October 7, 2020 - Imagine leaving the walls of your home and doing your job sitting on a terrace overlooking the Adriatic Sea. It seems impossible, but this is exactly what the Valamar tourist chain offers. You can now rent a luxury mobile house on Krk for a month (or more).

The coronavirus pandemic brought many changes, so many were forced to bring their jobs from the office to their home. For those who are tired of working from home in the past few months, Valamar offers a solution.

"Move to the island of Krk and spend the autumn and winter of your dreams," is their new slogan, which offers guests monthly rent of luxury cottages with excellent internet connection for all digital nomads who wish to work from the Croatian coast.

"Mediterranean greenery and the endless blue Adriatic Sea are the best motivation to move your office to your green haven on the island of Krk this fall or winter," reads their website.

The mentioned houses are part of the 4-star Ježevac Premium Camping Resort near the town of Krk, the number of which is limited, and the minimum stay is 30 days. Monthly rent costs from 450 to 550 euros, depending on the size of the house.

Pleasant and useful

Looking at this offer, the question arises – why would such accommodation capacity be available for rent only during the summer? Tourism is unquestionably the most affected sector during the coronavirus pandemic, so tourism workers must constantly find new ways to attract guests, especially in the offseason.

Also, for people who want to travel and visit tourist destinations even during the pandemic, the important thing is a sense of security, and digital nomads are looking for one – a perfect lifestyle, whether it is a house overlooking the sea or the mountains.

Valamar very quickly recognized the need to strengthen products and content outside the main summer season, so these cottages can be rented from September 30, 2020, to March 30, 2021.

And so that visitors can take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, Ježevac Premium Camping Resort offers a holiday without cooking and going grocery shopping with free delivery of fresh local products and delicious dishes through the online store Valfresco.

There is also a Multimedia Game Lounge, a fun area with video games, as well as a multi-purpose sports field. Pets are also welcome at the resort, whose stay costs 2.5 euros per day.

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April 18, 2020 - From April 21-26, experience the Camino Krk route through your computers, mobile phones, or tablets thanks to a virtual tour provided by the Krk Tourist Board.

HRTurizam writes that Camino Krk is a great new tourist product as well as a motive for arrivals in the pre and post-season. It is an event commemorating the Croatian Camino Route following the medieval pilgrimage routes on the island of Krk. The Camino Krk themed route also joined the European network of St. James pilgrimage routes, and created the preconditions for the development of pilgrimage and religious tourism on the island.

However, since we are all in isolation at the moment and as tourism has literally stopped, the Tourist Board decided to organize a virtual Camino Krk that brings the experience of the Way of St. James directly to everyone's homes.

Although it is difficult to connect the island of Krk with the famous 'Camino' pilgrimage at first, it is further proof that there are hundreds of phenomenal and authentic stories in Croatia that we need to put together, brand and tell. It is this content that we are chronically missing.

So, how does the island connect with the Camino de Santiago or Way of St. James?

The Camino de Santiago or Way of St. James is a network of pilgrimage routes leading to the Spanish Sanctuary of Santiago de Compostela - the last resting place of St. James the Apostle, patron saint of pilgrims and travelers. From northern Norway and the Baltic countries, signposts lead to Santiago de Compostela, with over 320,000 people traversing the Franco-Spanish section of the route as long as 800 kilometers each year. In 1987, the Council of Europe awarded Camino the longest street in Europe, while in 1993, UNESCO declared its Spanish and French parts a World Heritage Site. Although the network of Camino routes stretches across Europe, Croatia was almost the only European country that, despite its rich pilgrimage tradition, until recently had no route to Santiago.

In Croatia since 1203, the Fraternity of St. James organized pilgrims who then walked from Croatia to Santiago de Compostela and back. The present-day Brotherhood of St. James, based in Samobor, inherits this tradition. They are a member of the St. James in Santiago de Compostela, the central institution that brings together the associations and fraternities of St. James from all over the world. They publish the Croatian pilgrimage passport - Credentil, officially accepted as a pilgrimage certificate with which in Santiago de Compostela, a diploma of completed pilgrimage is obtained.

Last October, at the initiative of the Krk Tourist Board and the Brotherhood of St. James, medieval Krk pilgrim routes were marked as a Croatian contribution to the European network of pilgrim routes of St. James.

Camino Week on Krk is a project that lays the foundations for the development of pilgrimage and religious tourism in order to extend the season and develop tourism following the principles of sustainability and preservation of tradition.

As the first in a series of Croatian Camino routes, Krk proved to be an ideal choice. The island, which, due to its natural and material treasure, rightly prides itself on the epitome of Croatian history and culture, is an ideal backdrop for a spiritual journey, thanks to its old castles and churches, abandoned villages, small medieval towns and beautiful beaches. It is not disingenuous to say that the interior of the island gives the impression of an outdoor cathedral.

