Local authorities all over the coast are starting to wage war against 'beach booking'.
Just last week, Mayor of Brela Stipe Ursić had 45 signs installed along the promenade, informing visitors that all personal belongings left unattended between 22:00 and 6:00 will be collected and thrown away. No more booking your spot at the beach and disappearing for half a day, or even overnight – it's first come, first served now.
Krk island follows suit with a gamechanger introduced at beaches in Punat. In a post published on Facebook earlier today, Tourist Board Punat informed the public that all unattended belongings will be collected by the employees of utility company Črnika. They're a bit more merciful than those in Brela, though, as they came up with an amusing solution for how to offer the guests a chance to reclaim their stuff.
A large container was installed at the beach; painted in bright blue and featuring a couple of cute drawn motives such as flip-flops and sunglasses, the container has an inscription written in four languages that says 'lost treasure'. Instead of just ditching all the beach equipment, the management decided to meet people halfway with a 'lost and found' box. If you get reckless for a moment and leave your towels and inflatables lying around and then come back from a coffee just to find your stuff is missing, you can peek into the chest and find everything waiting for you.
The crew in Punat seems to get a bit too eager in their efforts – in the comments, one person wrote that she did find her stuff in the chest, but claimed she didn't intend to leave for a long time but just went for a quick coffee around 9 AM. She asked about the proper way to handle things when one just wants to leave for half an hour – do they need to take all their stuff along? It seems best not to go very far but instead pick a nice spot that's close to a beach bar, so you can keep an eye on your belongings.
However you choose to look at it, the initiative deserves a round of applause. There's nothing more frustrating then arriving at a beach at 8 AM, hoping you'll beat the crowds and find yourself a nice spot in the shade so you can stay throughout the day, only to find half of the beach covered in towels, their owners nowhere to be seen. Here's hoping more towns will introduce similar measures before the summer comes to a close!
