Honestly, when the plans were made for my little group to go to Konoba Gulin, a restaurant near Vela Luka, for a dinner, I knew almost nothing about the place. But, after the first visit, I am sure there will be many happy returns.

The first thing you should know about Konoba Gulin is that it's owned and managed by a real character: Tonči Miletić. He will take your phone calls to make a reservation (a word of advice, the kind you really should take: make a reservation, if you're planning on eating there during the high-season; we witnessed him turning more than a dozen people down, who came without reservations, so don't make that mistake in August), he will call you on the day of your arrival in the morning to tell you what's on the menu that day, and he will welcome you to his restaurant like you're a part of his family.

And then his friends will come, and the group will start singing, and even if you're not the biggest fan of klapa a cappella music (just like I for one am not), sitting just above Vela Luka, on a terrace with the view of the sea, in the olive groves on an August evening, you will have to admit that their song is just perfect for the setting.

So, as I said, I had no idea who he is, who the group is, so I asked, and it turns out it's not just any group of Tonči's friends, it's the quite well-known Klapa Ošjak from Vela Luka, who have recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, and who gained national attention last year when they sang during Oliver Dragojević's farewell from Split, upon his arrival in Vela Luka, and at his funeral. Tonči from the restaurant is the first tenor, and in addition to listening to him and his friends sing, if you get a chance, you should look at him sing: he's smiling the entire time while he's singing, and that's amazing to see!

He says about himself that he's one of the rare people around who's involved with three separate UNESCO protected heritages: the klapa song, the olive trees in Croatia and the dry stone walling. 

And, yes, he can make dry stone walls! The entire restaurant is made of the traditional dry stone, and it is an impressive feat, to be able to do something like that. When I talked to him, I told him that if I were able to sing like he does, I wouldn't do anything else in my life, but the same goes for the dry stone walls, as they're so, so impressive you just want him to do as many meters of them as possible. 

Then there's the food. Like I already mentioned, when you come to Konoba Gulin, it's either going to be fresh, or you're not having it. We wanted to have some tuna steaks, he said that he would try to get some, but then called to tell us that there's no tuna today, but that he got a perfectly fresh swordfish, and would we care to have some of that? Well, of course we would, and yes, if you're wondering, it was perfect. As fresh as it gets, and prepared expertly on their grill by Tonči's son, who refused to get out of my perfect shot, because he needs to deal with the fish for the other customers (of course he was right and I was wrong: get your photos later, lady, once everyone has eaten!) 

The view from the terrace is, like I mentioned already, amazing, perfectly positioned to experience the most beautiful sunset, and that's just one of the wonderful things you will get to enjoy while at Konoba Gulin.

If you're anywhere near Vela Luka, make yourself a favour and go to Konoba Gulin for one of those truly astonishing, authentic experiences of Dalmatia. Just make a reservation before you do!

As Morski writes on the 17th of August, 2019, on Saturday afternoon in front of Hotel Korčula, a beautiful yacht named "Petara", owned by no less than Formula 1 owner Bernie Eccleston, was moored. The name of the yacht was taken from the names of Eccelston's two daughters, Petra and Tamara.

Bernie is otherwise listed as one of the richest people in the United Kingdom, and it's long been known that he is a big fan of the beautiful island of Korčula, becoming a somewhat ''traditional'' guest. In other words, there hasn't been a summer in recent years in which the Brit hasn't visited Korčula. Back in 2010, he was also interested in buying HTP Korčula, an idea which never came to fruition in the end, according to a report from local portal Korčula onlinečula online.

Bernard Charles Ecclestone, better known in the spotlight as Bernie Ecclestone, is a successful British businessman and one of the leading men of Formula 1.

His father was the captain of a fishing boat, and young Bernie, from the tender age of sixteen, dropped out of school so that he could fully devote himself to what he loved doing the most, and most importantly, what he wanted the most. 

That craving, which paid off and unbelievably so, was car racing. After several races, he stopped competing in 1951 and returned in 1957 as a manager of the Connaught team. He purchased the Brabham team back in 1972 and Nelson Piquet became the 1981 and 1983 World Champion.

In the 1980s, he took an enormous financial risk by becoming the president of the Formula 1 Constructors' Association, but it paid off, as the sponsors made a lot of profit. He sold Brabham in 1988 and moved to Gstaad for two years, and in 1996, he founded a new company, Formula One Management, which sells distribution rights to the International Automobile Association located in Geneva.

