Bol Croatia Events

Bol Croatia Summer Festival 2009

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:36:53 +0200

Finally we have a full list of events during Bol Summer Festival 2009. It all started on 05. June and will last till 23. September when last manifestation called "Adio Lito" ("Farewell Summer") will be held. Programme is full of exibitions, concerts, performances, workshops, presentations and lots of entertainment.

See programe pdf file

Easyjet announced 4 new routes to Dubrovnik

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:06:26 +0200

British low budget airline company Easyjet announced four new flights to Dubrovnik starting in 2009. From 1st of May 2009 Easyjet flies four times a week from London Gatwick airport to Dubrovnik, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Three times a week Liverpool - Dubrovnik route, opens 2nd of June 2009. Also, Geneva - Dubrovnik will operate from 6th of July 2009, twice a week. Berlin - Dubrovnik route will start from the 12th of July 2009 with three flights a week schedule. Apart from the latest Easyjet routes, Dubrovnik is also connected with London by daily British Airways flights (during season only) and Croatia Airlines flights (four times a week).Source: HTZ

Zlatni rat beach @ Daily Mail

Sat, 30 May 2009 19:17:53 +0200

Zlatni rat beach is listed first in article "Hidden Treasure Coves" by Daily Mail in the UK.
Quote:
"Croatia's necklace of Adriatic islands boasts a string of amazing beaches, including Zlatni Rât (the Golden Horn), on the island of Brac. Visitors to nearby Bol, Brac's oldest town, are left wide-eyed by this waterfront vision - a perfect triangle of sand-tipped land that juts into the water. The raft of mountains behind completes the view."
Read full article at DailyMail.co.uk

New flights with Flybe

Mon, 18 May 2009 18:03:55 +0200

FlyBe Airlines now (from May) introduces flights to Croatia Split airport from Southampton, Birmingham, Jersey and Edinburgh.

Croatian tourist season kicks off in style

Mon, 04 May 2009 08:43:08 +0200

More than 60,000 tourists spent their Easter holidays on Croatia’s Adriatic coast - as many as during the best Croatian tourism seasons of previous years and 10 per cent more than expected - Croatian Times reports.

The visitors stayed in the 200 hotels open along the country’s Adriatic coastline, with the northern province of Istria welcoming 30,000 visitors and Split-Dalmatia county having 6,500 tourists for the Gregorian Easter weekend.

According to the Zadar tourist board, the area recorded its best Easter tourism results since the 1991-95 war, welcoming up to 6,000 tourists.

“This was the best Easter since the end of the war,” said Zvonko Supe, head of the Zadar Tourist Board. “It appears the season will be good despite many negative prognoses. We are pleased that so many tourists from Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Spain and Hungary were here this year. Also, thanks to Ryanair, we have had 450 guests from Scandinavia during the last three days.”

Twenty per cent of hotels on the Croatian coast have reported better results than last Easter.

Source: balkans.com

Last-minute tourists expected

Fri, 01 May 2009 08:47:49 +0200

Croatia’s annual international tourism fair, CROTOUR, came to an end on Sunday, with the country’s travel agents admitting that they’re preparing for a drop in revenue this year.

CROTOUR 2009, held in Dubrovnik from 1^st to 5^th April, brought together local and foreign travel agencies and tour operators, hoteliers and other leisure and tourism players to discuss tactics and opportunities to promote the industry.

In light of the global downturn, CROTOUR participants anticipate a drop in overall tourism levels, both in terms of foreigners visiting Croatia and Croatians travelling abroad, though greater demand for last-minute packages is expected.

According to a Croatian Times report, Croatian travel agencies expect a 10-to-15 per cent decline in turnover in the Croatian tourism industry in 2009.

Presenting the conclusions of a Croatian Travel Agencies Association (UHPA) meeting held at CROTOUR, UHPA head Ivan Puksar said that the agencies are preparing for more activities to deal with demand for low-price last-minute offers.

The UHPA head has reiterated his call for a lowering of VAT on one-day trips and tourist transportation from 22 to 10 per cent, HINA reports, while agencies welcomed the government's suggestion for joint advertisements but called them insufficient on their own.

