Croatia Travel Blog

Archive for September, 2009

For my forthcoming trip to Split, I decided to base myself in the Veli Varos neighbourhood. I don’t know it as well as I’d like; it’s close to Marjan hill; it’s a slice of Old Split and slightly removed from the more touristy parts of Split.

Alas, finding suitable accommodation was more difficult than I thought, especially after not following my own advice to use a reputable agency. The agencies I usually trust–hostelbookers and booking.com–for once didn’t seem to have anything quite right so I went further afield and chose Apartment Marjan from splitapartments.net. What a mistake.

The owner of the apartment, Mijo Dujmovic, confirmed my stay on September 25, after several email exchanges. Much to my surprise, Mr. Dujmovic, notified me today that the apartment was actually not free at all. So sorry. Too bad. Could it be that he simply got a better price for it?

This is why I always recommend booking through an agency. It’s actually no more expensive and you have back-up in case of any trouble. Owners that choose not to work with agencies usually “go rogue” because they want to hold on to every last euro and not part with a commission. Does this sound like the type of person you want to entrust with your vacation?

Next time I will follow my own advice and book private accommodation online.

To see the most in a short time, it really pays to rent a car in Croatia. Yet there are a few pitfalls that I recently discovered in planning my own forthcoming trip to Croatia. All is well if you just want to tool around Croatia. I usually use EconomyCarRentals which works with local operators to get the best possible rates in local Croatia travel.

This time however, I want to visit Mostar in Bosnia and the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. In order to maintain insurance on these jaunts you need a cross-border card which, I found out, is not included in the quoted rate. In fact EconomyCarRentals requires an extra €55 for a cross-border card. Suddenly their rates were not the cheapest in town.

Fortunately, I found that AutoEurope, another great company, matched the lowest EconomyCarRentals rate and did include the cross-border card.

Moral of story: Figure out your itinerary first and then read the fine print.

See more on car rental in Croatia.

If you’ve been waiting for Jadrolinija to release their autumn ferry schedules in order to plan your trip, you can rest easy. Croatia’s national ferry company has just released their local ferry schedules with timetables valid until December 31, 2009. In practice, there are usually few changes in January; the timetables are generally accurate through May. On June 1, the summer schedule takes effect.

There are a couple of surprises this year, chiefly the elimination of the Dubrovnik-Sobra (Mljet Island) car ferry. Now you’ll have to drive to Prapratno on the Peljesac peninsula to get the Sobra car ferry. Otherwise, you can hop aboard the Dubrovnik-Sobra catamaran.

To see all the winter 2009 schedules, get my pocket ferry guide which includes the Jadrolinija ferries as well as the other companies that run ferries between Split and Dubrovnik. In addition to the timetables, you get detailed booking information for each ferry. See more.

The Croatian government just can’t seem to find the right balance. At the beginning of this year an anti-smoking law banned lighting up in all bars, cafes and restaurants. Despite the obvious health benefits, the lucrative hospitality industry went into overdrive campaigning against the law. As the Croatian economy is touch-and-go right now, the government was under a lot of pressure to bolster anything that kept people spending money. So they caved in–more or less.

Last week a new proposal was cobbled together that aims to satisfy anyone addicted to smoking in bars. Restaurants and all public places will remain smoke-free but bars have a little more slack. Bars larger than 50 square meters must separate their smoking and non-smoking areas and improve their ventilation systems. Smaller places can decide whether or not to allow smoking, but if they do they must ventilate and ventilate well. Plus they must put up signs warning that smoking is dangerous. As if you didn’t know.

See more on smoking in Croatia.

Dubrovnik Airport will be a busy place next year as UK airlines announce their 2010 schedules. Travellers who were upset that Easyjet pulled out of East Midlands airport will be reassured to know that bmibaby, the low-cost division of BMI UK
has stepped in to fill the gap. On the schedule for next year are flights to Dubrovnik Sunday and Thursday starting May 30 and running until the end of September.

Coming from Aberdeen? Not to worry. Flyglobespan will whisk you to Dubrovnik every Wednesday from May 5 to October 13.

See more on flights to Dubrovnik.