May the 29th, 2022 - Three Dubrovnik-Neretva beaches are now more accessible to people with various forms of physical disabilities thanks to a new move within the wider MIMOSA project.

As Morski writes, three Dubrovnik-Neretva beaches have now finally been properly and safely equipped with lifts for people with disabilities. They were procured as part of the praiseworthy MIMOSA project.

From this summer season onwards, people with disabilities will be able to enter the sea on three more Dubrovnik-Neretva beaches more easily on the beaches in Orebic, Slano and in Molunat, which lies to the south of the city.

Lifters for people with disabilities have been set up in co-operation with local self-government units to facilitate access to the sea for people with disabilities and people with reduced mobility. The total value of the three lifters installed in the municipalities of Orebic, Konavle and in Zupa Dubrovacka stands at 300 thousand kuna.

The MIMOSA project is otherwise being implemented within the Interreg Italy-Croatia cross-border cooperation programme, and its main goal is to improve the quality, safety and environmental sustainability of coastal transport services by promoting multimodality and connecting multiple forms of transport within the programme area, but also raising the general level of awareness of both citizens and tourists when it comes to offering modern and more environmentally friendly solutions.

Italy aside, Dubrovnik-Neretva County has 369,735.00 euros at its disposal for the realisation of various MIMOSA project activities, and the project activities will be realised by the end of 2022.

As part of the project, a website for cycling tourism in Dubrovnik-Neretva County is being developed, and work is underway to arrange a cyclopoint (centre) in Popovici, which lies to the south of Dubrovnik, which will be equipped with equipment for cyclists.

In addition to all of the above, at nineteen different locations within the county, the installation of nineteen bike service sets and twenty new parking racks for bicycles is planned.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

November 12, 2019 - Aminess Grand Azur Hotel in Orebic has received the prestigious Travelife Gold certification, one of the most esteemed awards for sustainable tourism businesses, which confirms that the hotel adheres to the strictest ethical and environmental standards in its operations.

HRTurizam writes that Travelife is an international certification system that promotes sustainability within the tourism industry, which is an essential segment of tourism, helping to preserve the unique natural and cultural features of the destination.

Protecting the environment, animals and biodiversity, local culture and heritage, relationships with the community and employees, and support for the local economy are just a few of the standards that have been successfully met by the Aminess Grand Azur Hotel according to the Travelife Gold certification.

"We are proud that the Aminess Grand Azur Hotel meets the highest standards of sustainable development. The Travelife Gold certification is the result of our continued and dedicated work in this area, which we plan to continue to pursue in the future. This certificate is also a confirmation of our past accomplishments and efforts to make our guests as comfortable as possible,” said Marina Brcic, Aminess Grand Azura director.

In each of the 185 guest rooms and suites, guests of the Aminess Grand Azur Hotel can expect a panoramic view of the sea, Peljesac, and the nearby Korcula. The hotel offers two refurbished outdoor pools with freshwater and a sun terrace, and restaurants serve Mediterranean cuisine prepared with homemade olive oil, along with a selection of local red wines.

In addition to the Aminess Grand Azur Hotel in Orebic, the Aminess Lume Hotel in Korcula is also the proud owner of the Travelife Gold certificate this year, while the Aminess Maestral Hotel in Novigrad has held the certificate since 2013.

Travelife has approximately 1500 members in more than 50 countries around the world and is recognized and promoted by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council's umbrella institution for tourism sustainability, GSTC.

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

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.

July 26, 2019 - Continuing our look at the Adriatic coast as It Once Was almost 50 years ago, a visit to Orebic on Peljesac. 

Tourism has changed the Croatian coast considerably in the last 50 years. Some destinations have changed beyond recognition, such as Dubrovnik, where the mass tourism of cruise ships and buses and buses of day trips are filling the old town as never before - a far cry from 50 years ago. 

Other destinations, such as Korcula, seem hardly to have changed at all. 

The paths that Korcula and Dubrovnik have chosen for their tourism are very different, something I looked at recently in Is Korcula Really a Mini Dubrovnik? Please May It Never Be. 

One man who has been instrumental in lifting the quality of Korculan tourism is Brit Michael Unsworth, who arrived in Orebic across the water back in 1972 chasing a local girl. They have been happliy married ever since, and Michael found a second love - Korcula and Orebic. He is the man behind Lesic Dimitri Palace, arguably the best 5-star boutique hotel on the coast, and his Michelin-recommended restaurant has been the catalyst for Korculan hospitality to up its game, and with considerable success. 

So this one's for you, Michael, to thank you for all you have done. A trip down memory lane to the Orebic you arrived to back in 1972. 

May 11, 2019 - Putting Croatian adventure tourism on the map, with the biggest welcome in the world. Day 50 of this incredible 2011 adrenaline trip covering 2,500 km along the Croatian coast. 

The World's Biggest Welcome, an ambitious adventure tourism project in 2011 in Croatia enters Day 50 of this 2019 appreciation of one of the finest tourism promotion projects ever in Croatia.  

The plan? To showcase the diversity and fabulous offer of adventure tourism in Croatia by following a GPS route the length of the Croatian coast in the shape of the word 'Welcome' - thereby creating the biggest welcome in the world from a hospitable tourism country. 

Day 50 moved from Ploče to Korčula.

52 kilometres for the day: 17 km kayak ride from Ploče to Trpanj, followed by a 10 km bike ride from Trpanj to Donja Vručica, 20 km on foot from Donja Vručica to Orebić, and 5 km SUP from Orebić to Korčula to continue forming the ‘E’ in ‘Welcome’.

Day 50 set off on kayak from Ploče. 