CROTOUR 2009 was organised under the auspices of the Croatian Tourism Ministry with the support of the Croatian National Tourist Board and WTO.

Tourism boost: Croatia to ease visa requirements for some countries

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:47:48 +0200

Zagreb - Croatia will temporary suspend visa requirements for some countries in an effort to boost tourism, Croatian Tourism Minister Damir Bajs said Wednesday.

The ministry proposed scrapping visa requirements for Russian and Ukrainian citizens during the summer season, and also for Chinese and Indian citizens, Bajs said.

"We are expecting a weak tourist season this year," he said. The number of tourists in Croatia could drop by 3 per cent - a heavy blow to an industry generating almost 20 per cent of domestic product.

A weak season could further hamper Croatia's economy, and the Croatian government will discuss Bajs' proposal in the next few days.

Croatia's Adriatic coastline is a popular destination among tourists from Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia. In recent years tourists from Russia, Japan and the US have increased considerably.

Go to Croatia for sunshine beaches and cheap prices

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:43:02 +0200

I'm standing at Vidova Gora, the highest point on the Croatian island of Brac, looking down on a world that seems to have turned Wedgwood blue. Distant horizons merge into a hazy blue sky that blurs into a lazy blue sea.

Far below is the seaside resort of Bol and the stunningly beautiful beach of Zlatni Rat.

Zlatni Rat (or golden cape) is a long, triangular-shaped spit of land that tapers to a point. In the middle is a deep-green V of pine-trees fringed by a blond pebble beach, washed with pale blue waters that deepen gradually to the darkest navy blue. I am transfixed.

It's my first trip to Croatia for a two-centre break, beginning with a few days at the Dalmatian coastal resort of Baska Voda before getting the ferry across to Brac.

As the plane begins the descent into Split I can see sweeping bays and tiny coves below - a frayed coastline reaching into the sea like fat thumbs and a multitude of islands.

By the time we arrive at our first hotel, the Hotel Horizont, Baska Voda is concealed in darkness.

I wake to a wonderful sight from my window, a tumble of white stone houses with terracotta roofs, to my right are the Biokovo Mountains, to my left the Adriatic Sea.

After breakfast I take a stroll along the seafront. The harbour is lined with fishing boats and yachts. The mood is gentle and the sea crystal clear. It's hot and I find a table at a cafe shaded by palm trees where I sit... and sit. I watch children play, lovers caress, teenagers pose and pensioners snooze.

Every quarter hour the bells of St Nicolas church ring out over the bay. Not that anybody seems to be worried about the time.

Actually, I AM paying attention to the time because I have an appointment in the hotel spa. Refurbished in 2007, the spa is huge and takes up the entire 21,000sq ft of the basement.

It has 10 different saunas, 13 treatment rooms, an indoor and outdoor pool, a hydro-massage pool and hot and cold plunge pools.

My treatment includes some serious pummelling. Wordlessly I'm slapped, I'm pushed, I'm pulled. I wince silently - apart from involuntary gasps as air is knocked from my lungs.

A spa day, which includes a back, neck and shoulder massage and use of all the facilities, costs around £36. At dusk we drive into the mountains, a steep climb passing ancient olive groves. We head for the village of Topici and the Konoba Panorama for dinner. It's a rustic, ramshackle restaurant with a great view over the coast.

Dinner is eaten under the stars. On the menu is Janjetina lamb, said to be the tastiest in Croatia. The flavour comes from the wild herbs - sage, oregano, rosemary and thyme - that the sheep have been grazing on. It's cooked slowly on hot embers under a peka, a metal bell, and is so tender it literally falls apart.

The next day we drive to the seaside town of Makarska for the ferry crossing to Brac, the third largest of Croatia's Adriatic islands.

Before we board there's time to shop at the market. Croatia is not in the Euro-zone and its currency is the Kuna. That works out as good value, though the exchange rate is not quite as favourable as it was. I buy some jelly shoes (about £5) for the beach.