"The situation that has spread around the entire world has made it impossible for much of the planned activities, including the holding of the second Camino Week. We have therefore decided to provide the interested audience with a part of the experience with the help of digital tools and hold a Virtual Camino Krk Week, which will be available on our Facebook pages. At the moment, most everyone is spending time in isolation and quarantine, and digital media in the true sense has become their only window into the world. Perhaps this particular story from the island of Krk will embellish our days," said Natasa Jurina, director of the Krk Tourist Board.

Camino Krk is a circular route Krk - Porat - Omisalj - Dobrinj - Vrbnik - Baska - Kornic which covers the whole island. It is about 107 kilometers long and is advised to walk through using the six-day program. Trails are marked between the cities listed, and one is passed each day. Camino Krk also has its own special sign, which with the recognizable symbol Camino bears the Glagolitic script - the oldest Slavic script specific to Croatia and Krk.

The first Camino Week in Krk was held in October 2019, and at the end of April, the second guided tour of the Camino Krk route was to take place.

As this is not possible now, the Krk Tourist Board decided to approach part of this experience virtually. Over the course of six days, you can experience part of the Camino experience virtually through:

- multimedia story for every single day through pictures, video, voice-over, music
- an online photo exhibition with Camino de Santiago with different subjects
- interactive description of daily routes
- attractions and descriptions of individual places, natural and cultural sights along the route
- testimonies of pilgrims who passed Camino Krk
- the messages and thoughts of the day about what can be learned on the Camino

The tour will also include e-stamps, or an e-passport for pilgrims, and at the end of the six-day virtual tour, all "travelers" will receive an e-Composel, while the original Compostela will be able to be picked up at the Krk Tourist Board live when possible.

"This is a new experience for all of us, we are doing it for the first time, and we apologize in advance if the production is not flawless due to the short preparation time. However, we have a strong desire to provide you with some of the experience you have been deprived of because of the current situation and we want to do the best we can. Join us and be part of the first virtual Camino Krk adventure. Thank you to everyone who will join and contribute," concludes Natasa Jurina.

The project was designed by the Krk Tourist Board and the digital marketing agency Smartingo.com, and the great news is that all tourist boards on the island of Krk have joined the project: Tourist Board of Omišalj and Njivice, Tourist Board of Malinska, Tourist Board of Baška, Tourist Board of Dobrinj, Tourist Board of Punat, and the Krk Island Tourist Board.

From April 21-26, experience Camino Krk through your computers, mobile phones or tablets on the City of History and Culture's Facebook page.

Find out more about the whole project HERE

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

March 4, 2020 - One of the most renowned architects in the world, Smiljan Radić from Chile and his partner, the Chilean sculptress Marcela Correa started working on their art installation called "The Drops", which is to be installed permanently on the tops of the hills above Baška on the Krk Island.

Smiljan Radić is Chilean, but with Croatian roots, and his art creation is to be installed on Krk as a part of the Rijeka 2020 and the program Lungomare Art, tportal writes. The sculptures will be placed next to the dry stone walls locally called mrgari (and by locally I mean that I've never heard of the word before today, having been born and raised in Croatia). Mrgari are the functional structures created by the dry stone walls, to limit the movement of sheep and protect the plants within them, built to create the shape of a flower. There are only two places in Croatia where you can find them, on Krk and on the neighbouring island on Prvić, and on two more places in the world: on Iceland and in Wales.

Photo by: Kristijan Vučković

Smiljan Radić's and Marcela Correa's installation next to the walls will put the additional accent on the area, already well-known to both locals and tourists, while at the same time respecting the values and the structure of the walls, and without aiming to dominate over them by their shapes or materials. The final installation is planned for October of this year, but the creation of the installation has already begun, in partnership with the Croatian company Bokart from Dugo Selo near Zagreb. The drops will get to Baška in trucks, and then will be put on the hill with the helicopter assistance. Currently, the work that's being performed is the creation of the models for the glass, which needs to undergo several months of drying.

November 19, 2019 - Work is underway on a project for the collection, drainage and treatment of wastewater on Krk island, co-financed by the European Cohesion Fund. In the process, several archaeological sites have been discovered. 

Novi List reports that the Ponikve Voda Utility Company said on Tuesday that four contracts are now being implemented, the first of which relates to the reconstruction of the water supply system and the construction and rehabilitation of the drainage system with DTK infrastructure, worth HRK 266.9 million.

The works include the construction of gravity (79,464 meters) and pressure (6904 meters) sewage pipelines, 26 sewer pumping stations, reconstructing 39,854 meters of the water supply network, rehabilitating 10,218 meters of the sewage collection and 1192 maintenance holes, and 63,464 meters of an electronic communications network.

Project monitoring services cost HRK 7.1 million, project management technical support services HRK 6.7 million, and project implementation information and visibility services HRK 285.925.

The works are being carried out in the area of eight island settlements - in Omišalj, Njivice, Malinska, Krk, Kornić, Punt, Baška and Dobrinj, and a total of 46 teams are working on the ground.

They have so far completed 69.5 percent of the sewage works, 68.6 percent of works on the water supply system, 45.3 percent of works on DTK infrastructure, and 57 percent of works on home connections.

However, most exciting is that during the works in the cores of Omišalj and Krk, archaeological sites have been discovered.