His ex-wife Slavica Ecclestone, a Croat, originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, began her modeling career in the 1970s in Zagreb, Korčula online reports.

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

August 16, 2019 - Aminess Hotels & Campsites will pay its employees a bonus of 500 kuna for successfully completing the first part of the tourist season, reports Goran Rihelj of HRTurizam.

The bonus, which will be paid in August with the July paycheck, will be awarded to all employees hired by July 15, 2019, including part-time and full-time employees, and students.

The Aminess hotels and camps in Novigrad, Orebić, and Korčula, employ 650 people in the peak season. 

“The company has one of the highest payroll bases for tourism, and with incentives and benefits increasing year after year, accommodation, and hot meals, we are continuously investing in improving the conditions of all employees and offer numerous career advancement opportunities. Regardless of their employment status, everyone is provided with a wide range of training and advanced training programs, such as communication and team leadership skills, foreign languages and presentation and IT skills,” Aminess points out.

Aminess also launched the Aminess Gourmet Lab project this year, which, under the leadership of Chef David Skoko, aims to educate young chefs, waiters, bartenders and other members of the Aminess gourmet team. Also, with the aim of improving work and relationships with guests within the company, the Aminesss Idea project has been launched, which gives employees the opportunity to express their opinions and give their suggestions in order to achieve even better results together. Employees with the best ideas for their contribution earn a cash prize.

In order to provide even better quality accommodation to employees coming from other parts of Croatia and the region, the company has started constructing the first hotel for employees in Novigrad, which will spread over 2,500 square meters.

Aminess

The hotel will have a reception, a shared kitchen with a dining area, parking, and an enclosed bicycle storage room, while most of the rooms will have double beds with a private bathroom, French balcony or terrace, modern furniture and a TV, as well as a heating and cooling system. In addition to free Wi-Fi, employees will also have a shared lounge area, as well as specially equipped laundry, drying and ironing facilities.

The hotel, with all the prerequisites for participating in the commercial market, will be ready for the 2020 season.

The high level of quality of working conditions in Aminess is also evidenced by the fact that a majority of seasonal employees return to the company year after year, but also thanks to the Employer Partner Certificate, which has been awarded by SELECTIO to Aminess since 2017. 

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

August 12, 2019 - Congratulations to Lumbarda, winners of this year's Vecernji List Tourism Patrol award. 

A nice boost for tourism in Lumbarda on Korcula, which has won the prestigious Tourism Patrol award, Croatia's oldest tourism award, organised by newspaper Vecernji List since 1975. Vecernji reporters visit all the major destinations incognito and assess the quality of the tourism offer of each destination, before announcing a champion. Winners from 2013-2018 were Vis, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar and Korcula Town.

Lumbarda is known for its great beaches, relaxed lifestyle and one of Croatia's finest white wine grape varieties, Grk. TCN last year reported on the top 5 things to do in Lumbarda. 

In recent years, Korculan tourism has been focused on quality and not quantity, and the results are already being seen in a much higher level of tourism offer, as well as recognition. Although I haven't fact-checked, this is possibly the first time that the Tourism Patrol award has remained on the same island two years in a row. 

Take a tour of the destination with the Lumbarda Tourist Board in the video above. 

To learn more about the island, check out the Total Croatia Korcula in a Page guide. 

August 4, 2019 - The exciting indigenous grapes on Dalmatia's islands are attracting increasing international interest. Great piece by Kate Hawkings in The Buyer on a visit to Korcula.

When I moved to Hvar in 2003, I had no idea it was a wine island or that, in fact, I had bought a house in the Dalmatian wine capital, Jelsa. I carried on in innocent ignorance for about 7 years until I started researching for the first edition of my guidebook, Hvar: An Insider's Guide. 

And then I became fascinated. Not only did Hvar have some excellent winemakers, but the grapes themselves made the Hvar wine story even more interesting. It is said that there are 130 indigenous varieties all over Croatia, and I had no idea that Hvar was so rich in them. 

The most famous is Bogdanusa, literally a 'gift from God', but there is also Prc and Darnekusa. I want to say Kuc as well, although from memory this exists elsewhere under a different name.

