Another luxury hotel was opened in June on the central Dalmatian island of Hvar, known as one of the sunniest Croatian islands, with an offer based on a rich spa offer.

The Adriana Hvar marina hotel & spa, as the hotel’s full name reads, is situated on the very Hvar waterfront and offers a view of the best known Hvar localities - the Cathedral of St. Stephen, the Arsenal, the main square and Hvar harbour. This is actually a newly-renovated facility operating within the Suncani Hvar hotel company, and which offers its guests accommodation in 50 deluxe rooms, nine classic suites and several spa-specific suites.

The hotel has received a high four-star rating, and along with the classic amenities it also offers a range of attractive additional facilities like a covered heated pool with seawater in which guests will be able to swim yearround.

A restaurant has been opened on the hotel terrace, a classic bar and an attractive The Top sky garden bar whose luxurious design and unique setting will certainly become another favourite gathering place for the people of Hvar and their guests.

But the most attractive part of the offer is the new Sensori spa centre that offers numerous therapeutic and beauty treatments, massages and many spa programs like yoga and relaxing excursions into the outdoors. The centre stretches over three storeys with about 1,400 square metres housing all of the indoor and outdoor amenities.

The hotel offer is therefore for the large part based on the concept of wellness and spa, and that this is really a top level of quality is attested to by the fact that the Adriana, Hvar marina hotel & spa recently became a full member of the prestigious global group - The Leading Small Hotels of the World.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Island of Hvar
• Adriana Hvar marina hotel & spa

Valamar, the largest hotel group, has offered the market yet another facility in its concept of new hotel products - the Valamar Club Tamaris hotel, situated in Tar on the Lanterna peninsula near Porec. The hotel features 32 rooms and 71 suites and sports a four star rating, and offers its guests a range of opportunities for an active holiday with its wealth of sports and animation activities. The facility has been erected at the site of the former Tamaris hotel and the Iris aparthotel, and besides in Porec, Valamar has also opened a hotel of the same concept in Dubrovnik, where it operates under the moniker Valamar Club Dubrovnik.

Valamar Club Tamaris offers guests over 50 sports and relaxation activities, organised under the expert guidance of sports animators - from morning gymnastics, aerobics and aqua aerobics to music, yoga, stretching, tai chi and more. Tourists can also make use of the very well equipped weight room and vitality club located in the hotel, and they can also enjoy themselves on the beach volleyball, basketball and five-a-side football courts, in archery, water polo and much more. There are three pools in the hotel - a large new activity pool covering 520 square metres, a baby pool and a relaxation pool. Besides the various sports and animation facilities at the Valamar Club Tamaris, scuba diving courses have been organised for the guests and there is parasailing, water skiing, boating, aqua-biking, surfing, sailing, banana rides, tennis, horseback riding, billiards, darts, video games and more.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Porec
• Hotel Valamar

“The hotel Bellevue is a brilliant new boutique hotel that has in the space of a year gone from a typical three star facility to a top notch five-star location on which account we can now certainly declare it to be one of the best new European hotels” - reads a recent report run by the Sunday Times describing the newly-renovated Dubrovnik hotel. The report was published as part of a top list of the best new hotels in Europe, and the article was penned by well known tourism reporter Susan d’Arcey.

The report further cites that many fascinating new hotels have opened their doors across Europe of late, from the radical chic boutique hotels in Paris and Milan to the minimalist sea havens in Croatia and Capri, but, however fascinating they might be, only a few deserve the title of the coolest hotel that should certainly be visited before it becomes totally “discovered”. According to the expert evaluation one of these hotels is definitely Dubrovnik’s Hotel Bellevue, declared the best new hotel in Europe, winning the title in a field of 19 top new hotels across Europe - from Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Norway.

The newly-renovated Hotel Bellevue now has a total of 93 accommodation units, including 12 classic and one royal suite. Almost all of the rooms have a view of the sea, are equipped with the latest technology and stylistic design. The entire hotel interior is dominated by natural materials, a Mediterranean setting, recognisable ambience and a kind of ethno-techno-rock art concept, while the rooms are arranged so as to resemble the interior of a ship.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Dubrovnik
• Hotel Bellevue

A new nautical tourism marina was opened in the Zadar archipelago, more precisely on the island of Ugljan last month. It is now the largest marina in the entire Zadar archipelago and can receive about 225 vessels.

Marina Maslina (Olive Island Marine) is situated in the settlement of Sutomiscica on the island of Ugljan, only 20 minutes by ferry from the downtown core of the city of Zadar.

The marina itself is situated in the peaceful bay between Sutomiscica and Mali Lukoran, with its strategic position ideal for the safe accommodation of boats.

There are a series of service facilities for sailors, nautical equipment shops, wash areas, a self service store, a travel left service for boat repairs and the like on the mainland part of the marina. There are also 25 dry dock berths in this part of the marina.

