As Marina Ruso/Morski writes on the 2nd of February, 2019, after the well-known European Best Destination portal declared Zagreb as the best Christmas destination in Europe for three consecutive years, and the City of Zadar as the best European destination of 2016, this year has seen the charming town of Cavtat, otherwise Croatia's southernmost town, nominated for the prestigious title.

Cavtat can be found on the list of twenty destinations nominated for the best European destination in 2019, ranked with the likes of Genoa, Malaga, Budapest and even European giants such as London and Rome. After just the first week, Cavtat entered the list of the top ten destinations.

How can I vote?

Voting is extremely easy, just click HERE and in just a few seconds after having clicked on Cavtat, your vote will be cast. No registration is required on the page, but it is important to note that you can only vote once per week from one IP address. The competition will remain open until February the 5th.

Anyone who has visited Cavtat will agree that such small places which still manage to provide visitors with so much are rare. Cavtat, located in Konavle in the extreme south of Dalmatia, is rich in natural beauty, boasts an equally rich cultural and historical heritage, and its tourist offer standards are well and truly harmonised with the demands of today's tourists. The peace-content ratio that Cavtat offers makes it an extremely desirable destination for many, and now this nomination confirms that Konavle's gem can stand shoulder to shoulder with large European cities like London.

With this nomination, the European Best Destination portal ranked the picturesque southern Dalmatian town among the best in the following categories: "The Best Destination for Nature Lovers" and "The Best Romantic Destination".

''Just the nomination alone already means a lot and opens up additional opportunities for the development and the promotion of Cavtat, a year-round destination which continues to record tourism growth - a clear indication that it possesses an increasing importance on the travel list of many tourists from all over the world. We're happy that the European Best Destination association has recognised Cavtat, and we will be extremely pleased to have as many people join as possible to vote for Cavtat,'' said Frano Herendi, Director of the Tourist Board of the Municipality of Konavle.

Make sure to follow our dedicated travel page for much more.

Click here for the original article by Marina Ruso for Morski

As Morski writes on the 19th of January, 2019, solving island ferry connections in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, especially the fast-freight and ferry connections for Vela Luka in Korčula and Lastovo, was the subject of a meeting initiated by the parliamentary representative Branko Bačić with the heads of Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavić initially emphasised the problems of the lack of appropriate vessels, praised the upcoming investments in port infrastructure, and seized the opportunity to discuss the upcoming daily connection between Dubrovnik and the island of Lastovo.

''Dubrovnik-Neretva County has already prepared eight funding projects from EU funds, ie through the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, and this is a great success. As far as boat connections are concerned, they're better than they were before, but there are still faults to be found. The priority is to connect Lastovo with the county centre of Dubrovnik. This is a project that should have been realised a long time ago, but it's positive that we're finally close to sorting it out,'' said the prefect, adding that everything should be done to make sure that children from Lastovo can keep going to high school in their county, more precisely on Korčula, and that the construction of pupil accommodation on Korčula is something that is indispensable. He stressed that a decision to co-finance the project should be made at the upcoming session of the Croatian Government in Dubrovnik.

Parliamentary Representative Branko Bačić said that he initiated this meeting in order to reach an agreement between Dubrovnik-Neretva County, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, and Jadrolinija for the drafting of a better connection between the southern Dalmatian islands of Korčula and Lastovo, and to find a solution for the ferry service for the Split - Ubli line.

"We have to consider all the possibilities, and I still think the most realistic option is to purchase a ship of a higher capacity and a higher speed than the ships we've been using so far on that line, and to do that for as long as we don't manage to build a new ship,'' Bačić said.

The managing director of Jadrolinija announced that the company intends to purchase a second-hand ship, that there is a possibility that they still need to run some checks on, but that he wanted to hear from the representatives of the islands or the local self-government unit.

The Mayor and those from the administration, as well as participants of the meeting agreed that the purchase of a ship was the only realistic possibility at this time, as well as to take on the construction of a new ship for that line. They also demanded that the Jelena catamaran be permanently left to operate on the Split - Ubli line.

The director of the coastal maritime transport agency, Paula Vidović, stressed that maintaining the line for Lastovo at an annual level costs about 41 million kuna out of the total cost of maintaining all the lines, which amounts to about 320 million kuna.

Four major conclusions were agreed upon at the meeting:

1. It is necessary that Jadrolinija immediately looks to purchase a ship for the Split-Vela Luka-Lastovo line and continues to build a new ship for the same line.