And then the longer I stayed, the more I discovered, most notably with Jelsa winemaker Teo Huljic, who introduced me to the Mekuja grape (he is the only one to make a 100% Mekuja, just 600 bottles). The following year, he opened one of only 70 bottles of Palarusa, an almost forgotten grape that even some Hvar winemakers had never heard of. Kortolaska is another rare variety only found on Hvar. 

The more I looked, the more impressed I became. the islands of Croatia seemed to excel in indigenous varieties - you can learn more about them in Indigenous Wine Varieties on Croatian Islands.

And international wine experts are taking an increasing interest. The most high-profile of these, of course, is Jo Ahearne MW, the first Master of Wine to make wine in Croatia, much of it from Hvar's indigenous varieties. 

Jo was featured in a great in-depth piece largely set on Korcula by Kate Hawkins in The Buyer. 

Read on to find out why the international wine community is getting excited. 

Learn more about the wines of Croatia in the Total Croatia Wine guide.

For centuries, the town of Korčula has celebrated the feast day of St. Theodore, the co-patron saint of the town (the other patron saint is St. Mark, and the Korčula cathedral is dedicated to him) on July 29th. It's the biggest celebration of the town in the year, and yesterday Korčula had the chance to welcome the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in the morning, and in the evening the traditional procession for Sv. Todor (which is what St. Theodore's is called in Korčula) was held.

At midday, the celebratory ringing of the bells on top of the cathedral took place, and hopefully in the video below you can see that it's done by manually hitting the bell:

Not unlike other similar processions, Korčula's procession of St. Todor includes a walk around the town, starting and finishing at the cathedral, with members of the confraternities carrying religious objects, including the highly revered relics of the saint, St. Theodore of Amasea. As we've already written during our coverage of Korčula, it has three religious confraternities, founded and maintained by laymen but closely related to the church.

All Saints confraternity was founded in 1301, St. Rocco in 1575 and the youngest brotherhood, St. Virgin Mary of Consolation (St. Michael) was founded in 1603. Each of the confraternities has their own church, rules, goals and projects in the community they support, but the processions through the town are one thing that brings them together each year. There is one big procession in the spring, for the Easter celebrations, and another major one is the procession through the town as a part of the celebration of St. Theodore's day.

The tapestry, thanking St. Todor:

The video below shows yesterday procession, as seen from close to Hotel Korčula on the western side of the Korčula Old Town. You can see the different confraternities, the relics and hear the choir and citizens of Korčula who have joined the procession singing a religious song: 

After the procession, the two celebratory performances of moreška, performed by the two groups performing the dance: one at the monument, and the other one at the open-air theatre.

All photos and videos by IT.

The legendary Oliver Dragojević was honored around Croatia with concerts and song on July 29th, one year after his passing. 

An intimate concert was held in Oliver’s beloved Vela Luka, accompanied by an orchestra performed by his friends and colleagues - Gibonni, Zorica Kondža, Tedi Spalato, Dupini, Antonio Serrano, Klapa Ošjak, Alan Bjelinski, Ante Gelo and Nikša Bratoš, reports Jutarnji List on July 29, 2019. 

Oliver’s celebration in Vela Luka was attended by members of his family, as well as several hundred lucky fans who succeeded in snagging tickets for the instantly sold-out event. 

The atmosphere was glorious, and the emotions reached a peak that could only be reached at one of the singer’s famous concerts. The intimate spectacle was attended by about 450 lucky guests who were given a CD at the entrance.

The citizens of Split also honored Oliver by gathering at the central Pjaca for the first anniversary of the singer's passing.

Like last year, they paid tribute to the music giant by singing his songs for a full two hours, with a sizeable spontaneous Split choir led by members of Marjanke.

The young Zadar singer Jure Brkljača also decided to pay his respects to Oliver by doing a rendition of 'Ajde zbogom'. Brkljača said Oliver had been his role model from a young age.

“We will miss him forever, but his music will live forever. He is the one and only,” Jure said. 

Another young Croatian singer, Dino Petrić, paid tribute to the singer by singing 'Galeb i Ja'.

American TV producer Ashley Colburn and her singing partner from the hit TV show 'Singing with the Stars', Bojan Ambrošić, also remembered Oliver as a 'true inspiration'.

The famed and favorite Split musician forever closed his eyes in the early morning hours of July 29, 2018, following a tough battle with lung cancer discovered in August 2017. Oliver Dragojević left behind his wife Vesna, sons Dino, Davor and Damir, and five grandchildren, as well as numerous bereaved colleagues and fans. The day of his death was proclaimed a national day of mourning, and for his final farewell in Split on July 31,  2018, tens of thousands of people paid their respects in a spectacle that will be remembered and recounted for many years to come.