The area on sea includes four large piers that can accommodate 225 boats, while the outer side of the breakwater, over 260 metres in length, can berth a large cruiser with a draught of up to seven metres.

During the construction of this marina the investors paid special attention to its functionality given that the entire Zadar archipelago has become an exceptionally popular sailing destination, and the great need had been demonstrated for precisely this kind of marina. Besides this, great care was taken in arranging the complete interior of the marina so that users could enjoy in the “Zadar mood” and the latest technology that has, in this case, been successfully built into this traditional Dalmatian ambience.

The island of Ugljan can boast of a mild Mediterranean climate. The average temperature in the period from May to October is 22 degrees Celsius, 2,500 hours of sunshine a year have been recorded, and the gentle maestral that blows on the island during the summer is a real refresher.

Besides that, the island faithfully preserves the local heritage, another one of the reasons that this marina will surely attract a great number of visitors.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Zadar
• Marina Maslina

A unique caravan of vintage Peugeot 404’s will head out from Croatia in mid August with only one goal on its itinerary - the parade of several of these vintage vehicles, led by a Harley Davidson, will take a total of 10,000 red roses and one white rose that are to be handed out during the ten-day journey, the last red rose to be presented under the Eiffel Tower. Only the white rose that will make the journey will not be handed to anyone as it is to make the trip back to Croatia.

The idea for this caravan was conceived by Sime Pelajic, a caterer from Vodice, a well-known tourist destination in Sibenik-Knin County. A great fan of vintage vehicles he has gathered a group of like-minded people and the members of the Ethno Vodice association with whom he will on August 15th head out for the trip from Vodice via Zadar, Ancona, Genoa, San Remo, Monaco, Nice, Saint Tropez to Paris where a number of other interesting events will be held, all with the aim of promoting Croatian tourism.

This unique caravan - called 10001 Roses For Paris - will make the ten-day journey. The participants who will be driving the 30 year old Peugeot 404’s, led by a Harley Davidson with its original red rose on the gas tank, will carry 10,001 roses and a great love for Croatia, something they will do their best to pass on to the many people they will meet on this fascinating journey.

Upon the arrival in Paris, the caravan participants will meet Croatian diplomatic representatives in Paris and an exhibition of paintings by Sime Pelajic himself will be presented at the premises of the Croatian National Tourist Board representative office.

The goal of this project is to promote Croatian tourism and showcase Croatia’s values, people and beauty in a different, unique way.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Vodice
• City of Vodice Tourist Board

The City of Osijek - the central and largest town in Osijek-Baranja County is now, among other things, a very attractive tourist destination. The development of tourism in the city has long ago imposed itself as a logical orientation considering Osijek’s many attractive cultural and historical attractions, its rich history, fascinating tradition, that fact that it offers visitors plenty of entertainment, and even the offer of accommodation is improving from year to year.

These days in fact, in the direct vicinity of Osijek’s Upper Town a new hotel opened its doors - the hotel Drava.

This small family hotel with 11 rooms, a restaurant and café bar, with its services earning it a three-star rating. with this new facility Osijek now offers a total of eight hotels, four of which are high category facilities, two motels and a large number of private apartments, while for a stay in the numerous traditional rural homesteads it is best to make your way into the picturesque Osijek environs.

The most attractive location in Osijek is certainly the Baroque period Fortress (Tvrdja), one of the most representative structures in all of Slavonia. Everyone who finds themselves in Osijek for even just a day should not miss a tour of the main town square and the well-known Osijek promenade along the Drava River, the municipal gardens in Osijek, tow of which are protected as horticultural monuments, and the numerous municipal museums and theatres. The entire town can be experienced through its already well-known “transportation” story. Europe’s oldest tram, namely, is in operation in this city, adapted for tourist tours of the most attractive points of interest in the city.

One of the great advantages of the city is its rich surroundings where tourists are offered numerous possibilities - from hunting and fishing, excursions to Kopacki rit Nature Park, visits to rural homesteads to enjoying the traditional Slavonian offer.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Osijek
• Osijek-Baranja Tourist Board
• Hotel Drava

Instead of the classic designations on the type and kind of facility is offered, the tourist offer of rural homesteads in Istra will from now on be displayed in a different way - as a symbol of individual types of facilities a sign has been selected that is traditionally linked to Istra, and that is the asparagus. And so one asparagus will denote an agrotourism facility, three asparagus will be a sign of a rural vacation home and five will denote a rural Bed & Breakfast offer.

There are some 300 rural homesteads currently on offer in Istra with about 3,100 beds, which is about two percent of the total amount of accommodation capacity in this Croatian region. And while this is still a small number, we should point out that it is a segment now in great demand, and a massive effort is being made to preserve and improve the quality of this entire segment of the offer. The Ruralis Consortium for rural tourism in Istra has been founded with this in mind, and its top management are setting strict rules in order to standardise and adequately profile these facilities.