2. There is full support for the construction of eight local and county-level ports in the area of ​​Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

3. It was established that the Jelena catamaran, which has all of the necessary maritime capabilities alone, is permanently kept on the Split-Vela Luka-Lastovo line.

4. It is also necessary to turn the Dubrovnik-Lastovo line, for which the Government has already given its consent, into an everyday route to ensure a better connection between Lastovo with the centre of the county, and so that secondary school students from Lastovo can continue to attend secondary school on the island of Korčula.

Follow our lifestyle page for more. If it's just Dubrovnik and southern Dalmatian you're interested in, give Total Dubrovnik and Total Korcula a follow.

In recent years, Split University has appeared on numerous lists of some of the most prestigious world rankings of higher education institutions, coming out as the leading university in the Republic of Croatia.

As Slobodna Dalmacija/Marijana Cvrtila writes on the 27th of January, 2019, the latest list published of the Best Global Universities Rankings by the American The News & World Report, has ranked Split University at 523rd place out of a total of 1250 top universities in the United States and eighty other countries across the world.

The Americans ranked Split University as the best Croatian university, with two other Croatian education institutions finding themselves placed on that same list: Zagreb University at 560th place, and Rijeka University in 1066th position (last year they weren't even on the list).

That is why Split found the second year in a row in front of Zagreb, although both universities had a slightly worse success in 2019 than in 2018: the University of Split was among the top 500, with a ranking at 487, while Zagreb took over 526 position.

Despite the fact that three Croatian universities have been listed among the best in the world, it's worth mentioning that universities in two neighbouring universities have been better placed on this list than our best university; Ljubljana University is at 384th place, which is progress when compared to last year when it was placed in 394th position, while Belgrade University came in at 427th place, which is down compared to last year (397th).

According to Best Global Universities Rankings, Serbia has four higher education institutions on the list, but the universities in Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac are ranked behind 1000th place, while Slovenia still has Maribor University in a decent 788th place.

There are no other countries in the former Yugoslavia on this scale at all. Of the new(er) EU member states, Split University is better ranked, for example, when compared to the best universities in Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, or Slovakia.

Of course, the world's top universities are in America: Harvard, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Stanford, while among the top ten of the only European higher education institutions are the United Kingdom's prestigious Oxford, at fifth place, and Cambridge coming in close at seventh place.

Over recent years, Split University is regularly getting placed ahead of Zagreb University, one of the most important international charts, the Times Higher Education, ranked it as such. Both of these charts are among the ranking leaders of various such institutions.

Split University has achieved some excellent placements in the categories of international cooperation, where it lies among the top eighty universities. However, the University of Zagreb is better placed towards global research reputation, which is the weakest point of Split University, which stands out in the field of physics.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more.

Click here for the original article by Marijana Cvrtila for Slobodna Dalmacija

As eZadar writes on the 27th of January, 2019, at the ITF Slovakiatour 2019, the largest Slovak holiday and leisure fair which is currently marking 25 years of existence, the Vir Tourism tourist agency set up a stand with gifts for visitors to the fair, and held a presentation of the Croatian island in which the hall was filled to maximum capacity.

''We did a good job presenting the island and its tourist offer, and after the presentation there was quite a lot of interest in Vir. Of course, we did business with tour operators, agencies and tourism journalists who were fascinated by the number of Slovaks going on holiday to the island,'' says Srđan Liverić from the aforementioned Vir Tourism agency.

Liverić and the head of the agency, Mate Čulina, carried out most of the work directly with the fair's stand which attracted the attention of not only Slovak travellers and tourists, but also the director of the Croatian Tourist Board for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Dubravko Miholić, who joined the Vir locals a week earlier at a similar fair in in Brno, Czech Republic.

The Slovak part of Vir's tourism promotion was held from January the 24th to the 27th, with a presentation in Bratislava, the participation of numerous representatives of the Slovakian media, investors and business partners of Vir's destination companies. As a travel and leisure fair, ITF Slovakiatour is one of the leading trade fairs in Slovakia for the tourism and hospitality sector.

Slovakiatour is an excellent opportunity to present tourism products and services, and all visitors can get information from tour operators, travel agencies, hoteliers and airlines so that they can organise their own holiday plans. Exhibitors like Vir Tourism used the fair to interact with potential buyers of services and other representatives of the tourism industry.

