Image credit: Khris Cowley
Recommend Croatia’s best coastal resorts for different clients with Mary Novakovich’s guide
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Croatia’s dramatic Adriatic coast – all 3,626 miles of it, if you include the country’s 1,246 islands – is dizzying in its sheer variety. Holidaymakers can have a tough time narrowing down their choice among the dozens of coastal and island resorts.
Family-friendly beaches, superb food, centuries of history, watersports, sizzling nightlife – they’re all there in varying degrees. And an efficient network of ferries gives tourists the chance to visit islands easily. But there are some resorts that rise above their Adriatic neighbours when it comes to certain criteria and offer guests an exceptional experience.
Best for… Beaches
Croatia’s beaches remain one of the country’s top draws, but surprisingly few of them are sandy. Equally surprisingly, the small island of Rab in the Kvarner Gulf has managed to snaffle 22 of them.
Tucked into the southern side of the Lopar peninsula is the appropriately named Paradise Beach, a broad sandy sweep about a mile long. Its sparklingly clear shallow waters make it a favourite with families.
Guests wanting a bit more seclusion can take the 30-minute hike through woods on the northern side of Lopar to Sahara Beach, where clothing is optional. Prestige Holidays offers a week’s stay in the Hotel Imperial in Rab Town from £569, including flights, transfers and breakfast.
V-shaped Zlatni Rat on the island of Brac conjures up the classic image of a white sandy beach, even if its surface is actually fine pebbles. The vivid blue-green waters lapping this spit of land by the harbour town of Bol draw clients like a magnet.
Thomas Cook has a seven-night break at the Bluesun Elaphusa, a five-minute walk from Zlatni Rat beach along a tree-shaded promenade. Prices start at £591, including breakfast and flights.
Pine woods and olive groves form a fragrant backdrop – and offer plenty of welcome shade – to Brela’s white pebbly beaches on the mainland south of Split. It’s an impressive setting, with Biokovo mountain in the background and views of Brac ahead. Balkan Holidays has a week at the four star Bluesun Hotel Berulia set in a pine grove above the beach, where prices start at £872 including flights and breakfast.
Best for… Culture
Image credit: Croatian National Tourist Board
The Italian influence in Istria’s largest city Pula is unmistakable – in everything from its cuisine to the stately ruins of the 1st-century Roman amphitheatre. The arena, the sixth-largest in the world, hosts Pula’s film festival every summer as well as concerts, opera and dance performances.
Thanks to the region’s long history of being under Venetian rule, Pula gives holidaymakers a heady taste of Italy. The quality of the region’s truffles, olive oil, pasta and pizzas holds its own against its Italian neighbour.
In a glorious setting on Pula’s Punta Verudela peninsula is the four-star Park Plaza Histria, offered by Classic Collection Holidays. It has its own pebble beach as well as another beach within a five-minute walk. Three-night breaks cost from £405 including flights, private transfers and breakfast.
Dubrovnik’s popularity endures despite the cruise-ship crowds that descend on the city throughout most of the year. Guests find it hard to resist the allure of a walk along the medieval city walls that encircle the old town – a treat best enjoyed in the late afternoon once the cruise ships have sailed on.
And the main pedestrianised thoroughfare, Stradun, is a shimmering marble wonder that takes on a different life in the evenings. Fresh seafood appears on most menus, but look out for deliciously sweet oysters from Mali Ston.
Kirker Holidays offers breaks at the three-star Stari Grad Hotel just off Stradun in Dubrovnik’s old town, which has a rooftop restaurant and bar. Three nights cost from £689 including flights, transfers and breakfast.
Dubrovnik is an excellent base for daytime visits to nearby Cavtat, a pretty little village on a peninsula south of the city. Hotel Supetar is in a prime position on the seafront promenade, where seven nights with breakfast through Cosmos Holidays costs from £445 including flights.
In sight of Dubrovnik’s old harbour is Lokrum, a peaceful island that guests can visit by boat. It’s an enchanting place, full of wooded trails, gardens and little rocky beaches – and instantly recognisable as one of the locations for the fantasy drama Game of Thrones.
Best for… Parties
Croatia is rapidly earning a reputation as a home of summer dance music festivals, attracting the world’s top DJs to lively open-air events along the coast. The small fishing village of Tisno, north of Sibenik, has been hosting the Garden Festival since 2006.
Although the 2015 edition will be the last one, four other festivals – Soundwave, SunceBeat, Stop Making Sense and Electric Elephant – will keep the party going throughout July and August. Completely Croatia has seven nights at the boutique Heritage Hotel on Tisno’s seafront from £889, including flights, private transfers and breakfast.
The three-day Ultra Europe dance festival makes its third visit to Split in July, when boat parties get holiday revellers in the mood before the main event at Poljud stadium.
But the Riva, the waterfront in Croatia’s second city, buzzes all summer, as do the cafes squeezed into the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace just behind. Less than a 10-minute walk away is the sleek Hotel Luxe, where Anatolian Sky offers three-night breaks from £399 including flights, transfers and breakfast.
Ultra Europe even spills over into Hvar, with a giant beach party on the island. But nightlife in Hvar – particularly Hvar Town – is lively enough on its own, helped by bars and clubs such as Veneranda, Hula Hula, Carpe Diem and Riva. Guests will find plenty of places for a sunset – or even a sunrise – cocktail.
Transun offers a Heavenly Hvar package that includes a private boat excursion to the secluded island of Palmizana as well as dinner in the so-called ghost village of Mali Grabje. Three nights at the waterfront Hotel Villa Dalmacija cost from £665, including flights, private transfers, breakfast and a guided tour.
Image credit: Turnmaster Tim
Best for… Activity
Croatia’s coastal landscapes lend themselves to most activity holidays, from diving and sailing to hiking and biking. Rovinj in Istria has a fascinating underwater world of caves, walls and shipwrecks for divers to explore.
Clients can head out to the shipwreck of the Baron Gautsch, a passenger liner that met its tragic fate in 1914. In the heart of Rovinj’s old town is the romantic Art Hotel Villa Valdibora, where Selective Travel has a three-night break from £230 including private transfers and breakfast, but not flights.
The many coves and bays tucked into Korcula’s indented coast attract sailors and sea kayakers keen to get a different view of this exquisite island and its neighbours.
Clients can learn the basics at sailing school or hire a skipper to take them farther afield. Thomson offers the self-catering Grgic Apartments above the sheltered bay of Zrnovska Banja, which have their own swimming pool. Seven nights cost from £572, including flights and car hire.
There’s a gentler pace of life on the forested island of Mljet. This lush national park north of Dubrovnik is criss-crossed with bicycle trails and has a couple of lakes where guests can cool off with a dip.
Bicycle hire is easy to arrange in the village of Pomena, where Hotel Odisej overlooks the pretty harbour. Prestige Holidays has seven nights’ half-board at the Odisej from £385, including flights, transfers and admission to the national park.