Across all of Istra there are no several types of rural facilities - classic agro-tourism, rural vacation homes, a Bed & Breakfast offer, rural family hotels, vacation areas with accommodation on wine roads and the like. These categories of facilities will now be standardised with the aim of emphasising their distinct nature and in order to ease tourist comparison and selection.

The standardisation of the facilities is being implemented through the system of additional scoring, given that each of them must have general and compulsory standards, points are added for some extra standards such as attractive location, traditionally arranged interiors and grounds and traditional occupations (cattle breeding and the like).

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Istria
• Ruralis

In Pakovo selo near Drnis, near Krka National Park and some 20 kilometres from the city of Sibenik in Sibenik- Knin County, the first Croatian Ethnoland was recently opened.

The indigenous Dalmatian excursion centre - Dalmati, as it is officially called, stretches over 15 thousand square metres and is the reconstruction of a typical village of the Sibenik and Dalmatian hinterland in which visitors can see how people once lived in the area, sample local dishes, get to known numerous folk customs, traditional garb and folklore. People whose occupations are no longer in demand on the market like shepherds, blacksmiths, weavers and woodworkers will find their place at this Ethnoland and the producers of health food will earn money as will people who make souvenirs.

This indigenous village is dominated by small old stone houses in which real craftspeople are lodged with konoba, wine cellars, donkeys, sheep, goats, Dalmatian farmhands, their stables and paddocks, gardens through which tourists can walk and pick what they would like to sample… Visitors can take the opportunity to dance a round with the folklore ensembles from Pakovo selo, tour the wealth of the Drnis region and Sibenik hinterland and, among other things, visit the Didova kuca (Granddaddy’s house) museum in which not a single of the exhibited traditional items is under a hundred years old. At the centre of this rural treasure is a large amphitheatre with a seating capacity of about 400 that will be used to promote the rural heritage of the region.

The Ethnoland offer will be a little richer every year with special attention being paid to the construction of a dry stonewall that will encircle the entire village. The traditional Dalmatian low wall usually used to fence in gardens and homesteads will be just the kind tradition insists on - made by hand of hand-picked stone.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Ethnoland Dalmati - Pakovo selo

With the aim of renewing traditional heritage and putting it in the function of tourism, across all of Baranja, a region situated in the far north-east of the country, this year will see the launch of the renewal of ten new tourism projects.

One of the more fascinating of these projects is certainly the Ethno Street of Forgotten Times were intensive works are already under way. The street is located in the village of Karanac, in the very heart of Baranja, already known to the world of tourism on account of its attractive offer of rural tourism. This is the popular Baranja House, a rural homestead behind which the mentioned “street of memories” is being built. The owner of the Baranja House has decided to broaden the offer so that soon the street will feature traditional Slavonian “ambar” (corn storage sheds) with construction to start soon on a smith’s house of mud, and ice-house, a potter’s and carpenter’s workshop and a number of other “forgotten” things. Besides this project another old smithy will be opened in Karanac, which will certainly earn the village the epithet of a real Slavonian ethno village.

Standing out among the other tourism projects is the renewal of traditional wine cellars in the village of Gajic planina.

The most funds, however, will be invested into the renovation of the landing dock at the Kopacki rit Nature Park.

Along with the landing dock an awning with a belvedere will be built on the site of the old Komarac restaurant, which will widen the existing tourism offer at Kopacki rit.

There will also be building going on in the well known Baranja rural tourism destination - the village of Bilje where there are plans to build a local style Baranja home, and the city of Beli Manastir will also “get” its first real Baranja ethno house.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Slavonija & Baranja
• Osijek-Baranja Tourist Board

Imagine a romantic boat ride from romantic Opatija to the open sea where the motors are shut down, and where you, in twilight, with champagne in hand, enjoy the tones of opera arias. This kind of atmosphere on ship and at sea is an invitation to take part in a new Opatija tourism project called the Opera Ship. The project was conceived last year by Opatija-based opera singers in collaboration with the top people at the City of Opatija Tourist Board, but it is only from this season on, after further investment into the program, that a broader demand for these “open sea arias” emerges.

The project was conceived with tourists boarding a ship that takes them on a panoramic ride to the open seas a bit off the shores of Opatija. Upon arrival at the “destination” the motors are shut down and the opera singers start their performance. According to the program as it has been conceived the opera singers will perform pieces mostly well known to the public, and will change outfits several times during the performance to as vividly as possible conjure forth the period from which individual arias date to - from the baroque and Renaissance to the modern day.

The Opera Ship program is already being offered to tourists every Wednesday at 9 pm. The tour lasts about an hour and a half and will be on offer up to the end of September, and will be offered three times a week in July and August - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and in September again only Wednesdays. If the demand is greater however, the panoramic tours on the Opera Ship might run more frequently.

The ship has a 40 tourist capacity and tickets for this attractive program can be found at all Opatija tourist agencies.

source: Croatian National Tourist Board at www.croatia.hr

Resources

• Directory: Opatija
• City of Opatija Tourist Board
• Opera Ship