''This jubilee 25th ITF Slovakiatour was the most visited so far, and as the only Croatian promotion booth, all the attention of the Slovaks interested in spending their summer holidays in Croatia was directed towards us,'' stated Liverić, reporting on a good job well done in Bratislava.

This year's ITF Slovakiatour brought together 350 exhibitors from many countries from across the world, from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, China and the Dominican Republic to Iran, Kenya, Cuba, Austria, Italy, Morocco and many others.

The numbers speak volumes about the significance of the Slovak tourist market for Vir island. Slovaks made up 12,833 tourist arrivals and 108,612 overnight stays, representing a growth of 19.5 percent (10.742 in 2017) in arrivals and 18 percent in nights (92.049).

Along with Slovenes, Hungarians and Germans, only the Slovaks made up more than 100,000 overnight stays and 10,000 arrivals last year, with continuous tourist growth from that market for Vir.

Follow our dedicated travel page for more.

Click here for the original article by Kazimir Skrbic for eZadar

As Morski writes on the 27th of January, 2019, over the last five years, the island of Vir has been experiencing regular works on large communal infrastructure projects. This intensive work on Vir began back in 2013, and the completion of this process, ie the construction of a water and sewage network in all of the island's settlements, as well as the complete asphalting of the streets and setting up public lighting, is expected by the year 2025.

Then, according to Vir's mayor Kristijan Kapović, everything Vir has had going on in its ''makeover'' procedure will finally be complete, meaning that by 2025, the entire island of Vir will be a completely ''done up'' island. This means that all 10,000 buildings and more than 800 streets will be fully equipped in an infrastructure sense, all facilities will have access to water and the sewage system, along with newly asphalted roads, public lighting and renovated beaches. Owing to the velocity of works that need to be undertaken until 2025, the mayor has asked Vir's residents for their support and their patience.

Here's how that all looks in practice: Every day, hundreds of employees from the island's local utility companies Vir Maintenance and Vir Waterways, as the chosen contractor of works on the project for the construction of the water and sewage network, are working on the maintenance and installation of new public lighting systems and construction of connections to the water supply and the sewerage network island of Vir.

Parallel with the intensive implementation of the island's asphalting project, in 2013 and 2017, more than 75 kilometres of roads with about 200,000 m² of asphalt were completed, while the existing roads on the island are all maintained on a daily basis, their length can be measured in several hundreds of kilometres. Along with 200 brand new light fixtures, a huge amount of public lighting have been set up in all of the island's small villages, while around 500 new ones are in preparation for being set up over the next two years. More than 200 million kuna has been invested in all of these projects in total so far.

The implementation of the enormous project for the construction of Vir's water supply system and sewage network has been carried out in its first and second phases with the beginning of the third phase on its way. The Prezid settlement will soon become the new construction site for the construction of both water supply and drainage facilities for about 1,300 buildings.

''The entire island of Vir with all of its settlements, or about 7,000 buildings that are not yet covered by the grid, should receive water and sewage systems by the end of 2023, or in the first half of 2024. Once the large infrastructure pipes are placed in the ground, public lighting and asphalt will be placed in all the streets without such communal infrastructure. This will be accomplished by 2025,'' concluded Kapović.

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Click here for the original article by Kazimir Skrbic on eZadar

January 27, 2019 - So, you’re planning a road trip through Croatia, but you’re torn on where to go? We’re not surprised, and trust us when we say that you’re not alone. A blessing and a curse, Croatia is a country with almost too many gems - if that’s even possible. Because we know your holidays are sometimes limited and you want to pack in as much as you can while you’re here, we thought we’d bring you the pros and cons (er, just the pros) of road tripping through two of Croatia’s most popular regions - Istria and Dalmatia. 

Istria

If you don’t know much about Istria, allow us to enlighten you. Istria is located in the northern part of Croatia and is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic. While it could be considered one of Croatia’s lesser-known regions (depending on who you talk to), it is gaining popularity quickly - and you can thank Anthony Bourdain for his No Reservations Croatia episode back in 2012. 

What makes Istria really special, however, is its charm. From quiet medieval hilltop villages like Motovun, known for its annual summer film festival, to popular tourist destinations like Pula, known for having the only remaining Roman amphitheater with four side towers entirely preserved, Istria has something for every traveler - and it truly is best explored by car (also because public transport is often limited to the pearls of this region). 

