvice lakes is one of the most visited tourist sites in Croatia, since 1949 the area has been declared as a national park and has during they years been expanded several times, so that the national park now covers and area of more than 300 km2, which makes it one of the largest nature parks in Europe.

The parks unique flora and fauna, was one of the main reason why UNESCO in 1979 appointed the National park as a World nature heritage site. On the official homepage of the National park you find detailed information about plants and animals in the park Plitvice homepage

At our last visit here in the beginning of October, the national part was “dressed” in the autumn colors, green, yellow and brown, I think it was quite beautiful?

What do you think?

If you plan to visit National Park Plitvice, maybe you should have look at our  guide to National Park Plitvice

The city of Knin is situated in the Dalmatian mainland, close to that source of the river Krka (Know from the National park Krka), do to it geographical position Knin is not a typical tourist, but for the Croatians the city is of great importance, mainly do to the following:

• In the beginning of the second millennium, the city capital and seat of the Croatian kings – which also so explains why the city is referred to as that kings city or Zvonimirov grad.
• During the Balkan war, the city was occupied by the Serbs and made capital of the republic of Serbia Krajina, the Croatian forces liberated the city under the Operation storm on the 5^th of August 1995, the 5^th of August has later been declared a national holiday – the Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day. And is celebrated each year with a 3 days event in Knin.

The city has one of the largest fortification in Dalmatia, (The largest I have seen down here), during the last decade large parts of it has been completely restored. For the entrance of 20 Kuna you can visit not only the fortress but also the museum inside the fortress. Be aware that there is limited parking available close to the entrance.

How to find Knin:

Knin is found on the road D1 from Zagreb to Split, if you are coming from National park Plitvice as we did, you have a 2-2.5 hour to get to Knin.

Another option is to take train from Zagreb to Split.

Here you can see all our pictures from the fortress in knin

Feel free to add usefull information about Knin in the comments. - Thanks.

One of our absolute favourite cities here in Croatia is Dubrovnik, we have visited the city numerous times, both privately as well as professionally, and every time we have had a great time in this historical pearl.

Historically Dubrovnik has always been very special, as the city was a republic it had a very interesting political system, the major / governor was elected for a period of only one month, this was done to avoid corruption and keep focus on working in the interest of the republic. – I am sure a few citizens around the world could benefit from a similar system in their country.

See more pictures from Dubrovnik here: Dubrovnik Pictures

Before the Balkan war Dubrovnik was the absolute top destination in Croatia, the war, where large parts of the old town was damaged, was of course a major set back for the city, but meanwhile the city has regained its position as one of the major tourist spots in Croatia. The old town of Dubrovnik has been completely rebuild, only visible evidence left from the Balkan war is the many new red roof tops in the old town.

When we go to Dubrovnik we normally take the coastal road from Split, which takes about 4 to 4.5 hours by car, the trips offers a magnificent view on the coast and the Dalmatian islands. If you follow the coastal road you will have to pass through Bosnia and Herzegovina about 60 km north of Dubrovnik, so please remember the following.

• Passport
• Not to bring any items, which are applicable to custom?
• It is wise not to speed in Bosnia, as you most likely will meet the police with a “laser pistol” checking your speed.

Alternative to going by car (or bus) is taking the local ferry line, which goes from Split, via Hvar and Korcula to Dubrovnik; we tried this once and can absolutely recommend it, although the trip takes around 9 hours.

Here is a fee tips which might be useful for a trip to Dubrovnik:

1. Parking

• Parking in Dubrovnik is relative expensive (1.5-2 Euro/hour) there are 3 parking spaces close to the wall, but before you decide to park on one of those you might read below where to find the no charge parking space, just 500 meters from Pile Gate.

This is how you find the no charge parking space:

• Follow the signs direction centre and later direction Hotel Hilton, when you pas Hilton on your right hand side, continue for about 150 meters, on your left hand you will see some green containers, here you have to turn left, follow the small road up hill and you are there (The best time to find a free space is early morning and late in the afternoon).

2. What to see or do while you are in Dubrovnik?

• The e wall which is the absolute highlight.
• The many churches inside the wall and the Cathedral.
• Visit the city part Gruz where you find the green market and lots of small streets with the most beautiful private gardens in Dubrovnik, (In this part of town you also find the largest supermarket – Konzum).
• Take a daytrip to National Park Mljet.
• Drive to Mline and Cavtat which is south of Dubrovnik.
• Rafting trip in Montenegro.

