Croatia Travel Blog

Archive for the ‘Jeanne’s Croatia 2009’ Category

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.

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.

After touching down in Split Airport, I headed straight for my hotel in Kastel Luksic. Lying between Split and Trogir, Kastela Bay is rimmed with a handful of little fortified villages that once served as getaways for the rich. Each name begins with Kastel (fort): there’s Kastel Novi, Kastel Stari, Kastel Gomilica, but the best is Kastel Luksic.

Here the stone streets are embellished with flowering plants and interrupted by a shady seaside park. Though there’s a carefully restored museum and a welter of wall plaques thank various organizations for the subsidies that renovated the town, the main attraction is the calm, low-key atmosphere. Small clusters of guys sip coffee on shady cafe terraces, waves slap at the gravel beach, giant chestnut trees pelt you with their fruit.

Truth be told, no one comes for the beach. After much work and more subsidies, the sea water is finally pollution-free but finicky swimmers generally head south of Split where the water is pristine. For that reason, tourism is fairly low-key here but it’s starting to pick up. Anyway, Kastela bay is a good way of getting off the tourist track and Kastel Luksic would be a good stop on a day trip from Split to Trogir.

To be honest, I never felt truly in tune with Sibenik. Although home to Dalmatia’s finest cathedral, the town’s economy took a tough hit from the 1990s war. Well into this decade, it still seemed shell-shocked to me, struggling to make its presence felt as more than a pit stop between Zadar and Split. It seemed sad, poor and slightly depressing.

Strolling the town today revealed a new energy and  a new pride that Sibenik was on the tourist map even this far off-season. The unique and wondrous Sv Jakov cathedral was a busy place inside and out with a steady stream of visitors.

Detail from Sibenik Sv Jakov Cathedral

The marble exterior glistened after a recent restoration and its renewing spirit spread throughout the old town. Souvenir shops for the visitors and boutiques for the locals livened up the old streets without overwhelming them with commerce.

The economic rebirth has its limits though. There’s still not enough disposable income to keep a viable restaurant scene going. As elsewhere, locals make do with a lunch of cake, coffee and cigarettes in a cafe-bar while the restaurants languish. My lunch at Dalmatino Tavern & Wine Cellar was not particularly good value for money. Few locals can or will spend 100KN for pasta with clams and a glass of wine. Sibenik restaurants still have some work to do.

No wonder the people of Split are so trim and fit! To get away from the centuries-old stones and enjoy some Mediterranean vegetation the only solution is to climb up to Marjan hill. Overgrown with pine and cactus, the 125m-high Marjan hill is on a peninsula that juts out from west Split. Many, many steps take you from the Veli Varos neighbourhood up and up until you come to a caffe-bar with a splendid view that encompasses all Split and a good number of its off-shore islands. You can continue to climb the pine-shaded steps or take the sunny route that runs around the hill’s perimeter, passing small churches, a botanical garden and the tiny Split zoo.

Bene beach

Another way to explore the hill park is to enter on the northern side, rent a bike and cycle a few kilometers to the Bene beach sports complex. There’s a playground, tennis courts, a caffe-bar and the above beach. The road is closed to traffic and circles round Marjan hill on the outer perimeter where the shiny sea peeks behind the pines. There may be a more beautiful Mediterranean bike ride somewhere but right now I can’t think of one.