A wonderful reminder of how Dubrovnik used to be in these lovely 1970s photos uploaded to YouTube on February 27, 2019.

Life on the Dalmatian coast has changed considerably in recent years. 

Visitors to Dubrovnik marvel at the old walls, the Game of Thrones locations and majestic Stradun, as cruise ship tourists come in their hundreds of thousands, and it is easy to forget that is was just 28 years ago that this UNESCO World Heritage was shelled during the regional conflict in the 1990s. 

But let's go back a little further, to an era when Dubrovnik had trams and trains, and when the mass tourism of today was yet to arrive. 

A lovely collection of photos of the Pearl of the Adriatic in the 1970s was uploaded to YouTube yesterday - take a moment to enjoy Dubrovnik as it once was. 

Never knew that there were trains from Dubrovnik? Learn more about Ciro, and the Dubrovnik train service that once was.

February 28, 2019 - Another year, another incredible achievement by the Break Time team as they open their fifth shop in Croatia. 

TCN continues looking at the plans and expectations of Croatian airports in 2019, with updates from Dubrovnik, Split, and Zadar, thanks to AvioRadar. 

February 14, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Dubrovnik, Pula, Rijeka, and Brač airport. 

Yes, admittedly, that sounds a bit odd, why would anyone go see a cockroach exhibition in the Natural History Museum anywhere, but the exhibition recently opened in Dubrovnik has proven to be a hit, and numerous people who have seen it before can attest that it's worth your time and the "yuck-factor" it might produce.

The exhibition "Cockroaches - the world that endures" was created by Iva Mihoci PhD, Petar Crnčan, Vlatka Mičetić Stanković PhD and Mirna Klaić for the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb, where it premiered in 2017. Now, opening on the Night of the Museums held on February 1st, the exhibition is visiting the Dubrovnik Natural History Museum, where it will be open until May 6th.

It might not be the most obvious tourist thing to do in Dubrovnik, but still, it's a world worth knowing more about, so if you find yourself in Old Town Dubrovnik, in Androvićeva Street, all maxed out on the history, heritage, dragons and queens coming down some stairs naked, go inside the museum (the museum is located right next to the stairs where the iconic Game of Thrones "walk of atonement" took place), and find out all you've ever wanted to know about the world of the organisms who are completely oblivious of our disgust, as they've been here long before us, they've survived disasters we can hardly imagine and they'll be here after we've been long gone.

The cockroach exhibition will show you in an interesting, attractive and modern, multimedia way the basic features of the biology and evolution of the cockroaches. One of the most interesting exhibits is the insectarium that presents the life cycle of the roaches with live specimens of Madagascar hissing cockroach and Argentinian cockroach. There's a special part of the exhibit showing the life of the cockroaches next to humans, using an old Slavonian house as an example. Luckily, you'll be able to learn something about the techniques on how to get rid of the pest as well at the exhibition. 

Although Croatia's coastal and continental cooperation has been discussed for years, it has not yet reached a level that would satisfy all the participants of that story. Therefore, a working meeting of the leaders of Vukovar-Srijem and Dubrovnik-Neretva County was held in the Dubrovnik Palace of Ranjina, where they discussed establishing stronger economic cooperation between the land and the sea, i.e., the ”green" and "blue" Croatia, reports Lokalni.Večernji.hr on February 6, 2019. 

It was concluded that there is room for cooperation in the marketing of products from Vukovar-Srijem County to the tourist sector in Dubrovnik-Neretva County. It was announced that the presentation of these products would be organized at the traditional meeting of winemakers with restaurants and hoteliers. The visit of representatives from Slavonian tourist agencies will also be organized in order to explore possible ways of cooperation and overcome the problems of distance, but also the cost of transport. It was agreed that subsidies would be required for a flight between Osijek and Dubrovnik. 