3. Prices and other useful stuff

• Dubrovnik is much more expensive then e.g. Split, but still 20-30% cheaper then e.g. Copenhagen
• The city beaches can be quite crowded, so get there early or go to the city part Babin Kuk instead.
• In main season June – September, you should book accommodation before you arrive, otherwise you risk ending up far away from the city centre.
• Ask your land lord for a pick up in the Airport, as it is quite expensive with a taxi.

Hope these few tips will be helpful on your trip, and I of course would be delighted of any feedback, which could be helpful for other travellers.

Here you can see a list of other interesting thinks we right about: Croatia Travel stories

And here you can see our 3000 pictures from Places we visited in Croatia: Pictures Croatia

As I mentioned in our travel story from Vis, one day of our Holiday was spend on a visit to the Island of Biševo, which is a small island situated 4 nautical miles SW of Komiža.

Our visit to Vis was not only for pleasure, my friend Shane, from Lifejacketadventures, had convinced me to help him bringing his kayaks, from Biševo back to Komiža, where he normally stores them when he is not on a trip – so I actually had to work!!

So Tuesday morning at 7.30 we met in Komiža with Shane, his family, and a Swedish girl - Johanna, who also was going to help with the kayaks. From here we took a fishing boat (taxi boat – 25 kuna) which was loaded with goods, tourist, the skipper and his bodies. The sailing time to the first drop of point at the east site of Biševo was around 40 minutes, as we had to go to a bay on the west site of the island we got an extra 20 minutes sailing trip.

Well arrived at the Island, we went to visit some friend of Shane’s, Lile and Davor who has a small house 50 meters from the beach, Lily and Davor are some very interesting people, they are actually from Zagreb, but spend 6 month’s a every year on the Island, where they among other rent out small cottages and have a environmental project running called “Mali Zeleni I Biševo” (the little green at Biševo) you can read about their project here http://www.bisevo.org

The morning we spend with swimming in the nice bay, where Lili and Davor last year removed around 20 tons of garbage!! At noon we went to next bay Porat to have lunch, as you can see on the picture here, we also had a nice place to swim.

As 3 PM it was time for the hard job, Shane, Johanna and I prepared our selves for the kayak trip back to Komiža, I must say I was bit nervous to back in a kayak again, as the last time was (and also first time) was at Vogalonga 2008, but as we first started paddling I forgot about that.

The first stop on our Kayak trip was Modra Špilja(The blue cave) as you can see the cave does not look like much from the outside, and when you get in there in a 6 meter long kayak without a flashlight it is a bit scary, but very beautiful.

After the blue cava we started our crossing direction Komiža, the weather was very nice so we had no problem with the waves. At about7 PM we reached Komiža I was very tired, but glad that I took the trip, as it is not everyday you get the chance to sit in kayak 20 NM from the mainland.

A few thinks about Biševo

• The Main attraction – Modra Špilja (The blue cave) – can be visit by organized trips (Price 100-140 Kuna) or you can take fisher boat as we did.
• Biševo has some very nice Sand beaches – the fisher boat from Komiža would e.g. take you to Porat in the morning and return in the afternoon around 4 PM.
• Only 7 people live the whole year on Biševo.
• Rainwater is the main water supply on the Island
• The wine from the Island should be great.

The last week in August, we made a last minute decision, to take one week of holiday and go to the Island of Vis, my colleague Vivian’s parents in law had been so kind to lent us there house in the middle of Vis town, so Friday afternoon we left Spilt with the ferry, for our first visit to the Island.

A little bit about the Islands:

Vis the fishermen’s Island is one of the few place on the Adriatic coast where the slogan; of the Croatia tourist board “Mediterranean as it once was” fully comply.

Since WWII, where the island was liberated by Tito’s partisans army and until 1995, the Island was home to a large Army base, as you can see on the photos below, parts of the large scale tunnel system from that time, is still relative intact.

After the reopening of the island, for visitors, the island has year for year been attracting more and more guests, but kept on a level which are not destroying the amazing nature on the island.

The Island has a long Maritime tradition, and fishing was until recently the main industry on the Island, both in the main town Vis and in Komiža on the south west side of the island you still can find several small fisherman’s boats, although meanwhile the sailing boats and yachts who arrive in the afternoon for and overnight stay on the Island, by far has outnumbers them.

Well now back to our trip: well arrived at our accommodation; after 2^1/2 hour on the ferry, we went for a walk at the promenade and had a look at the menu cards on the restaurant along the promenade, eventually we decided to eat at Dionis, which turned out to be good choice.

The next following days we spend enjoying some of the marvelous beaches, and took a round trip on the island which, where we among other visited the Pick of the island Hum, which is still restricted military area.

