May 13, 2021 - From June 7 to 12, Bol on Brač will again host tennis players at the 5th WTA Croatia Bol Open. Tournament director Feliks Lukas announced on Thursday that, despite the difficult conditions, the tournament would be the strongest so far.

As in previous years, the Bol tournament is part of the WTA 125 series and will be played in parallel with the second week of the Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament in Paris. The WTA Croatia Bol Open prize fund is $115,000, reports T.portal.

The results of the tennis players at Roland Garros will also dictate the draw for the Bol tournament, but the current list looks impressive at the moment.

"We have 13 registered players from the Top 100, and the last one is currently 126th in the WTA rankings. This year, there will be exciting names, some Grand Slam finalists like Sara Errani, players from the Top 5 who used to shine and burn, such as Eugenie Bouchard. What is especially important to me is that all the Bol winners are coming again. Aleksandra Krunić and the best Slovenian tennis player Tamara Zidanšek, who has won the tournament twice, and Luxembourg tennis player Mandy Minella, have announced their arrival. I would especially like to emphasize the invitation for Argentine Nadia Podoroska, who beat Serena Williams in Rome on Wednesday," said Feliks Lukas at a press conference held at Hotel Dubrovnik in Zagreb, where special guests were Croatian tennis players Ana Konjuh and Jana Fett who have a guaranteed invitation to the main tournament.

Marko Lukunic/PIXSELL

With them, Croatian tennis players Tereza Mrdeža and Tena Lukas should also take part in the tournament, and the list of applicants also includes Bernarda Pera from Zadar, who plays for the US. 

"I would like to thank Feliks for trying to organize the tournament even in these difficult times. It means a lot to all of us, especially the Croatian tennis players. We will see how Roland Garros will fare, and we may not even play. But if not, it is a good consolation to be at home. Bol, where the organization is always at the top level," said Ana Konjuh, who in her only Bol performance (2016) reached the semifinals. Due to a back injury, she had to hand over the match to the ultimate winner, Luxembourg's Mandy Minelli.

Ana's result was repeated in 2018 by Tena Lukas, who was defeated in the semifinal by Slovenian Tamara Zidanšek on her way to her first of two consecutive titles in Bol, which she will come to defend this year.

Vrbovec resident Jana Fett performed in 2019 but did not pass the first round.

"I am thrilled that Bol will be held this year. It is one of my favorite tournaments, as it is at home, and the atmosphere and organization are always great. Bol is a nice place, and I am really looking forward to playing there again. I hope that I will reach at least the final, if not me then one of us," said Fett.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, last year's edition of the WTA Croatia Bol Open was canceled, as were all tennis competitions scheduled to take place between mid-March and early August 2020. This year's edition will be played under strict epidemiological measures, which include testing all tennis players upon arrival and after five days and all people in the organization who will come into direct contact with them.

"At the moment, the Civil Protection Headquarters' decision that there is no audience at sports competitions is still in force. We believe that some measures will be eased by the beginning of the tournament because the tournament is outdoors and we have excellent conditions. Of course, we are ready to hold the tournament under the measures in force," said the tournament director, referring in particular to the difficult conditions in organizing this year's tournament.

"Our budget has never been smaller, the sponsors also never fewer, but our results as organizations are never stronger. We need to tip our hats off to the sponsors who remain."

In addition to tennis, the Bol tournament is also proud of the accompanying events organized as part of the tournament, and they will not be missing this year either.

"In the last edition, we shot the official video of the famous pianist Lola Astanova, which was watched by more than a million people, which was a huge promotion, and it all happened as part of the WTA tournament. This year, our theme is a combination of art and sports, so that world-famous photographers, such as Jadran Lazić and Čedo Komljenović, will come to Bol. Jadran Lazić will present a monograph of his opus exclusively in Bol. As part of the tournament program, we will have the opening of the Museum of the Dominican Convent in Bol," announced Lukas and concluded:

"Every year, Bol has made a significant contribution to the promotion of Croatian tourism, and this year it is of great importance to show the world that Croatia is a safe destination."

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November 6, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Sundair operates to Brac from Berlin and Dusseldorf as part of its 2021 flight schedule, and more. 

Croatian Aviation reports that German charter airline Sundair has announced two new routes to Croatia in its 2021 summer flight schedule. Namely, Sundair will operate on the lines from Berlin and Dusseldorf to Bol on the island of Brac. 

German tour operators are already selling group and individual arrangements for the summer of 2021 on the island of Brac, offering direct flights from Berlin and Dusseldorf, operated by Sundair.

The Dusseldorf - Brac line will be in operation from May 22 to October 2, 2021, once a week, every Saturday, while the Berlin - Brac line will be in operation from May 23 to October 3, 2021, also once a week, on Sundays.

As a reminder, Sundair was supposed to operate on the charter line between Frankfurt and Brac for the German tour operator this summer, but the flights were canceled due to weak demand caused by the global pandemic.