So far, coins from the 2nd century (Krk), remains of private Roman thermal spas from the 1st century (Krk), remains of Roman objects and street communications (Krk), remains of a medieval cemetery (Krk), a burial site beside the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary from prehistoric times to the early modern age (Omišalj) and parts of the sewage and water supply systems of late antiquity (Krk) have been found.

The total value of the project on Krk island is HRK 648.3 million, and HRK 369.1 million has been provided from the Cohesion Fund. The project is a multi-year project that involves the construction of wastewater treatment plants and extending and upgrading a public sewage system for six agglomerations on the island of Krk - Omišalj, Malinska-Njivice, Krk, Punat, Baška and Klimno-Silo.

The project will provide a 100% secondary wastewater collection and treatment service, and the reduction of direct discharges into the sea will contribute to ensuring good seawater quality for swimming and tourism.

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

Marina Punat has won the Golden Anchor award for 2019, the biggest Croatian nautical tourism award, given by Jutarnji list to the best Croatian marina (according to their research and sailing around Croatian marinas for two months).

The award ceremony was held in the luxurious Grand Hotel Park in Rovinj, as a part of the conference "Future of the Nautical Tourism in Croatia", organised by Slobodna Dalmacija. This is the second time that Marina Punat has won the award, in the three years since this award has been established. Marina Punat's director, Renata Marević, said that it's an acknowledgment of the great job done by everyone working there. She added that they've won numerous awards over the year, and that each one makes them want to work even harder in the years to come, and pay attention to the compliments and the problems their customers bring to their attention.

ACI Marina Cres and ACI Marina Skradin won second and third place, and ACI Marina Dubrovnik got the "My Favourite Marina" award, given to the marina that has gotten the best reviews by their guests. The award for the most courteous staff was given to ACI Marina Pula, while the biggest change for the better was recognised in ACI Marina Jezera.

Kristjan Staničić, the Croatian National Tourist Board's director, said at the awards ceremony that the award has a remarkable educational and promotional character, and that it helps increase quality in Croatian nautical tourism. Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli agreed with him, and added that the data collected through this project might help create the tourist strategy for the next seven years.

Oleg Butković, Minister of Maritime Affairs, Traffic and Infrastructure talked about the significance of Croatian nautical tourism, stressing that it is growing each year, that the number of chartered boats has also increased and that they bring numerous new guests to Croatia.

Goran Ogurlić, Editor-in-Chief at Jutarnji list stated that the idea of the award is not only to say which marina is the best, but rather to improve the quality of Croatian nautical tourism with specific ideas and proposals that arise from the experience of visiting them all.

Mladen Trinajstić writes for novilist.hr about the plans to install the network for charging and the rentals of the electric bicycles (e-bikes) throughout the Krk Island: in Vrbnik, Baška, Malinska, Dobrinj, Punat, Krk, Omišalj and Njivice one charging station each will be built. The network will be built thanks to the efforts of all seven local communities on the island and support by the Ministry of tourism and The Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund. The modern e-bike sharing system which has been developed for a while is a part of the ambitious strategic plan to improve electromobility on the island, also supported by all local communities, and financed by the Ministry of tourism as well.

During this spring the first charging stations will be built, and after that, the sophisticated software solution for the rental of the e-bikes will also be installed. The software will provide an oversight feature, where the position of each e-bike will be monitored using GPS - one of the features will be automatic locking of the e-bike if and when attempts are made of taking it across the Krk bridge, to the mainland. The entire e-bike sharing system on the island will be created by Croatian experts, using Croatian technology, and even the e-bikes themselves will be "Made in Croatia". Although some of the financing comes from already mentioned sources, the municipalities on Krk decided to give parts of their budgets towards the creation of this system, including the purchase of the actual e-bikes which are to be rented out in the future. Once the system is fully functional each of the charging stations will have 10 e-bikes ready to be rented, 24 hours a day 365 days a week, with the option to return the e-bike at any of the charging stations, not just the one where you rented it from.

The locations for the charging stations have already been selected, and in the next few weeks, the construction in Krk, Punat, Baška, Vrbnik, Malinska, Njivice and Klimno are supposed to start. The prices of the future rentals have not been finalized yet, but it is obvious that the rental shouldn't be too expensive, especially if we consider that the system is meant to serve a public service, it is not planned to bring any profits.

This is just another step into making Krk a fully ecological island: they are Croatian champions in recycling, using sustainable energy and energy efficiency, and there are 11 charging stations on Krk for electric cars. The hope is that by 2030 there will be no more CO₂ emissions on Krk island!

Something new for Krk!

ZAGREB, March 28, 2018 - The head of the northern Adriatic municipality of Omišalj on Krk island, Mirela Ahmetović, told a news conference on Tuesday that European Commission officials had visited Omišalj and that she had informed them that the local authorities were against the planned construction of a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Omišalj.

Local authorities all over the coast are starting to wage war against 'beach booking'.

As the party culture of the Croatian coast keeps making international headlines, we decided to look back on the original pioneer of hedonism on the Adriatic, the Hotel Palace Haludovo.