Croatia Travel Blog

Archive for February, 2009

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia’s wondrous national park, has made it into the semifinals of the New7Wonders competition. Run by the New7Wonders foundation, this competition has as its goal the following

“Through film, television, the Internet and books, people shall be sensitized to the beauty of the world’s heritage, both man-made and natural, and be alerted of its destruction and decay.”

What could be more worthy of inclusion than the stunning system of lakes and waterfalls that comprises Plitvice Lakes National Park?

It’s got my vote. Give it yours!

Low-cost carrier Easyjet has announced  new flights to Dubrovnik and Split to start this summer. From August 2 to October 24 there will be four flights weekly (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) from Milan (Malpensa) to Dubrovnik with prices starting at £21. From August 1, there will be three flights weekly (Tues, Thurs, Sat) from Milan to Split at the same low price. See more on flights to Dubrovnik, flights to Split and cheap flights to Croatia.

Let’s be frank. Tiny Dubrovnik is raking it in. From tourists flocking to Dubrovnik’s luxury hotels to cruise passengers swarming the streets of Dubrovnik’s historic centre, the river of cash is running deep. So where does the money go? Dubrovnik’s mayor (and Anjelica Huston look-alike) just gave a rundown of the city’s expenses to her City Council and outlined just-completed and future plans. Of interest to travellers are the following:

• construction of a new underground parking facility which has just opened
• renovation of the port of Gruz which will allow the embarkation of 10,000 cruise ship passengers
• construction of a marina in Lapad (projected)
• a new promenade in Lapad (completed)
• a new congress centre in Babin Kuk
• a new bus terminal and new city buses
• a golf park on top of Mt Srd which will be reached by a new funicular
• a Natural History Museum (projected)

See more about travel to Dubrovnik.

Golf in Croatia has never really gotten off the ground for several good reasons. First, Croatia’s climate doesn’t allow for a long golfing season and second, Croatians have never been much into golfing (now, tennis is another matter entirely).

Yet, in their pursuit of tourist money, the Croatian government is undeterred by these obstacles. Recently the Croatian Parliament passed a law making it much easier for the government to snatch land from private owners and sell it to golf course developers under the theory of “eminent domain”.

And where are golf developers headed? Not to the rocky Dalmatian coast, that’s for sure. No, it’s Istria with its gentle rolling countryside that will be the primary target of golf developers.

The above photo is of the countryside surrounding Motovun where the proposed new golf course is planned.

Local residents are, ahem, teed off by the proposal. Lawsuits and countersuits have been launched with dark insinuations of collusion between the developers and politicians. There are a lot of good reasons why the proposed golf course is a bad idea for the environment and for local life. If you’d like to join the protest, you can go to the Facebook site against the golf course (in Croatian) and register your support.