Croatia, a horseshoe with 2,000 km of crystsal clear coastline

Croatia, a country named the Destination of the Year in 2006 by National Geographic Adventure Magazine with the shape of a crescent or a horseshoe which spanks its neighbors Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro is tempting a record number of visitors. 2,000km of crystal clear coastline bordered by 1,200 mainly uninhabited islands. Six World Heritage sites and eight national parks. And all this at inexpensive prices. Easy and cheap available accommodation, great cuisine, great history and culture and a highland climate. Yeah maybe it does sound like a commercial! When everything sounds too good to be true, people are suspicious. But no, I am not paid by any Croatia authority nor a travel agency. I have been in Croatia last year and what I have seen amazed me. Since than I have convinced all my friends to go there for a surprising break. Although is a small country Croatia is extremely rich in countless examples of work of art, architecture and stunning places along the Adriatic coast. I end up accidentally with holiday plans in Croatia. I did not have loads of information about Croatia, I only knew that there is a sea and I thought that it will be a quite and ordinary sunbathing program. When I arrived in Cvatat, a small village by the sea I felt like an explorer. Like I was about to discover a new world, a world named “Dalmatia” with almost one thousand islands that make up the Croatian archipelago. I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t actually a Columbus’ descendant because I only explored Elaphite islands. Three of the Elaphite islands, Koločep, Lopud, and Šipan, are still inhabited, each of which can easily be reached by the inexpensive local Jadrolinija ferry (the mainland is connected to the larger islands by numerous local ferries from where you can choose), that runs four times daily throughout the year from Dubrovnik or Cvatat. All three islands have private accommodation, hotels, and small tourist offices that are open in summer only. Both Koločep and Šipan are, like the Old City of Dubrovnik, car-free. In the following posts I will describe more consistently the surroundings with all the activities that you can participate in. You might take these recommendations into account; after all I am only offering this advice as a simple person who experienced great feelings in Croatia. Hope there are other persons who traveled to the southern part of Croatia and wants to confirm or deny what I will say.

Something to declare

I’ve read once in a travel book something that went like this “It doesn’t matter how many breaths you take, all that is important is how many places you see that take your breath away”. This was actually written in a crappy travel book named “1000 places to see before you die” where only the title and that quotation were the only appealing things that I found there. The book was not helpful at all. The descriptions were blunt and lame and there was nothing to make me dream about those locations that I have never seen. Even though I am a travel addict. When I am at work or at home in Bucharest I feel like I am in a train station. I am always waiting for a holiday, an escape from the old things that I am so used with. I can’t imagine my life without testing new territories and getting to know the territories through the people that live there. I think bridging the gap between other people’s lives and ours is too amazing to miss it. I hope that one day I will be able to say that the world is in fact a small place…but until than I feel like I am just a little person in a huge world with not enough time to explore every part of it. The blog’s idea is to share my experience for whom it might concern and I would be more than happy to read other people experiences and thoughts when travel ….
I am quite good at avoiding disappointing holidays and I am always doing my homework finding loads of information about the new places that I want to try.