Croatia

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

I am looking to come here to stay. I might rent a place using this website and I like to know if it is a good site or not that I can trust (look below)? So, Can anyone tell me what is good here? I just want to go and relax here sometime in the summer of 2013 or 2014.

http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/croatia.htm

[DAVIDE]

What is good? Beach, sea food, women and prices are low compared to nearby EU countries. Must see are Ragusa (Dubrovnik), Split, Plitvice (a gigantic national park full of lakes and falls), Makarska, Porec etc. etc.

Currency is Kuna, 7 Kunas are like 1 Euro

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

What is good? Beach, sea food, women and prices are low compared to nearby EU countries. Must see are Ragusa (Dubrovnik), Split, Plitvice (a gigantic national park full of lakes and falls), Makarska, Porec etc. etc.

Value is Kuna, 7 Kunas are like 1 Euro

Is that good money wise?

[DAVIDE]

Are you from a EU country?

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

No, I am from the Eastern USA .

[DAVIDE]

In this case 1 USD are 5.71 Kunas, according to a currency converter i just found out. Hint i give you, if you want to spend few money for the stay, don't go in touristic areas but in villages nearby (few miles away, car renting is pretty cheap) and in Croatia, apart standard hotels, motels, hostels, there are also families renting rooms in their homes for tourists. Pretty cheap as well (even 10-15 euro - or up to 19 USD per day or less). In croatian language, "sobe" means "room", once there search for those signals meaning there are house rooms for renting (as i sead before) or if you don't find them, ask locals about sobe (with the final e pronounced like the e in elephant) and they will address you to those places. Before renting a sobe, you can visit it, to see how clean it is, where is it located and so on. To be fair i'm not croatian, but italian. I put one hour by car to enter Croatia from where i live. I make croatian bounds almost every year. Very good

[ElvenKind]

Come and visit my country, we want your money mate

Dubrovnik is a great place to see, but very expensive, Split very nice, great women there, almost whole coast line of my country is great. And we have english names for 'sobe' - Rooms to Rent or Rooms for Rent or Free Rooms.

[ELITEOFKINGWARMAN8]

And money you shall get !

Sounds good! I do want a beach front hotel/time share !

[Dejeyo]

I suggest you to visit Pakoštane. It's a nice small village with beautiful beaches (not sandy though) and three small islands nearby. Definately worth a visit.

[The Despondent Mind]

I would also recommend visiting Zagreb and Istra peninsula for various good reasons .

[Cyrus Da Great]

Come and visit my country, we want your money mate

Dubrovnik is a great place to see, but very expensive, Split very nice, great women there, almost whole coast line of my country is great. And we have english names for 'sobe' - Rooms to Rent or Rooms for Rent or Free Rooms.

I ll make sure the next time I go on vacation, it will be Dubrovnik.
From the Images, it looks Epic.

[Curufin]

Croatia is utterly brilliant, i've been backpacking across it 3 times and will probably go again, the beaches are beautiful, everyone's pretty friendly, if you want culture Split is ok and Dubrovnik is utterly brilliant, also the islands such as Hvar are fantastic. Its all really lovely, and if you want to go partying spilt is really cheap and busy and the majority of Croatian women are beautiful.

Also a lot of people speak English which is pretty useful, although a few key phrases do go a long way in making you look less touristy.

Although Dubrovnik isn't cheap, its as expensive as most western cities.

[stoogeofstooges]

After visiting Prague and Munich, we're driving down through the Austrian Alps to Croatia and we're planning on seeing Plitvice Lakes. The only downside is that we only have time to stay in Croatia for two days, some I doubt that will be enough time to go to Dubrovnik. Google maps says it takes about 5 hours to get from Dubrovnik to Plitvice Lakes. Are there any really nice beaches or coastal towns that are close to Plitvice Lakes? This is my high school graduation trip by the way, we fly out to Budapest on June 18th, then go to Prague, Munich, some little town in the Alps, down to Croatia, stop over in Romania, then back to Budapest, all in nine days. I would stay longer but I have to come back for work. I don't know any of the languages, but I know a decent bit of Hungarian and I'm familiar with all of the currencies. Uncle is driving since you have to be 21 to rent a car and my grandpa speaks Hungarian so he's setting us up and arranging family visits in Budapest, and probably acting as a bit of a tour guide.

[Aru]

Are there any really nice beaches or coastal towns that are close to Plitvice Lakes

Zadar is logical choice. Straight south down the motorway from Plitvice, two hours drive. One of biggest cities in Croatia (but small town on global scale) with plenty to see and enjoy.

If you and your grandpa are party types, you can drive some more from Zadar to Pag island and visit Novalja, it's Croatian beach party center.

Beaches come in all shapes you can imagine, but are mostly quite small. It's hard to suggest specific beach. It shouldn't be hard to find what you like, though.

Anyway, if you're driving to Romania from Croatia I wouldn't suggest going to Dubrovnik or more south than Zadar. I suggest you head there by motorway, north (A1), then east (A3) through Croatia and north Serbia rather than through Bosnia/Montenegro and south Serbia. They have bad roads there and you drive a good deal through mountains, so it's going to be slow and possibly stressful (depending on how your driver handles driving on a narrow road with no guard on the edge of 200 meter cliff and can he deal with aggressive drivers in those conditions). Great sights there in the mountains, but painfully slow. At best, you can take a shortcut through western Bosnia through Banja Luka to reenter Croatia and continue down the A3.

