Many of you renting a summer apartment in Croatia are not aware that the most of Croatian top summer destinations have completely different face outside the peak summer months.
Croatia
Hotels, private apartment and rooms, camps and pensions are there not only to fill the budget, but to fill restaurants, cafés, bars, shops, streets and squares with laughter, music and life. Thus, the first thing that makes some town or village a top tourist destination in Croatia is you may dear! There are towns and villages in Croatia whose population multiplies in summer time many times.
Although the same Adriatic Sea is kissing the same white Mediterranean stone under the same cool sun, summer increasing of temperature is a promise of increasing of population, bringing many forgotten places to life. Here there are ten Croatian summer top destinations you wouldn’t recognize in winter time, although some of you might find deserted streets and docks outside a season romantic and intriguing.
Top 10 summer spots for accommodation in Croatia
1. Medulin – is a municipality and a town settled on the peak of Istrian peninsula. Stretching along 80 kilometers of indented coastline. Medulin Riviera counts over 6000 of inhabitants and almost 2 millions of staying during the year.
City of Medulin - Croatia
Traditional Istrian hospitality, along with magical green bluish environment, attracts a great number of visitors who will find here everything they might think of for complete and satisfying holidays.
The azure sea can be seen from any point of Medulin`s narrow coastal strip, but the true magic begins once you get familiar with all facilities and amenities which can be found here. There are great capacities in private accommodation in Medulin, apartments and rooms, hotels, camps, marinas and apartment settlements; sport facilities for diving, football, volleyball, riding, athletic, windsurfing, kite surfing, cycling, tennis, sailing and other.
Water sports are diverse and unforgettable in such a magical environment; usual crowd on popular beaches is easy to replace with peace and intimacy of isolated coves or a dozen of islets of Medulin`s archipelago. The calendar of events during peak summer months will leave you no respite, but lots of memories on a great holidays in Croatia sure will.
2. Pag – is one of the most intriguing and, thus the most wanted, Croatian islands. It is settled in the archipelago of Zadar, an hour of driving away from the airport Zemunik.
Island Pag Croatia
Pag is connected with the mainland by a bridge on its southern part, which makes this island closer to the land, not only in geographical, but in cultural and economical sense. The most significant settlement on the island is a same name town Pag. It has 4350 residents and over 100000 guests during the summer months. Pag has a long tourist tradition; the first tourist
brochure was printed in 1929. From that time now on, Pag has developed satisfying tourist offer; hotels, private apartments and rooms, plain and luxurious one; restaurants and taverns, cafes and bars, for any pocket and taste.
The attractiveness of Pag is lying in its unobtrusive hospitality; the richness of the past that ennoble every step across 11 centuries old stone streets and squares hiding many mysteries; excellent menus in savory restaurants with traditional cheese and lamb grown on self growing herbs across the island; 20 kilometers of attractive beaches surrounding the town; rich cultural proposals with summer carnival and festivities accompanied by amusing nightlife (nearby beach Zrće is considered Croatian Ibiza); and many possibilities for one day excursions across the island, or away to some nearby National Park like Kornati or to Zadar. There is another fact speaking in favor of Pag; it is not the biggest Croatian island, but it has the longest shore line.
Pag is Croatian most indented island with numerous picturesque hidden coves lined by olive and vine orchards and clean bluish sea.
3. Vodice – is one of top Croatian summer destinations, the town in Middle Dalmatia, 11 kilometers away from medieval town Šibenik.
Vodice Croatia
It is easy to reach due to the modern new highway from Zagreb and airports near Split and Zadar, both about 70 kilometers away.
Due to tourism, Vodice grew from a small port to a town, counting about 12000 of residents today. Yet, summer brings a great number of people here desiring quality accommodation, clean sea and beaches, good food and 24 hours amusement. The town notes over 50000 of guests during the peak summer months.
Vodice offers a wide range of accommodation options; hotels, small luxurious family hotels, camps, pensions, private apartment and rooms. There are numerous sport facilities in town and surroundings, including unusual underwater safari and adrenaline sports like bungee jumping, para-sailing and other.
A great number of restaurants with good food, cafes and bars keep their door wide open till early morning, promising good time and fun. And all of that is served in tame Dalmatian ambient spread across narrow white stone streets and pebble beaches.