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

The no. 1 player on the ATP list, currently the best tennis player in the world and the recent winner of his fifth Wimbledon title, Novak Đoković, is taking his vacation to celebrate the title and his victory over Roger Federer in one of the greatest Wimbledon finals ever - in Croatia. On Korčula and around it, to be more precise.

It has never really been a secret that Novak Đoković enjoys Croatia, he has been on vacations here before and has always said he loves coming to Croatia with his family.

He has said before, that having seen a lot of the countries in the world, he still considers the Croatian coast to be the most beautiful in the world. He added that he feels best in Croatia, that it probably has something to do with the fact that the languages are almost the same, and that there is a shared culture.

He says that he enjoys the Croatian coast, he has always felt great here and that Croatian people have always been very welcoming to him and his family. This May, he told the Croatian media that he will probably be returning to Croatia this summer.

And, after his Wimbledon triumph, he made good on that promise! Novak's and his wife Jelena's social media have been filled with the photos and videos of the couple enjoying their vacation in and around Korčula. From the social media posts they and other people they met on Korčula posted, we know that the Đokovićs have visited Moro beach Stupe restaurant, where one of the chefs took a photo with Novak.

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On Saturday it was reported that they visited Vrnik, another islet off mainland Korčula island, where Novak took a photo with a bunch of children on the islet.

And then late yesterday evening his official Facebook page published a video of Novak and Jelena singing with a klapa from the Korčula island, sitting on the terrace of the Vrnik Arts Club restaurant. The song is Oliver Dragojević's hit "Kad mi dođeš ti", sang on the "other side" of Oliver's island of Korčula - late Oliver Dragojević was from Vela Luka, and his remains were laid to rest there.

Under the post Novak quoted the lyrics of the song in Croatian and expressed his gratitude for being able to spend such magical moments with his wife (and joked a bit with the hashtag #iambetterattennis about his singing abilities!)

We hope Novak Đoković and his wife Jelena continue to enjoy their Dalmatian vacation!

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 of the people featured), while Dubrovnik has the most cruise ship guests. 

Today we travel back in time to Korcula Town in 1972. One of my favourite places in all Croatia, with that lovely gentle breeze a constant and natural air conditioner in the heat of the season. 

How much has it changed for you?

A quality tourism destination looking to attract quality guests, not quantity. 

I recently wrote an article Is Korcula Really a Mini Dubrovnik? Please May It Never Be.

I had the nicest 60 seconds of 2019 on Korcula in late April, and I wlil share it with you. The reason there were no people around was that it was shot at 6 am.

Dalmatia at its very finest, both back in 1972 and today.   

To learn more about gorgeous Korcula, check out the Total Croatia Korcula in a Page guide. 

We've already reported on the HBO executives scouting the Croatian coast for the locations to film some of their shows. It seems that we've found out at least a part of the reason why they were here a couple of months ago: a critic favourite show, Succession.

Dora Lozica writes for Dubrovački Vjesnik, and other media have additional stories about the filming of a part of the second season of HBO's hit show "Succession" in Southern Dalmatia: in Dubrovnik, Korčula and Cavtat. Succession is a satirical drama television series, centred on the fictional dysfunctional family which owns a global media empire and are fighting for control of the company amidst uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch.

Dubrovnik is, of course, a veteran of HBO shows, but for Korčula this will be the first filming of such magnitude. Major Andro Fabris tells Lozica that the HBO crew will arrive at Korčula on July 17th, and that their entire equipment and yacht will be located in the area near the Leda shipyard. Most of the scenes filmed in Korčula will take place at the entrance to the Old Town, on the main square in front of the St. Mark's Cathedral and in the restaurant Cupido, which is located near the 5-star hotel Lešić Dimitri Palace. Some of the filmings will take place during the night-time, so they requested the lights in the town to be fully on for a bit longer, mayor Fabris explains. He added that they probably won't charge HBO for those services.

Konavle municipality at the same time reports that the riva (the waterfront) in Cavtat will be fully closed for traffic in the morning hours. We'll just have to wait and see if it's possible to accommodate such large productions in Dalmatian towns during high tourist season, without creating major disruptions in the already busy everyday lives.