For more then a thousand years Croats have lived in a land of unique beauty, in an area situated where the Alpine, Pannonian and Mediterranean regions of the Central-European geographical sphere converge.

Map of Croatia

Today we'll introduce you to the coastal belt stretching beside the blue Adriatic sea and Croatia’s thousand Islands.

After landing in Zagreb we have spend some time strolling around the city and surrounding towns before we got on the road for the coast.

Omisalj, Krk

Since today we'll say more about Dalmatia one should not forget to mention peninsula Istria on the northern part of the coast - place that you will fall in love with, then Plitvice Lakes, Zagorje region just north from capital city Zagreb and on the east of the country Slavonian flatlands and oak forests. All the regions will introduce you to blend of Central-European and Mediterranean culture, cuisine and hospitality.

Major highway that connects Zagreb with Split (380km) was complited just before Summer season 2005 and by 2008 this highway should be extended from Split to

Nin (Holy Cross, 9th c.)

Dubrovnik . Since our plan was to go down the coast from city of Rijeka we choose highway through beautiful Gorski Kotar to Rijeka. It took us under two hours to reach Rijeka where from we have taken our time to explore pristine beauty of the Adriatic coast.

Since 19th century Istria, Dalmatian coast and Adriatic Islands have been one of the favorite European destinations and today are visited by millions of tourists every year. It would be hard to mention all the cities, Islands, historic monuments and beaches you may like to see or explore so will just mention few and leave up to you to explore the rest.

Makarska Riviera

As already mentioned along the coastline are situated more than a thousand Islets and Islands. Most of them are short distance ride by ferry from major cities along the coast.

In this article we will go right away to south-central part of Dalmatian coast where we have spend most of our time. Just 50km south of Split, largest city in Dalmatia on Croatian side of the Adriatic sea is seated in between crystal clear sea and Biokovo mountain beautiful Makarska Riviera . Town Makarska is the biggest on Riviera among tens of smaller tourist places that are very popular among European tourists. Every place is rich in many restaurants,

Brela beach

which will serve you with well-known sea food specialties as well as with regional cuisine like burek, cevapcici or prosciutto and cheese served with a great local wines.

Take one of boat trips to explore Islands Brac and Hvar were on the boat fish is served for lunch with home made wine and just before the meal drink called rakia.

Once we have reached Makarska how could we resist and not to continue all the way to Dubrovnik . Dubrovnik has been called many times Mediterranean jewel and there are thousands of years of history to confirm this statement. We were impressed as many before us with the beauty and hospitality of the city and it’s citizens.

If you decide to see more then Croatia and take some of many Mediterranean cruises you’ll most likely stop for a day visit in Dubrovnik or Island of Korcula.

Hope you’ll enjoy it as much we did.