Travel

July 21, 2019 - Croatia's first international celebrity snapper has an exhibition of his photographs in his native Split. The photos of Jadran Lazic are also for sale, and look who is buying back in L.A.  One of the things I most love about Dalmatia is its egalitarian nature. It doesn't matter who you are back home - we are all here for the same reason - to chill - and that makes us equal.  Hvar is known for its very relaxed approach to celebrities, and they are broadly left alone - unless of course you are a drunk British…

July 21, 2019 - A new tour to meet the needs of the Instagram generation - meet the Hvar Selfie Tour. What do we think? Back in 1989, as a very naive 19-year-old, I bought a one-way ticket to Caracas to discover South America and 'find myself.' South America was incredible, although I am still searching for me.  I didn't take a camera.  I have SO many memories of that trip etched in my mind, as though they happened yesterday. Sights, sounds, smells. Walking an old 85-km Inca Trail in Bolivia with a Swiss guy was three of the best…

July 21, 2019 - A new sign telling people who are already in Jelsa where they are is a symbol of one of the biggest problems in Croatian tourism. And quite easy to fix.  This is not an article criticising my beloved adopted home town of Jelsa, although it could easily be one. I am actually working quite hard documenting various parts of the summer season, such as it is, in Jelsa, with the aim of producing a detailed and constructive report on what is going wrong with the town's tourism and - I hope it will be useful -…

July 21, 2019 - Continuing our at Croatian tourist destinations almost 50 years ago, next up a visit to timeless Korcula Town.   The latest in our look at destinations in Croatia almost 50 years ago through the video lenses of tourists at the time.  We have already looked at how the Pearls of the Adriatic and Istria - Dubrovnik and Rovinj - and how they looked back then. These days Rovinj has the most overnight stays of any destination in Croatia (and yet one comment on the video said that the only thing that had really changed were the clothes…

The Tourist Board of Istria recently premiered the new Istria promotional video for the entire destination of Istria, with the slogan Experience life as it should be in Istria!   Goran Rihelj writes for hrturizam.hr about the newest promotional video for entire Istria as a destination, not separate towns, inviting guests to come to Istria to explore it. That video is a part of the new digital strategy of the Istria Tourist Board. The video is fun and attractive, it's filled with emotion and experiences, has a very interesting narrative and the closing message. It attracts attention, it is just…

One of the biggest attractions for divers in the Croatian part of the Adriatic is the sunken Austro-Hungarian passenger steamer ship, SS Baron Gautsch, which sank near Rovinj in 1914. Divers love going to sunken ships, it is considered one of the biggest attractions of getting below the surface, seing what humanity has permanently deposited at the bottom. One of such destinations in Croatia that gets most attention and the biggest number of diving visitors each year is the SS Baron Gautsch wreck, located at the coordinates 44° 56' 25" N, 13° 34' 40" E at the depth of 28…

July 20, 2019 - Continuing our look at tourism in Croatia almost 50 years ago through archive video, a visit to Rovinj in 1973.  This article started out as a blog about Rovinj back in 1973, and the video shot by an Englishman on holiday which you can see below. Having done the same with Dubrovnik, I thought it would be fun to do a short nostalgic series on Tourism as It Once Was.  And then I noticed one of the comments below the video: With the exception of people's clothes, this video could easily pass as 2018.  Which…

July 20, 2019 - How does the perception of Croatia as a good value destination for British visitors compare with its competition. A new survey featured in the Daily Mail has more.  Perception is everything in the modern age, and in order to best understand where Croatian tourism stands in relation to its competition, getting an understanding of how Croatia is being presented to would-be tourists is essential for our tourism chiefs.  And it doesn't look good...  One of the most read English-language media in the world with 53 million unique visitors a month, has published a price comparison for…

July 19, 2019 - The new Split Airport terminal opened a few days ago. TCN's Pyatigorsk correspondent road tested it on a recent flight to Moscow.  One of the many differences between running TCN today and the Total Hvar blog which started this project back in 2011 is access to stories. Back then, nobody knew about the blog, and I had to physically attend every event to show that we were a credible media. I remember driving to cover the story of a kindergarten playground opening on Hvar and thinking that there must be another way.  These days, TCN is…

Summer in Međimurje traditionally culminates with the organisation of the Porcijunkulovo Festival in the last week of July and the first week of August. That has been happening for the past 55 years before the festival was even called that, when it was the Fair of the traditional crafts, which then evolved into the celebration of summer and joy in Čakovec. Organised by the Čakovec Tourist Board, the Porcijunkulovo Festival includes various events, such as concerts by the biggest Croatian music stars, theatre plays, workshops and playrooms for kids, promotions and presentations. The events this year during #porcijunkulovo2019 will happen…