It has been a long time between posts here on our Lifejacket Adventures blog. That’s because we started a new blog – Our Croatia Life – which now contains all of the more personal stories, and we will continue to publish our adventure business stories here.

On facebook, Our Croatian Life can be found here, and Lifejacket Adventures here.

]]> http://blog.lifejacketadventures.com/croatia/2010/03/07/new-personal-blog/feed/ 0 http://blog.lifejacketadventures.com/croatia/2008/12/12/new-kayak-tour-schedule-and-prices/ http://blog.lifejacketadventures.com/croatia/2008/12/12/new-kayak-tour-schedule-and-prices/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:21:21 +0000 Croatian Adventures http://blog.lifejacketadventures.com/?p=438

The schedule for our 2010 sea-kayaking adventures/expeditions has been added here!

In terms of quality of food, knowledge of local history, places visited, wines tasted and overall enjoyment, we believe our tours to be the best in Croatia!

Except for coffee at cafes and wine at restaurants, all meals and drinks are included. Our tours are not a series of day trips from a base point, but a continuous movement along the Dalmatian Coast.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Arrival in Split

The Vis and Hvar Islands Kayak Adventure starts in the evening of the first day – not with getting into the boats but a stroll through the 1 700 year old ruins of Roman Emperor Diocletian’s retirement palace. Eventhough Deanna, Gabe, Tove, May-Lill, Jodie, Warwick (call me ‘Waz’) and Fred were all coming from different directions at different times, and with Tim and me still on Vis Island organizing the falkuša and kayaks, Jules was somehow able to get everyone in the correct place for a walk with Maja, our knowledgeable guide.

Diocletian was known for several things – as reformer (of the Roman legal, financial, administrative and military systems), as a persecutor (of Christians) and as a constructor. The biggest baths in Rome (over 30 000 sqm) were built by him – though he never visited them – and he built of 20 000sqm of palace just for himself on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. It only took 10 years to build (completed in 305), but anything is possible when you have 20 000 slaves working for you. And only 2 000 were killed during construction! Its good to be the king! The palace forms the centre of Split old town and locals still live amongst its ancient stones.

The irony is that when the Christians inhabited the palace after 640, they turfed Diocletian’s bones out of his mausoleum and turned it into the Cathedral of Sveti Duje (Saint Dominus).

After the tour, dinner was taken at Konoba Maslina – a good-value, hidden-away restaurant.

(Thanks to Deanna and Gabe for these pictures. For all the pictures of the kayak tour – click here.)

Tonight our friends Jane Cody and John Nash had the official Croatian launch of their book, Croatia Cruising Companion. Jane also did some writing for the new Timeout Croatia magazine, and she presented it as well to the audience of marina representatives and tourism agencies.

The Cruising Companion took Jane and John several years to research – they visited every bay of significance from Zadar to the south. For each they produced anchorage charts as well as wrote lengthy descriptions on available facilities – such as our laundrette in Split.

The book is perfect for those coming here to rent a yacht and visit the Dalmatian Islands. It is currently ranked #3 for both books on Croatia and those on sailing on Amazon.com.

Timeout Croatia has a thicker guide magazine again this year. More stories and more information are crammed inside. One of our kayaking pictures, taken on a tour around Vis and Hvar Islands, appears in the adventure section.

The European Cities Marketing Association has released figures which shows Split is #1 on a list of European holiday destinations for growth in visitors between 2001 and 2006.

“Split saw an annual growth of around 17% in tourists, to top their survey of 93 locations across Europe.

In 2006, some 200 000 holiday makers crowded into city of some 250 000 inhabitants, a 400% rise in the number of holiday makers from 1999. Their average stay was 2.2 days.

The trend continued in 2007, but according to Split-based daily, Slobodna Dalmacija, tourist numbers decreased slightly by 5 000 due to a lack of accommodation as old hotels underwent renovation. (It may have been something to do with the terrible job that was done on renovating the waterfront or the fact Split suffers from a lack of a coherent tourism plan!)

The 2001-2006 survey shows that U.S. visitors and tourists topped the list and were followed by French and Spanish visitors.

A transit point for a number of Croatian islands, Split and its famous old town dominated by the Roman Emperor’s Diocletian Palace dating from the end of the 3rd Century, has become a key tourist attraction in Croatia, challenging the status of the legendary town of Dubrovnik, some 200kms to the southeast.

The tourism boom has seen real estate prices skyrocketing with properties in the old towns going for as much as 6 000 € /square metre. (This is just nonsense made-up by the local real-estate agents!)”

Some of what is written above is true – we have seen a constant growth in our laundrette business – but I wouldn’t trust the figures supplied by the local tourism board here in Split. Personally I think Dubrovnik tourism would have had far more (and better quality) growth. The opportunity is here in Split – it will just take hard work by everyone.

As a follow up to the last post about Croatia’s bid to join NATO -

“NATO leaders have agreed to invite Croatia and Albania to join the alliance.

The agreement was reached at an informal dinner of the NATO heads of state and government on Wednesday night.

For the third aspirant country, Macedonia, the leaders hoped that it can be invited as soon as possible given the fact that Greece, a NATO ally, has made clear that it will veto the invitation unless Macedonia changes its official name.

The Greek delegation made very clear on Tuesday night that Macedonia’s accession to NATO would be impossible before the settlement of the name dispute.

Greece fears that the former Yugoslav republic’s constitutional name — Republic of Macedonia — implies territorial ambition for the neighboring northern Greek province of Macedonia. But Skopje has refused to exchange its official name for NATO membership.

On Ukraine and Georgia’s application for NATO’s Membership Action Plan (MAP), chances are small for them to be given this status at the summit.

The leaders reaffirmed NATO’s “open door” policy and were of the view that MAP for the two countries is a matter not of whether, but of when.

The leaders also reiterated that there is no veto by third parties, apparently in reference to opposition by Russia.

Russia has warned that NATO membership for the two former Soviet republics would bring instability in the region.”

It always bodes well when ‘instability’ and ‘Balkans’ are used in the same sentence!

Some of our pictures.