4. Baška – is another place on the island connected by a bridge with the mainland. That island is Krk, the biggest Croatian island and one of beauties of Kvarner bay.
Baška - Croatia
Baška is its southernmost point. Baška has its own ferry lines with Senj and the island Rab; it is distanced 19 kilometers from the main town Krk and easy to reach from all parts of the globe, due to the airport on the island. The whole island is a top tourist destination due to its long history and excellent gastronomy offer accompanied with authentic vine Žlahtina, and Baška is a cherry on top of a cake.
It has about 900 of residents and a possibility to host 10000 of people per day. It is considered to be one of the most attractive villages on Mediterranean; its small stiffed houses make peculiar architecture statement and beaches are astonishing with 2 kilometers long one, decorated with the blue flag, in the center of the village. I
ts long tourist tradition Baška owes to the oldest monument written in Croatian – Baška Tablet from the year 1100. found near by. However, the village has developed the great tourist offer; hotels, auto camp, naturist camp, private apartments in Vodice and rooms are accompanied by sport facilities, restaurants, cafes, and bars. Mysterious ambient plaited among the remains of Romanic villas and Renaissance and Baroque churches with the ruins of fortress on the hill above, is scented by the taste of the salt and bathed in the sun rays over 2500 hours during a year.
5. Nin – is a small town settled 15 kilometers southwestern from Zadar. It is positioned in a lagoon at a small peninsula until 14th century when the peninsula was detached from the mainland with a canal.
Nin Croatia
Today Nin is the most charming little town stiffed on the 500 meters wide island, where can be stepped on by two stone bridges only. But stepping off one of those bridges seems to be a step to a fairytale. Nin has 1250 inhabitants, and with its five settlements surrounding it, reaches over 800000 of staying every year.
Family resorts, camps, private apartment and rooms are available all year long, although most people come here to enjoy the benefits of summer Mediterranean climate conditions.
Nin is surrounded by numerous shallows and cool water beaches suitable for children and no swimmers; many of beaches have healing mud areas which opens a door for medical tourism.
Most of guests are foreigners who also appreciate the magic of history frozen in Nin`s stone streets, facades, squares and churches, lead by the most famous `the smallest cathedral on the world`, a church from 9th century St. Cross. The wonder of that building doesn’t lay in its size, but in the openings on its walls which seem quite insignificant.
The true is that they represent the most precise sun clock of that time! So, whilst Nin has served as the home of the Catholic Church in Croatia, as well as the first royal town with Croatian kings crowned and reigning there, in the early past, today Nin can be nothing less than the scene for a royal holiday.
6. Zlarin – is an island in the archipelago of Šibenik, distanced 30 minutes of slow tour by local boat line through the magnificent landscape of Šibenik`s canal.
Zlarin Croatia
It is a beautiful example of Dalmatian isolated life on the sea, yet close enough to the mainland to offer comfort and amenities of littoral towns.
Zlarin has less than 300 permanent residents in 200 something houses; still it hosted 10000 guests until the end of July this year. Majority of accommodation consists of vacation houses with private rental apartments and rooms, and maybe, that is the greatest charm of this small community.
At glance, it seems that the island is frozen in time; cracked stone walls shamefully jutting behind the purple rose-bays and wooden sailing boats drowsy swinging on the waves of the cleanest and bluest sea. Yet, under that idealistic scene, Zlarin is an island with fertile cultural life deeply connected with prodigies of modern civilization.
Zlarin has a number of restaurants, pizzerias, taverns and cafes. There is a cinema, diving school, sailing regatta, a few festivals and numerous cultural events during a summer time. Zlarin is a rare place in Croatia with the whole area of the island covered with free internet approach. The people of Zlarin used to live from the incomes of diving and preparation of corals from 15th century. There is only one manufacture of handmade jewelry and small museum in honor to those wealthy times today.
Yet, the whole island seems like a coral among deserted rocks, flaming in Croatian summer.
7. Bol – is the southern coastal settlement on the island Brač in the archipelago of Split. It stretches a few kilometers along the coast with the most beautiful golden beaches on the island.