And Lacko beginning the journey to Pelješac. 

But first, Trpanj.

After Cedo presented the team's plan to climb St. Ilija, they were invited for a drink of discouragement.

Lacko visited the birthplace of his grandfather in Donja Vrucica.

And then they continued on foot to Orebić.

They had to make their own path to Orebić. 

The plan was to get through to the old path built by Napoleon. Apparently, no one had been there for decades.

They managed to get through to Napoleon's forgotten path.

Which took them to the reef, from where they made it to the top.

Walking on a cloud on St. Ilija.

The further they climbed, the thicker the clouds. 

But the clouds started to clear. 

And they opened to a view of Korčula.

They could finally see the top of St. Ilija!

Total bliss. 

St. Ilija 961m.

The group then made it down through pine forest. 

And Lacko paddled to Korčula. 

A key part of the project was promoting tourism, and the official website has details of the key places visited during the day. 

You can see the entire project on the Welcome website, as well as much more of Luka Tambaca's stunning photography on the Welcome Facebook page. 

Tune in tomorrow for Day 51, as Lacko moves from Korčula to Saplunara.

To follow the whole project from the start, follow the dedicated TCN page. 

April 29, 2019 - While Korcula has many excellent dining options, the short and regular boat connections to the Peljesac Peninsula give plenty of others. An evening at homely Konoba Karako in Orebic.

Often it is only when you spend a little time in a destination that you realise the subtleties that are not immediately obvious on first arrival. 

Having lived on Hvar for 13 years, I was always a little jealous of Brac, which had SO much better ferry connectivity, especially during the winter. But then I spared a thought for Korcula, which had much worse connections than Hvar. 

And then I went to Korcula and slowly discovered that far from being more disconnected from the mainland than Hvar, the mainland is actually an extension of daily and social life. 

"Why don't you pop over for dinner?" asked my friend when I said I had no fixed plans for my last night on Korcula. "I know this lovely cosy little konoba on the water. Take the small little taxi-boat at 19:00 (cost 12 kuna) and I will meet you the other side, and we can walk from there."

It would never have occurred to me - as I am sure it doesn't to most visitors to Korcula - to pop over to the Peljesac Peninsula for dinner, but the boat connections are really outstanding. Apart from the main ferry terminal, there are regular taxi-boat services which are quick and affordable. I took the 19:00, for example, had a wonderful evening and was on the 22:30 ferry back home.  

My friend met me and we walked along the waterfront. Orebic is known for its fine waterfront sea captain stone houses, and they were mightily impressive close up. The wind was up a little, and a brisk walk along the waterfront brought back all those island memories and loves now that I live in exile in Varazdin. 

And even more so when I entered Karako. For here was the homely and warm authentic konoba experience at its best. Open most of the year, Karako is one of the most heartening things in Dalmatian hospitality, especially our of season - a warm and welcoming place with excellent traditional food and great wine, as the wind howls outside. Its waterfront location must make it a divine spot in summer. 

Hostess Ani gave us a warm greeting, fully immersed as she was with her prawns in the cute restaurant kitchen. Authentic Dalmatian dining the traditional way. I felt a little homesick for my former island life. 

As the season has not yet started, there was a more limited menu, but it was all superb. I was obviously enraptured by the tuna steak, as I forgot to snap it, but here is the fabulous Dalmatian platter for two. 

A really nice contrast to the excellent dining experiences on Korcula, then a brisk walk along the waterfront, taking in the salty wind and lapping waves before the late evening ferry. 

Ah, the joys of island life, made all the more bearable when you have such fantastic options just 15 minutes away on the mainland. Lovely place.  

It tends to happen at this time of year, at least it has over the last few, as the bura and the jugo winds beat the Dalmatian coast on a regular basis, bringing in all sorts of bizarre things on the strong currents to the Dalmatian coastline. It isn't unusual for innocent citizens simply taking a walk around the shoreline stumble upon rather large quantities of marijuana and other very drowned drugs.

Nobody is ever quite sure where the marijuana has really come from, and the assumption is usually that these illegal packages have simply ''lost their way'' on a journey between either Albania and Montenegro on their way to Italy, but alas, the phenomenon continues to begin to occur around November time.

As Morski writes on the 4th of November, 2018, citizens of Mljet and Orebic reported the rather surprising discovery of as much as 156 kilograms of marijuana floating in the sea. The now very wet packages of marijuana were picked up by the Dubrovnik-Neretva police at Orebić, Blato on Korčula, and on the island of Mljet on the basis of various reports from the residents of the aforementioned areas, both on the Dalmatian mainland and on nearby islands.

As is usually the case with such packages, the general assumption of the police is that the boxes of marijuana were initially on their way from either Albania or Montenegro towards their final destination of Italy, where they fell from their vessel and ended up being swept along to the Croatian coast by the current.

This is otherwise a very common sea route for drug smugglers, and the winds that typically hit the Croatian coast at this time of year can typically end up bringing these lost packages to the Croatian coast, according to a report from Dubrovacki Dnevnik.

An investigation is now being conducted to try to work out exactly where, and from whom, the drugs came from, as has been stated from the competent police administration, who thanked the citizens of the aforementioned locations for alerting them to the drug packages. The police have also asked for anyone else who comes across suspicious packages in the sea or washed up on the shore to alert them.

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The new hotel is one of the most luxurious ones in Croatia, with rates of up to 21,000 euro a night.

June 1, 2018 - There is no better way to admire the true beauty and magic of Korcula and its neighbouring islets. Meet Korcula Water Taxi, offering a scheduled service to take the stress out of exploring this gorgeous slice of Dalmatia.