“The main goal of the meeting is to find out what is needed for the hoteliers in the south of Croatia. We want to save our OPGs, so we founded the Agro-Cluster, in cooperation with the County with several municipalities and with the Agricultural Faculty in Osijek and Cooperative 'Vinkovačka šparoga'. This is our first year and we are heading in the right direction. In 10 years we lost 3000 households. We now operate around 6000. We as the County are doing the infrastructure, and we want to know how we can cooperate specifically here,” said Vukovar-Srijem County Prefect Bozo Galić. He added that such cooperation would save many Slavonian family farms and that they could personally guarantee the highest quality of products in the county.

Dubrovnik-Neretva County prefect Nikola Dobroslavić recalled that Croatia's "blue" and "green" cooperation has existed for a long time on several levels, but there is always room for progress. 

“Cooperating is not easy, you have to work hard on it. Every year we deliver mandarins to Vukovar-Srijem County, and they gave us apples this year. This is, of course, all symbolic, but it shows what kind of friendly relations we have,” Dobroslavić said. 

The mayor of the County Department for Tourism and Culture, Marija Budimir, emphasized the wish for Slavonian manifestations and sights to become part of the organized visits created by Dubrovnik-Neretva County tourist agencies.

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

No one is ever genuinely surprised when they hear that tourism in Dubrovnik is growing - and fast. We have only been following the same story year after year after year. While we expect the summer months to be busier than ever, it’s always satisfying to hear that year-round tourism in Croatia is also slowly gaining some traction. December is dedicated for Advent, after all.

But what happens in January while most of us fall into a slumber and post-holiday hibernation? 

An incredible jump in Dubrovnik tourism.

According to the eVisitor system, which monitors tourist arrivals, not including data for nautical tourism, 16,878 tourists stayed in Dubrovnik from January 1 to 31, 2019, which represents a 41% increase on the same period of 2018. They also achieved 38,436 overnights, or 11% more than last year, reports Dalmacija Danas on February 4, 2019. 

In January, most guests were from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Korea, USA, Sweden, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Finland and Austria. Of the total number of tourists from January 1 to 31, 2019, 14,574 guests were accommodated in 51 Dubrovnik hotels, which is an increase of 48% in hotel accommodation compared to January 2018, with 27,379 overnights, respectively 12% more than last year. 

Private accommodation in January hosted 1,585 guests, which is an increase of 7% compared to January 2018, along with 7,416 overnights, which is 11% more than in the previous year.

The record number of tourists in Dubrovnik in January was the result of direct winter flights from seven European destinations, as well as the introduction of a charter for senior group arrivals from Scandinavia and Germany, organized by travel agency WTouristic, members of the Karaci Group and RSD Reisen from Germany, which will reach over 30,000 visitors to Dubrovnik by May 11.

Dubrovnik had no chance to slow down at the start of February, either, as the 'Adriatic Pearl' celebrated their patron saint on February 3rd.

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

A suspicious discovery as Dubrovnik police discover sodden packets of marijuana washed up in and around the city.

During the winter along the southern Dalmatian coast, numerous rather odd objects and suspicious packages end up being washed up. From waste dragged up by the strong currents from the south ending up caught in Dubrovnik's harbour, to packets of marijuana lying around on the beach, Dubrovnik plays host to some unusual debris at this time of year.

Marijuana has been discovered by people just going about their business on several occasions along the southern Dalmatian coast, where it appears to have been dropped typically by passing vessels travelling between Albania and Montenegro and Italy.

It appears that the mysterious marijuana packages have returned, as Dubrovnik police end up receiving yet more discoveries from the shoreline.

As Morski writes on the 4th of February, 2019, last weekend, Dubrovnik police found two sea soaked packages of marijuana with a total weight of 43.8 kg in two different locations, more specifically the seafront in Dubrovnik itself and considerably further away on the island of Šipan, which is part of the picturesque Elaphite islands that lie just north of Dubrovnik.

The discovered packets of marijuana are now being stored at the official premises of the Dubrovnik Police Administration, after which their destruction will follow.