[stoogeofstooges]

Nah, we're not party types, we're just going for the sites and culture. If that culture includes having a grand time and alcohol, then I'll go for it, but other than that none of us are partiers. Thanks for the road info though.

[Aru]

I should also mention Nin, a town near Zadar. It's very small and peaceful, with big sandy beaches if that's what you prefer. It's got a small medieval center to sight see and a smallest cathedral in the world

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Here's some helpful links

Tourist site of Zadar, also helps with destinations in vicinity.
http://www.zadar.hr/index.asp

Beaches around Zadar
http://www.zadar.hr/page.asp?pageID=27&subID=36

Tourist site of Nin
http://www.nin.hr/en

There is also a small riviera of towns nearer to Plitvice with another famous natural attraction.
http://www.rivijera-paklenica.hr/en/index.php
http://www.rivijera-paklenica.hr/en/onama_kako.php

Now, to be fair, you can also choose to visit the northern coast from Plitvice, it's about the same distance, but you can't reach by motorway. I speak of towns Senj, Novi Vinodolski and Crikvenica. I honestly can't suggest going one way or the other, I mentioned Zadar first because it's easier to reach by motorway and because I was never actually there and have been doing my research for potentially visiting this year.

Anyhow, here's useful info
http://www.tz-novi-vinodolski.hr/default.asp?lang=en
http://www.rivieracrikvenica.com/?language=en
http://www.tz-senj.hr/en/

Eaither way you go, there are castles, ruins, cultural stuff... It's mainly whether you prefer to stay in bigger city, smaller town or peaceful villages (as peaceful as they can be in middle of tourist season), but in one or two days you can only visit a museum, and sight see a single town, so if I were you I'd go to most accessible place.

Oh, and there is also Karlobag.
http://www.tz-karlobag.hr/eng/home#.UY4hcqKPGzk

Seemingly straight towards coast from Plitvice, but you must go over Velebit mountain and there isn't much but Karlobag there. Velebit descends directly into the sea there, so it makes for hard terrain and somewhat peculiar climate with very, VERY powerful winds, the Bura. Seriously, you wouldn't believe it. Though Senj (mentioned earlier) is most popular for winds. Search Youtube for Senjska Bura.

[Merchant of Venice]

Croatia always appealed to me as a nice place to go. The island of Vis looks quite idilic(at least from my point of view).

Is everything okay in terms of politics. Is it like Greece or is it unsafe like other Balkan countries.

[Curufin]

Ive been to croatia several times and never had any trouble, really people are pretty friendly, although im sure theres a few idiots about, its no more dangerous than any other western country.


Urm i assume its all fine there, i never saw anything really mentioned so i assume its ok, probably better than greece these days which is becoming more right wing due to their economy dieing.

Also you gotta bear in mind that all balkan states are different, that statement is unfair, bosnia fpr example is great and everyones laid back, serbia on the other hand....

[Merchant of Venice]

Ive been to croatia several times and never had any trouble, really people are pretty friendly, although im sure theres a few idiots about, its no more dangerous than any other western country.


Urm i assume its all fine there, i never saw anything really mentioned so i assume its ok, probably better than greece these days which is becoming more right wing due to their economy dieing.

Also you gotta bear in mind that all balkan states are different, that statement is unfair, bosnia fpr example is great and everyones laid back, serbia on the other hand....

Thanks for the reply. I hope I didn't offend anyone by what I said. I myself am not too sure which Balkan states are in turmoil and thus it was less of a generalization more just a few countries which have a bad rap( sometimes untrue) who are in the Balkans.

[Aru]

I don't know what safe and unsafe is. If you mean statistically, then entire Balkans is among the safest places in the world. Personally I would only consider unsafe the places with open war going on (with risk of bomb falling on you) and those gang run neighborhoods in Americas where police don't enter (due to risk of being taken hostage for ransom by some gang). No travel agency would take me there anyway. There are no such places in Croatia or any surrounding country (though I would avoid certain villages in Kosovo, because there is no official law enforcement).

There are landmines in Croatia and Bosnia, but foreigners needn't worry about them. Mine fields are well marked (well, at least in Croatia), there are none on the coast (and especially not on the beaches) and should you by some chance stumble upon the red sign saying MINE, just stay on the (if possible paved) path and don't enter the overgrown bush. And to be on the safe side, also don't stray off the path for another hundred meters even if land is cultivated. I know mined scare the out of tourists, but there's really nothing to it, they're bigger problem for local farmers (because you can never clear the mine field with 100% certainty, after all we're still finding unexploded bombs from WW2).

Concerning Greece, I highly doubt local politics influence the enjoyment of tourists in any way. If anything, the problems Greeks find themselves in should only make them more welcoming and willing to earn as much money from tourism as they can. Also, possibly cheaper than before, because they are losing tourists over prejudice and ignorance.