The ‘pearl of the Adriatic’, Croatia is a magnetic fusion of trendy bars and buzzing nightlife amid ancient ruins. It is a fascinating country with 1778km of coastline, a glistening sea winds around rocky coves, lapping at pine-fringed beaches. Stay in a private beach home amidst the roman ruins! Croatia is an old time holiday favorite that has made a comeback and in a short time grown into one of our hottest summer destinations. Many of those who came here before the war broke out in the 1990s have returned, others discover the country for the first time. Crystal-clear swimming, medieval towns, great food and reasonable prices are what mainly attracts tourists.

The country is endowed with a long and beautiful coastline on the Adriatic Sea. Nougat-colored limestone cliffs contrasts with a blue-turquoise sea. The water is the Mediterranean’s cleanest and clearest. Islands off the coast offer lavender fields, fresh seafood and fresh bath. Just off the Dalmatian coast around Dubrovnik are over 1000 islands. In the Middle Ages was the Dalmatian coast, notorious for its pirates. Ten years ago it was a battleground. Today it is a gold coast – for the booming Croatian and Montenegrin tourist industry. Take a drive between the splendid Venetian port cities, pebble beaches and fragrant fish taverns.

The view is magnificent. But the new roof tiles of red brick that covers most of the houses down there gossiping about the harms of Dubrovnik‘s old town after years of bombardment. To the besieged Dubrovnik and the people inside the city’s mighty city wall survived feels like a miracle.

The Croatian coast have seen a true influx of tourists: the seaside resorts are expanding and new ones are being build, sailing tourism continues to grow and many people prefer the clear coastal waters of the Adriatic. More and more people opt for the car along the coast, along the roads where the traffic in and of itself is often dense, but where each curve offers a new grand views.

Stan is so small that even the first night will soon have gone on the glossy-worn stones of every pedestrian alley. In the courtyards crowded taverns, usually with fish and seafood on the menu or in Croatia obligatory pizza, another Italian heritage along a coast that often feels as if you were on the other side of the Adriatic Sea.

Drinking local white wine at dusk on one of the cafés along the line of the well-preserved city wall and look at the walkers and the many horrible expensive luxury boat were along the quay. Across the bay lie shipyards, which no longer give any job – now it is tourism related. It is also seen in the air, the small town located just beneath the approach to Split and sometimes it is tight between landings, many planes from Britain and Scandinavia, but also rows of old Russian machines with Eastern European tourists on board.

Still, the town boasts yet another of Croatian heritage – the very special St. James Cathedral. An extract prestigious building in brilliant white marble that was ruining the city during the 1400s and when it was finished was a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance, with an unusual arched roof, as one looks best if you walk up one of the steep stairway alleys on the other side of the small sleepy town square.

Wander around the alleys and explore the harbor – you can also take a bout out to Zlarin and Prvi. The boats then go to the seaside resort of Vodice, which lacks good beaches, but still attracts tourists from all over Europe.

Krka is well organized with big parking lots where buses will take visitors down into the dense lush green valley, where the challenging park rangers with loudspeakers shout out when the next ship departs for the monasteries on the lake’s other end and which way to go if you want to the cases where one of Europe’s first hydroelectric once produced electricity.

Split, Dalmatia’s main town, an industrial city with a couple hundred thousand inhabitants, where the big shipyards still dominates. But the split also has an interesting history.

Salona, ​​a little higher up the mountain side than Split, founded by the Greeks in 400 BC, but had its real heyday under the Romans in 300 century AD, when over 60,000 people lived here. The proximity to the big city was the Emperor Diocletian to choose Split as the site of his huge palace building, which he then lived in after having abdicated.

Despite all the glory was sacked after 300 years and remains rebuilt several times, much remains of the palace area remains, including parts of the mighty walls. Just to walk on the worn, white marble stones in the winding streets and knowing that this could also be people for nearly 2000 years ago are fascinating. The small square with cafés and bars make Split’s pedestrian old city, one of the most pleasant places to get lost.

But Split is also, along with Zadar further north, a center for Dalamatia’s many ferry routes to the nearby islands of Hvar and Brac. At a first glimpse the famous beach in Bol, Zlatni Rat, the most photographed in all of Croatia is stunning. Bol itself is a small village with neat stone houses, a direct beach lined with cafés and a few small alleys behind, before Vidova Gora, the Adriatic islands’ highest peak, rises steeply.

Get back on the ferry and visit Makarska – Croatia’s Riviera, and then get a nice trip in the morning sun on a calm sea. The steep hills extend to the sea here and the coast is Croatia‘s most magnificent and dramatic.