The Dubrovnik-Neretva Police Administration, with the help of international police cooperation, is currently conducting a proper criminal investigation into the discovered packages in order to attempt to determine the origin of the packages, according to a statement made by the Dubrovnik Police Administration.

Discoveries such as this one give the term sea weed an an entirely new meaning.

Make sure to stay up to date with everything you need to know going on up and down the country by following our dedicated news page. If it's just Dubrovnik and southern Dalmatia you're interested in, give Total Dubrovnik a follow to keep up with what's going on in the Pearl of the Adriatic.

Zagreb and Dubrovnik, Croatia's foodie hubs, have been added to the Michelin Guide Main Cities of Europe for 2019. 

After a decade of silence and complete inactivity, the Croatian Government is moving once again towards the temptation of a highway construction project towards Dubrovnik, a move initially started by former PM Ivo Sanader.

As Kresimir Zabec/Novac writes on the 2nd of February, 2019, after a rather unnecessarily lengthy and of course unclear title, the conclusion of the ''study documentation for the road connection of southern Dalmatia to the motorway network system of the Republic of Croatia from the Metković junction to the future Pelješac bridge and from the Doli junction to the City of Dubrovnik'' (yes you can take a breath now), which was adopted during Friday's Government session held in Dubrovnik, has actually led back to the beginning of re-activating the old plan to build a highway to Dubrovnik.

The last time constructing a highway to Dubrovnik was mentioned was way back in 2009, ten whole years ago, when a construction contract worth 3.675 billion kuna was signed in Osojnik in the presence of the controversial former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, an amount which didn't include the VAT for the planned Doli - Dubrovnik section. Although the contracts were indeed signed, the money for this project was never secured, therefore the works never started and all in all, time went by and people simply forgot about it for the most part.

Although there are permits, projects and designs from that time that still exist and could be acceptable today, Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) will spend 4.06 million kuna this year to take a better look at the southern Dalmatian transport system in the area of ​​Dubrovnik-Neretva County and its link with the existing highway network, and determine the feasibility of any highway construction from the existing Metković junction to the future Pelješac bridge, and then from Doli to the City of Dubrovnik. They'll also rule whether or not it is simply better to use the highway through neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

EU co-financing

Croatia's Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, has already jumped the gun when it comes to the talks held on Friday, stating that the Ploče - Dubrovnik motorway will be built, but the question is when. He is counting on the EU being prepared to co-finance the project in the next operational period. However, some insist that a study is needed because the road image itself has changed over the past ten years, not only in southern Croatia, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The motorway was built behind Ploče and the where the future Pelješac bridge will be, in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, the construction of part of the Vc corridor from Počitelj to the border with Montenegro through Popovo polje has also begun.

Compared to ten years ago, the highway would now be changed somewhat. Back then, the route went from Ploče to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum and then continued on the other side down south to Dubrovnik.

It was estimated that eighty kilometres of highway from Ploče to Dubrovnik could cost around 732 million euros.

Today, it is assumed that the direction would go from the current Karamatići junction to the Pelješac junction, from where traffic will go down to Pelješac bridge. That equals approximately twenty kilometres of brand new highway sections. The traffic would continue along the new Pelješac road to the Doli junction, and from there 29.6 kilometers of highway would be built leading down to Dubrovnik.

According to the old 2009 project, a total of thirty objects needed to be built, of which there were ten viaducts, nine tunnels, and eight underpasses. Back then, the price of one kilometre of construction was 16.5 million euros without VAT, equalling a total of almost half a billion euros without VAT. The price of the construction of the highway from Karamatići to Pelješac is as yet unknown, but this section is also a very demanding part of the project as the route passes through the Neretva valley, so a high level of environmental protection will be required. Owing to all of the above, estimates are that the entire highway from Ploče down to Dubrovnik could stand at a massive 800 million euros.

Make sure to stay up to date by following our dedicated lifestyle and politics pages. If it's just Dubrovnik and the extreme south of Dalmatia you're interest in, give Total Dubrovnik a follow.

Click here for the original article by Kresimir Zabec for Novac.jutarnji.hr