Bol Croatia - on Island Brach
Bol is 38 kilometers away from Supetar, the ferry port with frequent lines to Split. Since Bol is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Croatia, it has a daily bus line with the capital Zagreb during the peak summer months. With about 1600 people permanently inhabiting it and almost a half of million of staying during a year, Bol is attractive destination in Croatia.
At first its fame Bol owes to the beach Golden Horn, which is one of the largest and the most beautiful attractions of the Adriatic Sea. It looks like a small tongue made of golden sand, extending nearly a half of kilometer into the clear blue sea. From year to year it changes its shape and the direction, attempting to please wild and demanding sea waves.
Thus, even outside peak months, Golden horn attracts surfers and swimmers from all around the globe. Bol has a great tourist offer; hotels, private apartments and rooms, camps, restaurants, bars, sports facilities, active vacation facilities and even more. Since it is the oldest settlement on Brač, its represent a compiling mixture of palpitating bodies seeking for a thrill all-around and silent and still monuments of the past; Dominican monastery with a museum, urban center of Bol with baroque summer residence, a little church, renaissance-baroque palace with an art gallery inside it, parish church, little market and Kastil.
And all of that perfumed with rosemary and pine, a scent which will track you along and remind you long of crazy and fulfilling holidays in Croatia.
8. Brela – is a small town next to the more famous Makarska, 50 kilometers away from Split and 20 kilometers away form an entrance on the highway A1.
Brela Croatia
It is a municipality with 1770 inhabitants and 4 millions of staying during a year. Brela is one of the most exclusive and desired tourist destinations in Dalmatia, due to the attractive natural environment, clean pebble and sandy beaches, romantically spreading along a side where a promenade swerves between pine trees and comfortable Brela accommodation; hotels, private rental houses, apartments, rooms, restaurants, sports fields and other attractive and active vacation facilities.
The magic of Brela and the whole Makarska Riviera is hidden in a conjunction of the clean sea and beaches with the great mountain above them, Biokovo. It is beyond any doubt that all the life came from Biokovo`s stiff slopes, slipping towards the sea like an ice glacier.
It left traces that enrich tourist offer of Brela today; archeological sites with ceramic, old pottery, excerpts of tombstones and money from the Roman era, small churches and fortresses, grapevines and olive orchards, rural villages with homemade specialties. The clean and clear sea and the care of the environment were awarded numerous times, and staying in Brela you’ll experience no way else, but as an award.
9. Orebić – is a small settlement situated on the southwestern part of the Pelješac peninsula, in the county of Dubrovnik. It is distanced about hour and a half of driving by car from Dubrovnik with its airport and approximately three and a half hours from Split.
Orebić Croatia
It has regular bus connections with those cities, as well as with Zagreb and Sarajevo, along with regular boat lines with surrounding islands, like Korčula. With over 4000 of residents, Orebić is a town with fertile history and everyday life during a summer time.
It notes over a half of million of staying during a year. It was the town of sea captains and sailors, offering to its visitors pure environment, untouched nature with hundred years old pines and almond trees, agaves and flowers. Long sandy beaches and numerous small bays bath in the crystal clear sea.
Although close to more famous Dubrovnik where tourist season lasts all year long, Orebić kept a virginity of a small community; hotels, private apartments Orebić, rooms, boarding houses, restaurants and cafes, are rounded with small taverns offering homemade products with famous wines from this area Dingač, Postup and Pelješac.
It is a place where you can easily forget you are not at home.
10. Tar-Vabriga – is a settlement near Poreč in Istria. It developed from two settlements, Tar and Vabriga, which were spreading towards one another, until they merged into one geographical and economical whole.
Tar Vabriga - Istria Croatia
With over 1500 of residents they count around 1400000 of staying during a year. The secret of its popularity lies in a great number of private accommodation rentals with modern private rental apartments and houses, accompanied by a big tourist settlement.
There are sport facilities, especially the ones for tennis and golf; restaurants and bars. But the greatest charms of Tar-Vabriga is in its beautiful beaches, which seem to be attractive even to dinosaurs; their footprints, 60 something millions years old, were found here, as well as the remains of mammoth and prehistorically settlements of humans.
Tracing archeological artifacts along this magical county, can easily lead you to the future; reliving of your best holidays ever in Croatia next year!
Tags: accommodation Croatia, Brela, Croatia, Croatia apartments, Holiday, Makarska, Nin, Pag, Zlarin