A319 aircraft with 150 seats in the fleet of this airline will operate on the routes to Brac. If the flights are realized (which will primarily depend on demand), Brac will directly connect with German cities after a long time.

Furthermore, Ex Yu Aviation reports that low-cost carrier easyJet will launch a seasonal service between Glasgow and Pula in June 2021, which will run on Monday and Friday until September 3. easyJet will be the only airline connecting the two cities. 

Ex Yu Aviation also reports that Brussels Airlines will resume its seasonal operations between the Belgian and Croatian capitals next summer. Brussels Airlines plans to return to Zagreb with six weekly flights (each day except Saturday), beginning March 28. Airbus A319 aircraft will operate on this route. 

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December. 7, 2019 - Some local-self governments in Croatia have decided to lead the fight against new tourist apartments, like Bol on Brac, for example.

Namely, Jutarnji List writes that Bol is taking the initiative to limit the possibility of building tourist apartments so that the municipality does not experience the fate of some whose infrastructure has collapsed under the burden of ‘zimmer frei’, or vacant rooms. 

As Mayor Tihomir Marinkovic told Jutarnji List, the municipality plans to use the future construction zone in the area of its administrative unit for two specific types of construction - smaller apartments for workers and luxury villas with a ground floor and a maximum of one floor, while special construction conditions, which will not allow a high density of construction, would make this type of investment unprofitable for the builders of commercial apartments.

The idea came about after Marinkovic and the municipal council realized that they would soon have to adopt new spatial plans because their existing construction zones were more or less filled.

“The law says that we can prepare new construction zones when existing zoning plans reach the 80% level of construction. As we are very close to this percentage, the municipality will soon have to find new construction zones within which we will allow construction, but since we do not want these areas to give us the fate of apartments, the municipality has the opportunity to adapt the construction conditions to certain types of construction that we consider to be scarce,” says Marinkovic.

These are, therefore, apartments for workers, especially foreign workers, who today cannot find adequate accommodation in the municipality, and no investment has yet been made in the workers' hostel announced by the Bluesun hotel group in the Bol area.

Another form of construction Marinkovic sees in the plans for Bol is luxury villas that will be used for housing or rent, but which will require less construction on larger parcels of land to prevent a high density of residential space.

“We have not defined the figures here, but the idea is to allow the construction of buildings with a ground floor and a maximum of one more floor, and then strictly prescribe a construction ratio, which should in no way go at the expense of horticulture. So, this would give us smaller facilities with large green spaces and additional facilities intended primarily for guests of slightly higher spending power,” says Marinkovic.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there were a total of 8,300 beds in the municipality of Bol in 2018, but we were unable to obtain data on how much of this relates to beds in private accommodation.

Since the Bluesun Hotel Group operates on Brac, especially in Bol, a good part of these beds are in hotels, and last year, the municipality realized a total of 102,000 arrivals and more than 600,000 overnights.

Bol, however, is not the first to decide to restrict the growth of a particular type of accommodation by special conditions. Recall, Stari Grad on Hvar boasted a similar initiative.

Admittedly, the problem was detected in hostels, so mayor Antonio Skarpa and the City Council passed the Amendments to the Stari Grad Spatial Plan, which now states that "hotels, guesthouses and other catering and tourist buildings can be built inside the settlement, apart from hostels," and "within hotels and tourist areas, only hotels, tourist resorts, camps and tourist moorings such as pontoons, jettys, quays, and berths can be built or renovated."

Stari Grad hopes to direct tourism to a slightly more luxurious level, which is why 200 beds in the existing two hostels were considered sufficient for the needs of current guests.

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The recently opened Lifestyle Hotel Vitar, located in Bol on the island of Brač is constantly being noticed and given awards and compliments for its interior design. So, these days, Studio UP which worked on the Vitar's design is among the finalists for the yearly award by the Association of the Croatian Architects for this project. 

The four-star lifestyle hotel Vitar is located right at the entrance to Bol, a place well-known for its amazing Zlatni Rat beach, and a popular destination for beach-goers, surfers and divers. It has 25 rooms on 4 floors, and several small gyms on different spots within the hotel.

Lea Pelivan and Tom Plejić, head architects that worked on the project explained to Jutarnji list that the name "Vitar" is logical for a famous surfer destination (vitar is a local word for wind). The atmosphere in the hotel is also surfer-inspired, and during their stay, the guests are aware of the dynamics in the space created by moving elements of the design. They weren't working on the project since the start, but when they took over, they needed to change the entire interior design to make the hotel become a cool and laid-back place.

There's a top chef working at the hotel, Mario Čepek, so that aspect of the hotel experience is also highest quality. The view from the hotel's roof to Hvar and Zlatni Rat is breath-taking, and each of the rooms has a view: either of Hvar, southern side of Brač and the channel between the islands or of the Vidova gora mountain on Brač. That's one of the reasons the designers insisted on the beds facing the windows, and not the TV sets in the rooms. The perimeter of the hotel has been turned into an intense mediterranean garden, full of colours, smells and contrasting surfaces.