The ferry takes about 25 minutes and we come ashore at Sumartin. The journey to Bol on the island's south coast is not one to rush. The road twists and turns, there are crash barriers in places, erected too late it seems for one wrecked car I spotted.

The drive gives you a tempting glimpse of Bol. It's the oldest coastal settlement on the island, a picturesque fishing village with a monastery at one end and Zlatni Rat at the other. The waterfront is lined with shops and bars and restaurants, the harbour busy with boats. Our hotel is the Bluesun Elaphusa, a huge 1960s building that's been cleverly updated and looks very cool.

The reception area is light and airy with lots of leather seating. There are indoor and outdoor pools, bowling, beach volleyball, a tennis centre with 26 courts, bikes for hire and Scuba diving. For children there's a playground, swimming pools, a miniclub and tennis lessons.

For the evenings there are a number of bars, including an outdoor one where you can sit and watch the sky turn red as the sun sets.

The restaurant is an enormous, self-service cafeteria but the food is good and you can eat as much as you like.

There's a spa here too but this one's less frantic, more sedate and peaceful. An aromatherapy massage costs about £35 for an hour.

For lunch we try the Taverna Riva Restaurant (mains from about £10) on the waterfront.

The seafood is wonderfully fresh and we linger over our meals watching the boats come and go and the water-taxi taking sun worshippers along the coast to Zlatni Rat.

Afterwards we walk to the Dominican monastery. When we get there I'm glad to be out of the hot afternoon sun and enjoying the cool inside the monastery's museum, with its Roman remains. It's still a working monastery, although there are only three monks and two nuns, and there are rooms to rent if you want to stay here.

It's very peaceful with a lovely cafe and a shady garden with an arched gateway leading to the beach.

The walk back takes a bit longer - actually a lot longer - because we just have to stop at a few of the waterside bars.

First we call into the Restaurant Ribarska Kucica, which we'd spotted from the monastery.

Further along we stop at the lively Varadero Cocktail Bar where I order a BBC (a cocktail made from Baileys, bananas and coconut) which is delicious.

We dedicate the next day to serious relaxation on the beach at Zlatni Rat. It's just a short walk from our hotel.

The temperatures are well into the 80s and I can't wait to get into the water.

The sea is a pale turquoise blue with darker bits - which I thought was due to the depth but apparently it's down to algae that cling to the rocks.

The water is more refreshing than a glass of chilled champagne.

I'm not really a beach person but I soon get into the rhythm of doing nothing.

Comfy in the shade of beach umbrellas I read for a while, I relax, I fall asleep and when I get too hot, I go for another swim.

When you are on Zlatni Rat, you lose sense of its shape so I put on my new jelly shoes and go for a walk, ending up beside the point.

Enthralled, I think I might stand and watch for a while to see if it changes shape.

There's a lot of movement here, the splash of swimmers, the bounce of banana boats.

But Zlatni Rat - which apparently changes shape according to the tide - keeps still.

And, back under my umbrella, so do I.

What's the deal?

Croatia Airlines (0870 410 0310, www.croatiaairlines.hr) fly from Gatwick to Split from £162 return.

Car hire from £130 per week.

For more info contact the Croatian National Tourist Office (020 8563 7979, www.croatia.hr).

article by: Tina Ediss
source: mirror.co.uk

Zlatni rat beach - Voted Croatia's Sexiest Beach

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:48:12 +0100

"Zlatni Rat beach is home to a spectacular sandbar known as the Golden Horn. The bar is 580 yards long and provides this beach with a unique shape and unparalleled people-watching. The beach offers restaurants, cafes and a surplus of water sports. The nightlife is more relaxed than Zrcé beach, but there are plenty of open-air bars and nightclubs open for mischief.
Croatia's main tourist attraction is, and always has been, its beaches. With miles of pristine continental Adriatic seaside and dozens of islands to visit, the sun and fun are endless."
Full text by Erica Walsh - Travel Channel
Watch a video from Travel Channel on YouTube

Once in a decade - snow in Bol !!!

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:14:09 +0100