On Tuesday we went to the island of Biševo, which you can read about here: Kayak from Biševo.

Wednesday we had planned to take a whole day trip with a boat from Komiža, price 220 kn p.p. (kids half price). The boat would first take us to Modra Špilja(The blue cave) on Biševo and then around Vis island, with stops in several bays and a visit to the Zelena Špilja (The green cave) on island Ravnik, the afternoon would be spend with swimming at Stončica beach before returning to Komiža. Unfortunately we all woke up sick from a virus Wednesday morning; so we had to cancel the trip and spend the day recovering.

On Thursday we took a walk a long the Promenade all the way from the ferry harbor to the eastern part of Vis town which is a 25 minutes walk along the water, on the way we visited the Archeological museum Issa, which is situated in the Baterija build by the Austrian / Hungarian empire. The Afternoon we spend at the beach in Milna which together with Stončica beach and Porat Beach on Biševo, was the third excellent beach we tried in a week.

Pictures Beaches in Croatia

Friday morning I had very special experience, our house neighbor; a 70 year old man, took me for an exclusive guided tour in the military tunnels north of Vis town, which was extremely interesting. At noon we left the island with the ferry, and headed back to Split after a really relaxing holiday.

What to see/do on Vis

• Archeological museum in Vis town 
• Tito’s military tunnels and the English fortress
• The peak of the island by Hum which offer magnificent panorama view on Komiža
• Take a round trip on the island, visit wineries and some of the numerous bays, here you for sure can find places where which are not to crowded.
• Rent a bike, in Vis there is at least 5 agencies offering all kind of bikes for adults and kids, the round trip of the Island Is only 28 km, so even though there is some very steep climbs, it is doable.
• Remember to bring fins, diving goggles and snorkel, I guarantee you will like what you see when you put your head under the water.
• And much more ………….

Eating out:

Vis as being the fishermen’s island is one of the top places for fish dishes in Croatia. Both in Vis and especially in Komiža there are some excellent fish restaurant, on the middle of the island, there is several restaurant offering Peka (traditional Croatian dish), with free selection of meet (Octopus, fish, lam, veal), as Peka takes 60-70 minutes to prepare you should order it before arrival. A very nice think is that some of this restaurant offers to pick you up and bring you back after the meal.

Other useful information for a Viš trip:

• Car ferry to island 3 times daily during main season, visit jadrolinijas home page to see schedule also check schedule for Catamaran ferry to Vis.
• If you can avoid bringing car do that, parking in limited and you can rent a car 100 meter from the ferry arrival for around 300 kuna a day.
• Bus to Komiža leaves Vis city just next to where the ferry arrives (In schedule with ferry arrivals).
• Everything is a bit more expensive on Vis maybe 10-20% higher compared to Split, so don’t plan to buy your new clothes collection here, when you any way will end in Split on the way back.
• Try the local wines (Mainly Plavac); they are really good and much cheaper then what you find in the supermarket.
• Vis is for relaxing not for partying so don’t expect to much going on during the night (During July /August nightlife is on beach in Komiža)

Hope this gives you appetime to visit the Island of Vis once in the future

Here you can see all our nice pictures from the Island Vis

There’s Island and two lakes extraordinary connected …name of that Island is Mljet.

Mljet is rich with forests because of that, he is known as the "Green Island". Fauna is so rich ,the sea is crystal and the sandy and gravel beaches are very attractive for tourist destination. Because extreme natural beauty 1960 he was declared like National Park.

In National Park you will see two lakes located there .It is amazing to see very exotic. Both lakes has only tour boats for turist sightseeings saling around, Private wessels are not allowed.

Walking trails leads you around the lakes. The salt lakes are a unique geological and oceanographic phenomenon of worldwide importance. They originated approximately 10,000 years ago and, until the Christian era, they were freshwater lakes.

Island is really something to sea nobody can stay impassive after only couple hours there.

MORE PHOTOS FROM MLJET !!!

Here is some option how to get on Mljet

Airports:

- Dubrovnik, Split

Ferry Jadrolinija:

- from Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Hvar, … to Sobra (Mljet) 
- everyday from Dubrovnik to Sobr
- everyday from place Prapratno (peninsula Pelješac) to Sobra (Mljet)

By Car:

- Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik - Sobra (ferry)
- Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Ston, Prapratno - Sobra (ferry)
- Zagreb, Plitvice (National Park), (Zadar), Split, Dubrovnik-Sobra (ferry)
- Zagreb, Plitvice, (Zadar), Split, Ston, Prapratno - Sobra (ferry)