Escorted Tours of Croatia

Croatia’s attractions are too many to list. The country has superb landscapes, from snow-capped mountains via lush forests and placid lakes to an intricate coastline with thousands of islands.

The archaeological and cultural heritage includes prehistoric strongholds, traces of Greek settlements, vast Roman monuments, the charming churches of the first Christian Croatians, the grand edifices of theVenetian-influenced Republic of Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik) and innumerable medieval and post-medieval cities of great interest and great prettiness, each with its own character and beauty, be it inland, on the coast or even on an island.

Our very first itinerary was a gulet cruise along the spectacular coast of Dalmatia, that visits the Roman Palace of Diocletian at Split and the stunning Renaissance city of Dubrovnik together with a number of beautiful islands: Brač; Hvar, Vis, and Korčula, but now we have many more on offer.

Imagine a country where a typical bakery’s breakfast offerings include, side-by-side, Turkish-style börek cheese rolls (burek in Croatian) and Austrian-style apple strudel (štrudla). This surprising conjunction exemplifies the remarkable diversity of Croatian cuisine.

This diversity is in itself a reflection of the country’s diverse geography, permitting it to cultivate a vast range of fruit and vegetables, and even more so of its cultural diversity, of the many peoples and cultures that have influenced Croatia over the millennia.

Essentially, it appears as if the Croatians deliberately adopted and adapted the best parts of all those traditions, so that the visitor can discern Slavic elements, Ottoman influences as filtered through Bosnian and Hungarian cuisine, a Germanic (Austrian in particular) note, as well as a strong Mediterranean presence with close links to Italy. Not surprisingly, Croatia’s cuisine can be subdivided into a number of distinctive regional or local traditions, of which at least nine are generally recognised. Many restaurants specialise in one of those local cuisines.

As a result of that diversity, it is difficult to describe a “typical” Croatian meal – there are just too many possibilities. That said, there is certainly something to suit any taste on most Croatian menus, be it meat, fish, a vegetable dish or a soup.

Generally speaking, the coastal areas, Dalmatia and Istria with their islands, have a Mediterranean climate, with mild weather even in winter and moderate to hot dry summers, while the inland features a proper continental climate with quite harsh winters, moderate to hot summers and a fair amount of precipitation.

For historical reasons, Croatia is a rather strangely-shaped country, consisting of two main landmasses – one to the south and west, the other to the north and east – that are only connected by a narrow stretch of territory, less than 50km (30mi) wide. Bordering Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, Croatia is very much a country of the northwest Balkans.

Three geographic features dominate the appearance and nature of Croatia. These are the Adriatic Basin, providing the country with its long and complex shoreline, the Dinaric Alps, a mountain chain of moderate height that separates the coastal areas from the continental interior, and the Pannonian Plain, a large lowland and inland region traversed by major rivers such as the Danube and its tributaries, Sava and Drava. As a result of the considerable differences between these features in terms of topography, weather and human use, Croatia is remarkably diverse, considering its relatively small size, in appearance and in naturally occurring flora and fauna.

Due to her position “between” cultures, Croatia is only rarely visible as a central theatre of history. This is an issue of perspective to some extent, but it also reflects an element of truth. While other areas underwent the glories and disasters that centre-stage brings, Croatia laboured on, uniting different cultural strands, contributing to historical developments on this side, that side or the other, and constantly absorbing, adopting and adapting whatever cultural developments affected her.

As a result, the country features impressive monuments reflecting much of European history, from prehistory via the Greek and Roman eras to the Baroque and beyond, but its own individual contributions are often overlooked. The prime example of this is the oft-forgotten Republic of Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik), which existed from the 14^th to the 19^th centuries, and was a major power in the Adriatic throughout, modelling herself on and rivalling Venice while hedging her bets between the West and the Ottoman Empire.

Zagreb, Croatia’s inland capital, has an unbroken and complex urban history going back to the 11^th century at least, and the same applies to many towns and cities, coastal and inland.

If Croatia is not “typical” of any history, that’s because it was often fragmented and it behaved neither as a Balkans region, nor as a Mediterranean or as a Central European one – Croatian history reflects all of those options, but it exemplifies none, as the country and area went their own way or ways.

That is exactly why the cultural heritage of Croatia is so fascinating.