Croatia Travel Blog

Archive for the ‘Zadar’ Category

Low-cost carrier Ryanair has announced a new flight service to run from Edinburgh to Zadar. Flights start on 1 April and will run every Wednesday throughout the season.  The Edinburgh service is in addition to the weekly London-Stansted service which will run on the same days.

Zadar is drawing an increasing amount of attention from abroad and deservedly so. British Vogue recently named Zadar’s Sea Organ as one of the 25 things in the world that must be seen.  “It is as though Neptune himself were playing the organ” said the magazine.

Read more about getting to Zadar, the  Zadar Sea Organ. and flights to Croatia.

Yes you can eat well in Zadar but who knew you could eat so much? On 22 November, you can pig out on a giant apple strudel cooked up by  Renato Kraljev, chef of Kornat, one of Zadar’s best restaurants. This 900-metre-long pastry will stretch the length of central Kalelarga street from St Simeon’s Church to the Church of Our Lady of Health. With one thousand kilograms of apples and 300 kilograms of strudel pastry, there should be enough for even the most avid appetites. Local groups will provide a musical accompaniment to the strudel-fest.

Zadar is near some world-class scuba diving destinations. There’s Premuda (west of Pag Island), Mezanj Island near Dugi Otok, not to mention the fabulous diving around the Kornati Islands. (see more Croatian diving destinations).

So when star free-diver, Kristijan Curavic, was looking for a great place to set up Croatia’s largest scuba-diving center, it made sense for him to choose Zadar.

The Curavic Diving Academy just opened its doors in Zadar, vowing to sensitize clients to the ecological and environmental aspects of diving in addition to offering the usual menu of dive lessons and diving excursions

See more about Scuba Diving in Croatia.

Zadar is one of Croatia‘s most underrated destinations and I’m glad to see that the travel section of the NYTimes has finally gotten around to highlighting this wonderful city in this article.

I landed in Zadar just a few weeks ago after taking Jadrolinija’s ferry from Ancona to Zadar which chugged into the harbour at 7am. It was a wonderful time to be in Zadar as the city was just waking up. The seaside promenade known as Riva was quiet, cool and relaxing with the hollow sounds of Zadar’s famous sea organ in the background. Unfortunately I didn’t get to sample Zadar’s nightlife on this trip, although I did stop by to say hello to Nick Colgan of The Garden, Zadar’s main hub for nightcrawlers. And I was gratified to check out the Bastion hotel. Finally, a hotel in Zadar’s Old Town! (read more about my recent trip to Croatia)

This article reminded me of a pet peeve. I do wish journalists would stop declaring that Croatia is a great deal because the “non-euro economy is easier on the dollar”. It ain’t necessarily so. The rate of the Croatian kuna is tied to the euro and always has been. As the euro climbs in value against the dollar, so does the Croatian kuna. In the nineties, I was getting eight kuna to the dollar; now it’s down to about 4.50. If you go to Zadar, you’ll get good deals on private accommodation and meals because it’s not a major tourist destination. Go to Dubrovnik and you’ll find prices only a sliver less (maybe) than eurozone countries like France and Italy.

See more on

• Zadar travel
• Travel costs in Croatia
• Croatian kuna exchange rate

Not all airlines have posted their summer timetables of flights to Croatia but some flight patterns are emerging. Overall, Croatia Airlines, Croatia’s national carrier, has the most international flights to the most destinations (in addition to having a monopoly on domestic routes). British Airways has apparently pulled its Gatwick-Split route although it still runs flights from Gatwick to Dubrovnik Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Also in a cutting frame of mind is Easyjet which no longer has a Bristol-Rijeka flight and Wizzair which has also shaken off Split but maintains its Luton-Zagreb route. Here are some other routes:

• Easyjet flies
  • from Bristol to Split Saturdays starting April 26 and Wednesdays starting May 21
  • from Gatwick to Split daily from April 21
• Ryanair flies
  • from Dublin to Zadar Wednesdays and Saturdays from April 2
  • from London Stansted to Zadar Monday, Wednesdays and Saturdays from March 31
  • from London Stansted to Pula Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from April 1.

  Thomsonfly flies

  • from Gatwick to Dubrovnik Sundays startingMay 4
  • from Luton to Dubrovnik Sundays starting July 6
  • from Manchester to Dubrovnik Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from May 2
  • from Birmingham, Doncaster-Sheffield, Gatwick, Luton and Mancester to Pula Tuesdays from May 6

See more on:

• Flights to Croatia
• Flights to Split
• Flights to Dubrovnik
• Flights to Pula
• Flights to Zadar
• Flights to Rijeka
  
• Flights to Zagreb