Croatia – Historical Cities – Lovely Beaches and Islands

More than 10 million tourists a year are attracted to this beautiful country, and if you haven’t visited yet, we highly recommend you do!

Stretching down the Adriatic coast from just east of Italy (Croatia borders Slovenia) to Montenegro, it has an extensive coastline and many gorgeous towns and cities lining it.

The mainland coast is actually over 1,700 kilometres (1,104 miles) from end to end, and as well as the mainland, the country includes a staggering 1,246 islands – though the majority of these are just islets or rocks.

Some larger islands are major tourist destinations, offering beautiful beaches and a climate rivalling southern Italy, Greece or Turkey.

The historic cities are big tourist draws, particularly Dubrovnik, Split, and Stari Grad.

Inland Croatia has lovely mountain scenery, plenty of lakes, caves, fields and forests, and these parts of the country are becoming very popular as nature tourism destinations.

Popular Towns, Cities and Islands

As mentioned above, the most popular – and best-known – cities are Dubrovnik, Split, and Stari Grad.

Dubrovnik has long been one of the top tourist destinations in the Adriatic and contains one of the best-preserved medieval walled cities in the world.

Split is the largest coastal city and doesn’t have quite the same charming appeal as Dubrovnik.

Even so, there are many things to see and do here, including discovering its history, culture, museums, and more.

Then there’s Stari Grad, the oldest town and one of the oldest in Europe, and it’s set on Hvar Island.

Hvar Island is just one of the country’s popular islands; others include Brac, its beautiful beaches, and Korcula.

Cuisine and Wines

Be sure to try a selection of Croatian cuisine while you’re visiting.

There are variations in the cuisine across the country’s different regions, depending on which other countries they are geographically close to.

The Dalmatia region, for example, in the south of the country, has many Mediterranean and Italian influences and includes seafood, vegetables and pasta.

In contrast, inland regions are influenced by Turkish, Hungarian and Austrian food and cooking styles.

Here, meat, game, and freshwater fish are more commonly eaten.

Croatia has two main wine regions: Continental and Coastal, and Croatian wines are becoming increasingly popular around Europe.