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+385 91 920 3185 booking@swanky-travel.com

Why Croatia

The question is – why NOT Croatia.

This small, friendly country is a perfect place to live, work, explore and meet new friends.
Located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe chilling next to the Adriatic Sea it gives a perfect insight both into modern and traditional lifestyle.

For many, it is the favourite holiday destination but still not overcrowded with tourists so you can enjoy a proper local life.
The benefit of being so small is that you can easily discover all its different parts – wonderful cities which date from the roman ages, intact forests, rivers, fields and mountains, more than a thousand islands and miles of beaches with clear blue sea, traditional villages and picturesque countryside.

In just a day you can be in the capital city, go for a mountain hike and make it just in time for the most beautiful sunset while laying on a beach.

Now when we have your attention allow us to introduce our country.

#WHYCROATIA

GENERAL FACTS

In Croatia, you will find about 4,000,000 people, but about a million are living in the capital and its surrounding areas. This means that, if you prefer your peace and quiet, you can find so many places to be alone and away from the crowds.

  • Our close neighbours are Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Montenegro, and Italy. Besides voting for each other at the Eurovision contest we are in good relationships and love to visit each other on a regular basis.
  • We have a one of a kind language (Croatian – or how we would say – Hrvatski) that will tangle your tongue while trying to figure out the difference between č,ć,š,ž,đ,dž,nj & lj.
  • Croatia gets all four seasons. It is a rather healthy environment to live in, with good-quality fresh air and nice mild climate. During summer most of the days are sunny and warm, while, during the winter, inland parts get cold (well…coldish) enough to even go skiing (small slopes – don’t get too excited). So, you might say that Croatia follows the Goldilocks principle – just right!

For such a small country we sure have a lot to offer. Our culture and heritage are rich and diverse. There are:

  • 8 national parks & 12 nature parks
  • 10 UNESCO world heritage sites & 17 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage items
  • over 1000 islands in the Adriatic Sea with only 78 inhabited – making Croatia a perfect sailing destination
  • popular tourist sites to visit but also a lot of abandoned forgotten ones worth exploring
  • rivers suitable for rafting, mountains for hiking and climbing, sea for swimming, diving and fishing, bike routes all over the country…
  • Croatians are very easy going, friendly people – we love our traditions, are huge outdoor and nature lovers, family and friends are equally important and we enjoy our delicious food and drinks.
  • We are a pet-friendly country so bring your four-legged “colleagues” along.

Food and drinks are such an essential part of our lives. The cuisine is so diverse that it is definitely going to be an attack on your taste buds in the best way possible – you won’t be able to choose from the array of local Croatian wines, cheese from Pag island, kulen and čvarci from Slavonija and Baranja, oysters and mussels from Ston, hundreds of different fish form the whole coast and islands, pašticada from Split, štrukla from Zagreb and kremšnita from Samobor, eels and frogs from the Neretva Valley and sarma in every Croatian home.

#WHYCROATIA

FUN FACTS

Nikola Tesla

is one of the greatest inventors in history and a genius ahead of his time and was born in Croatia – today his birthplace is turned into a Memorial center that you can visit.

The hit HBO series Game of Thrones

was filmed on the Dalmatian coast and made Dubrovnik (Kings Landing) even more popular. And no – it is not scenery – those are Old Walls dating from the 15th century and are one of the most preserved fortification systems in Europe.

Dalmatian dogs

are a breed from Dalmatia – the part of Adriatic coast.

Hum in Istria

is the world’s smallest town.

The eastern Croatian city of Vinkovci

is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe with people living there for over 8,000 years.

In Zadar – (mid-coast of Croatia)

you can chill next to the sea and listen to the Sea Organ – an instrument played by waves and wind while, according to Alfred Hitchcock, enjoying the most beautiful sunset in the world.

The 3 wonderful chandeliers

hanging in the main Zagreb Cathedral came in 2001 from a Las Vegas casino being renovated. It was a gift since one of the workers in the casino was a Croatian emigrant who asked the owner to donate them, which he did – we are Balkan people – we ́ll take anything for free.

Croatians “invented” a necktie

as it was first worn by Croatian soldiers and the name for it is ‘’kravata’’.

Croatian money

is named after an animal – a marten (cute forest rodent).

In Krapina ( North Croatia )

you can “visit” your long-lost relatives in the finding place and a museum of the wealthiest collection of remains of Neanderthals in the world.

#WHYCROATIA

HISTORY

Our long, rich and turbulent history made us what we are today. It also literally shaped our country into the funny-looking – some say dragon, others say croissant – shape it is today.

The area of today’s Croatia was inhabited even in the prehistoric period.

Fossils of Neanderthals have been found in northern parts. Long lost cultures have left a trail and Roman and Greek traces can be seen even today.

It is believed that the Croats came to this area around the 7th century, and they liked it so much that they stayed – when you think about it, they could be the “original digital nomads”.

Throughout history we have been a set of principalities, a kingdom, a union with Hungary, then with Austria, then with both of them, while half of Croatia was under the Venetian Republic, just to then become a part of Habsburg Monarchy and later the Federation of Yugoslavia, until finally, we gained our independence in 1991 becoming The Republic of Croatia we still are today. And, if you were wondering, putting several millennia of history in three sentences is a skill only tour guides have.