Istria is also the culinary king of Croatia. You might know it for its truffles and truffle hunting adventures, or for its Michelin-star restaurants, or maybe for its title as the best olive oil region in the world, and if you didn’t already know, you'd quickly learn that cuisine is king after your first bite.

Istria is a region of diversity, too - it boasts mountains and forests to seaside towns and islands - and rivers even run through it! But there is so, so much more we’ll let you explore yourselves. 

Not to miss towns in Istria:

- Hum: because it is considered the ‘smallest town in the world’

- Rovinj: for its colourful alleyways and art 

- Pula: for its Roman ruins

- Motovun: because it's like Croatia’s Tuscany 

- Labin/Rabac: because this is where the green hills meet the sea

- Anywhere in Central Istria 

Dalmatia

We’re pretty sure that if you’ve heard of Croatia, chances are, you’ve heard of Dalmatia. Croatia’s bustling coastal region famous for its islands and UNESCO towns, Dalmatia is the region of Split (and Diocletian’s Palace), Hvar (known for parties and yachts, and definitely yacht parties), Krka (for its waterfalls you can swim in), and Dubrovnik (known as the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic). 

While a trip through Dalmatia will be much busier than one through Istria, you’ll also have more amenities on hand. Split, for example, is Croatia’s second largest city - and while its Old Town is ancient, its outskirts provide anything you need (like three of the largest shopping malls in the region).

Apart from shopping, Dalmatia has plenty of perks - like island hopping, or canyoning down the Cetina river, or hiking Biokovo mountain. Dalmatia is bursting with museums and history, from the Romans to the breakup of Yugoslavia. Dalmatia’s coastal towns are the pride of every fisher - and the food, like black cuttlefish risotto or classic grilled fish soaked in garlic and olive oil is so simple, yet will be remembered as one of the best meals you’ve ever had. 

Known as one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world by CNN Travel, exploring Dalmatia by car should be one of your top bucket list items.

Not to miss towns in Dalmatia:

- The obvious Zadar, Šibenik, Split, Dubrovnik

- Primošten: because its center is located on an island that is connected with the mainland 

- Trogir: because it is a UNESCO paradise

- Omiš: because of pirates, fortresses, and soparnik

- Baćina lakes: because you’ll be mesmerised

- Anywhere in the Neretva Valley for mandarins and frogs

- Ston: because of oysters and the European ‘Great Wall of China’

- Any tiny coastal village along the way

After you’ve decided which region you’d like to explore, you can make your trip even easier by using Croatia’s trusted private transfer service Solo Transfers. A reliable transfer company with friendly and professional drivers that will take you wherever you want to go, your Croatian road trip will be one for the memory books. 

To find out more about Solo Transfers, check out their official website. 

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

If you were anywhere along Croatia's Adriatic coast on Friday, chances are, you felt the wrath of the bura, our beloved northern wind. The windiest parts were the sub-mountainous channels, where during the early evening hours, the impact was about 180 km/h. In the Dalmatia region, the bura gusted in Zadar County’s Maslenica at a raging 166 km/h, Dalmacija Danas reported on January 25, 2019. 

The Crometeo storm chasers team decided to brave the bura and venture out to Gornje Sitno in the municipality of Split on Friday evening. With a measuring instrument on hand, the crew recorded a bura impact of 174 km/h at about 10 pm, marking values in the range of the strongest wind speed ever measured in the city of Split (whose measuring station is on Marjan), though this location is known for being more powerful than in the city itself.

You can see photos of the storm chasers' adventure here. 

A bit further up on the Adriatic coast in the town of Senj, the bura measured 189 km/h! The Crometeo storm chasers of Senj also decided to brave the wind, but this time, they chose to demonstrate just how brutal it is by attempting to do an ordinary activity - like drinking a glass of wine. 

It turned out to be quite an extreme sport that requires a lot of skill.

"Do not try this at home, these are professionals," the group could be heard saying in the video. 

In less than 24 hours, the video saw more than 1,000 likes and was viewed 665 times!

As expected, the bura forced a lot of road closures around the coast, and even the Dr. Franjo Tuđman bridge in Dubrovnik for specific vehicles. Fortunately, the bura has (mostly) passed, and we have a sunny and bright Saturday along our Croatian coast. 

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

FlixBus has reported that in early 2019, their bus lines network in Croatia will greately expand again.

From February 1st, their customers from Croatia will be able to travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time, with their buses operating between Zagreb, Karlovac, Dubrovnik, Metković and Imotski toward 8 destinations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most important hubs in the country will be Mostar and Međugorje.

