Croatia: Life beyond the beach

When it comes to selling Croatia, agents ought to think of
it as a region offering different experiences, rather than as a
single destination.

Despite being two-thirds the size of Scotland, the landscape
provides opportunities for soft adventure, from canoing and
four-wheel-drive safaris to mountaineering, horse riding and rock
climbing. This clean stretch of the Mediterranean is also perfect
for diving and water sports.

With its 1,185 islands, picturesque villages, national parks,
nature reserves and a dramatic coastline, there’s a holiday
for everyone here.

Travel Weekly looks at some ideas for activity and niche-market
holidays.

There are eight parks with a rich variety of wildlife, and
almost 10% of the country is environmentally protected. Krka
National Park is one of the best areas in Europe for bird-watching,
while bears, lynx, wolves and deer can be spotted in Risnjak
National Park. Five parks offer accommodation in unspoilt
surroundings, and visitor numbers to the parks have increased 13%
year on year, with overnight stays up 10%.

Sample product: Holiday Options features Plitvice
National Park in its two-week Grand Tour, costing £765 per
person half-board in July. It also has a boat excursion from
Dubrovnik to Mljet National Park, the site of two lakes and a
Benedictine monastery, for £37.50 per person.

Already popular in Istria, agrotourism is now developing in
Dalmatia. Visitors seeking a more rustic experience can rent
farmhouses where they can feast on organic food and wine. There are
fig fields and vineyards to explore and some establishments even
offer guests the chance to eat with the family or help on the
farm.

Sample product: Simply Travel specialises in rural
accommodation that is off the beaten track in its Simply Croatia
brochure. A week at Rina’s two-bedroom farmhouse in rural
Istria, about five miles from the medieval hill town of Labin,
starts at £450 per person twin-share in May. This includes
flights to Pula, car hire and transfers.

Couples and escapists
Small groups, couples and those seeking a holiday away from it all
can find privacy at restored fishermen’s cottages in the
Kornati, an archipelago of 125 uninhabited islands scattered in the
Adriatic. With their rugged shores and steep cliffs, the islands
provide a wild, romantic setting. Clients can choose between
individual solitary cottages or a village of around five
fishermen’s cottages. Each one draws water from its own well
and food is delivered by boat twice a week.

Sample product: Bond Tours has a week in a
fisherman’s cottage from £599 per person including
flights, transfers and hotel in Split. Cottages to Castles has a
new property for 2005, Villa Marija, hidden in woodland close to
the town of Malinska on Krk Island. It has two en suite,
double-bedded rooms – with the other couple having a separate
entrance to their own private galleried apartment. Prices are from
£165 per person for seven nights’ self-catering, based
on four sharing.

For those wanting a stopover in Dubrovnik, Cosmos features the
five-star Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, which has an in-house spa, from
£715 per person for a week including breakfast and private
taxi transfers.

Demand for yachting and sailing-based holidays is increasing
along with scuba diving and sea kayaking. The country has 48
well-equipped marinas from Cavtat in the south to Umag in the
north, and many more smaller marinas are planned.

Sailing holidays cater to amateurs, as well as more experienced
deck hands who can join flotillas or venture out on their
own.

Sample product: Hidden Croatia offers a 14-night
holiday, with seven nights in Hvar and seven on a skippered yacht
provided by Sail Croatia, from £1,045 per person based on six
sharing, including flights. Scuba en Croatia features a
week’s diving on Korcula island from £525 per person in
May, June and September, including two nights’ half-board in
Dubrovnik, five nights’ self-catering accommodation, flights
and eight dives.

Cosmos has the four-star hotel Iberostar Albatros, with a
kids’ club, on the Dubrovnik Riviera from £599 per
person in May, half-board.

Holiday Options features the beachfront Hotel Albatros at Cavtat,
which has a sports centre offering tennis as well as windsurfing,
canoeing, diving and other water sports. Prices lead in at
£405 per person in April, with a 25% child discount.

Activity holidays are very popular on the Dalmatian coast,
islands and hinterland, where trekking, snorkelling, mountain
biking, hill climbing and even tandem skydiving are on the agenda.
The terrain is popular with mountaineers, rock climbers and pot
holers, while the rivers in northern Dalmatia are great for
white-water rafting. The Konavle Jeep safari culminates with a
lunch at the 400-year-old Sapro family mill in Vodovada.

Sample product: Crystal Lakes and Mountains has
walking in the hills of Opatija, at the foot of Mount Ucka. Other
local activities include waterskiing and windsurfing. A
week’s half-board in May leads in at £376 per person
staying at the Hotel Kvarner-Amalia.

Neilson has a week’s windsurfing, mountain biking and dinghy
sailing at Lumbarda village on Korcula Island in July from
£619 per person, including activities and flights. Activities
Abroad sells a two-week family activity holiday with opportunities
for sea kayaking around Dubrovnik’s city walls, canyoning and
white-water rafting from £865 for adults; £615 children,
excluding flights.

From football holidays at the Davor Suker’s Soccer Academy
to playing lighthouse keeper in one of its 38 lighthouses, anything
is possible. History and culture lovers will be stunned by the
walled towns and cities, Roman ruins, Franciscan monasteries and
Venetian palaces. A steady stream of settlers have left a wealth of
historic treasures, and UNESCO World Heritage sites include
Dubrovnik Old Town, Diocletian’s Palace in Split and the
Plitvice Lakes.

Sample product: Renaissance churches, Roman
palaces and medieval citadels are included in Headwater
Holidays’ Delights of the Dalmatian Coast. The eight-day
tours run from April to October and cost £1,098 per person in
June 10 including a guide, tours and meals. Bond Tours can organise
a self-catered stay in a lighthouse apartment, with swimming,
fishing and ship spotting.

Exodus has an eight-day cultural and walking tour from £655
per person in April and October, with an additional local payment
of £75 per person.

 
Most regions and islands produce wine, but vineyards are especially
plentiful around Istria, Dalmatia and Dubrovnik. Operators such as
Holiday Options and Bond Tours sell gastronomic excursions to the
countryside and coast to explore family-run vineyards. ‘Wine
roads’ have been mapped for those wishing to explore by
car.

Sample product: Inghams features a full-day,
prebookable trip to Peljasac from Dubrovnik combining local cuisine
with vineyards on the Peljasac peninsula for £41 per person.
Other excursions can be arranged in resort.

Wine tour specialist Arblaster and Clarke has a new cruise from
Venice to Dubrovnik, calling at islands on the Dalmatian coast to
visit vineyards. Departing on August 17 it costs from £3,699
per person including flights and on-board tastings.