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.