Dean Čebohin, the director of business develompment for FlixBus for CEE South Region explains, and Linda Draškić writes for Večernji list, how it's a logical step for the company, followint the trends of the travel and the desires of the trevelers themselves, and a lot of them are students. This step also expands the options of travel towards the southern Europe as well.

FlixBus has also created a network of bus lines at the southern-most part of Croatia, so now Dubrovnik, Metković, Makarska, Imotski and other towns in Southern Dalmatia are inter-connected, but are also now connected to Zagreb. So, with already existing bus lines towards Zadar and Split, Dalmatia is becoming an important part of the Europe's largest network of bus lines.

"For the first time the green buses will be seen in the southern-most parts of Croatia, and that makes all of us happy. At this moment, most of the southern towns are connected to Zagreb, as one of the largest FlixBus hubs in Croatia. This only means that we've opened some new routes for the arrival of tourists from the entire Europe, but also that we've made it easier for local residens to simply travel to 28 European countries, which is how many there are in the FlixBus network" - Čebohin added.

All of the mentioned trips will be available from February 1st, and the tickets are already available on the mobile app and at the marked selling spots.

When looking at Croatia now, the tourist Mecca busy recording arrivals and overnight stays each year, doggedly determined to beat last year's numbers, the war torn former Yugoslav republic seems like centuries ago. The reality however is that the Homeland War is recent in the minds of many, and as Croatia moves forward, it would do well to remember those who have not yet managed to. At the very least, they should be honoured in all ways possible, a new film on Maslenica 93 will do just that.

As Morski writes on the 22nd of January, 2019, the victorious Croatian army troops who bravely participated in Operation Maslenica will have their first feature film about the first major liberation operation completed by the Croatian armed forces during the Homeland War. The recording of the film, directed by Ivona Juka, should begin this autumn.

Confirmation of the filming of the film about Maslenica was confirmed to Radio Zadar by Anita Juka, who pointed out that no feature film about a military operation that was a significant milestone in the Homeland War has yet been recorded.

''So far, we've talked to more than ninety Croatian defenders, and Danijel Kotlar was the starting point for us and the key to our relationship with other defenders who participated in the action. What attracted us especially to the story of Maselnica is the fact that it was a victorious battle, and in Croatia there have been several quality films about the war, but Croats had always lost in them. It seems to us that time has finally come to film a film that deals with a victorious battle,'' Juka added.

She confirmed that the film director would be her sister Ivona Juka, and that the start of shooting is scheduled for September this year.

Make sure to stay up to date by following our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

Click here for the original article by Radio Zadar

Four Croatian cities are trying to make it easier at least financially for parents when it comes to caring for their children. Umag, Belišće, Vrlika and Obrovac are the only Croatian towns to ensure free kindergarten for kids, removing at least one worry from the heads of their parents.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 21st of January, 2019, in addition to employment, decent salaries and a resolved housing issue for young families, a key prerequisite for changing the negative demographic picture in the Republic of Croatia is the development of a network of nurseries and kindergartens which are made readily available to parents in need of them.

The Croatian towns in which parents, when it comes to kindergartens, have at least the financial side of things taken care of for them are Umag, Belišće, Vrlika and Obrovac. These towns are, as previously mentioned, the only four towns in the whole of Croatia that provide free kindergartens for all their children, as was reported by the portal Gradonacelnik.hr.

Until just a few days ago, there were only three towns offering such measures - Umag, Vrlika and Obrovac, and now they have been joined by Belišće, whose administration, headed by Dinka Burić, recently lowered the prices of kindergartens from 410 to 300 kuna. Upon the further analysis of budget items and revenues, they have since realised that they can provide an additional 700,000 kuna, giving parents in the area completely free kindergartens for their kids.

Although a formal decision is still yet to be made on the 28th of January, the move has been effective since January the 1st, meaning that the parents who have children needing kindergartens in Belišće no longer have to think about payments of any kind.

Thanks to European Unoon tenders and intensified local self-government activities in project preparation, nearly 200 new kindergartens are being prepared or constructed in their various different stages across the Republic of Croatia, with lack of capacity and the unavailability of accommodation becoming less and less of a problem.

Give our dedicated lifestyle  page a follow for more on Croatia's demographic problem, and to stay up to date with other Croatian towns and cities which follow in the footsteps of Umag, Obrovac, Vrlika and Belišće.