Croatia
 

I know this isnt about boating, but my wife and I are planning a trip to Croatia and I thought with yhe knowledge thats on this board it should be a good place to get information. When is the best time of year to go? Places to stay? My wife likes lighthouses. Things to see? What to be careful of? Where not to go? Id appreciate any help. Thanks Brian

Re: Croatia
 

I spent a lot of time in Croatia and Bosnia during the war. The people are the greatest, they treat you just as if you are family.

If you are going into Bosnia, I have some people that you could stay with.

In Croatia the very best place to visit is Dubrovnik. It is a walled city and the architecture is some of the finest in Europe. Most of the damage from the war has been repaired.

The temp over there is very much like New York at the same time of year. Cold in the winter, but hot in the summer and spring and fall about the same.

There used to be offshore racng from Italy to Markaska on the Croatian coast in the 60's. Great open ocean running across the Adriatic all the way.

Give me some more ideas on where you want to go and I'll see what I can do to help.

Re: Croatia
 

What more could you ask for?

Re: Croatia
 

My co-pilot on all of my great boating adventures is a refugee from the war-torn Yugoslavia, now called Croatia. He has wild stories of growing up in such a poor country with some of the most awesome coastlines in the world.

Adriatic waters are deep blue, gentile breezes push German windsurfers out to sea and the beaches are lined with beautiful women. You will see the wealthy vacationing in Croatia with their large yachts anchored in the bay. However, the largest go-fast that you'll see will be around 22 feet as gas is at a premium-$6.00 a gallon to a most impoverished economy.

The sculpture of the land is incredible along the Dalmatian Coast with marble-walled cliffs, the same marble that built the White House. Leaving the beach to head up to the mountains is a climate change. Extremely cold and snowy this time of year.

have a great time vacationing in Croatia. C'mon Zoran, chime in.

Re: Croatia
 

My wife and I stopped in Dubrovnik on a Cruise towards the end of June, when we were there the temps were in the upper 90's and rather high humidity ( alot of Europe was abnormally hot last summer ). We toured the old walled city and cruised the nearby coastline in dare I say it, a sailboat :eek: The guide told us that it was a very popular tourist area for Europeans because of relatively low costs. Hope this helps some! Steve

Re: Croatia
 

Wow Bri! When are you and Cindy making the journey?

Re: Croatia
 

There is also a nice island park in Zagreb where they had the skulling during the Olympics, we did a show there in 03 and it was a great place but it rained all friggin day. downtown was surprisingly metropolitan with really nice hotels and great food. Hopefully you are flying directly in and not having to go through Slovenia's border, they were kind of jerks there.

Re: Croatia
 

Um they don't build any boats out there, and you know you'll have to fly. Why am I the last to know.

Re: Croatia
 

I work with a guy from Croatia... he is a draftsman/designer... He went home for a month but, I'll ask him if I remember in a month. He is from a town of like 2500 people that gets to like 25000 in the tourist season

Ernie

Re: Croatia
 

My sister went there for a vacation with her bf and said the coastline was ideal for boating. She told me that lots of islands and beaches reminded her of areas of the Great Lakes. Croatia is one of the best values in that part of the world right now. Can't wait to go there myself one day. :cool:

Re: Croatia
 

Croatia is nice and not expensive. The gasprices are less than 4$ pr. gallon. The coastline is long and there are some 1.100 islands lining the coastline it is a boaters paradise! All summer is nice but you want to go in July/August where the ocean is nice and warm. Season is May-September.
If you go to the south to Dubrovnik be sure to go to Monte***** and see the bay of Kotor. I just moved there with my family and it is absolutly beautifull. It is still a little rough around the edges but right now things are moving really fast and it is one of the hottest places in Europe to buy property in thhttp://www.123hjemmeside.dk/nannajesperimonte*****e moment. If you decide to visit Monte***** let me know and I will tell you where to go.

You can see our website to get an idea about the area.

OSO is censoring the last letters in the name so you have to put in: n e g r o instead of the stars.

http://www.123hjemmeside.dk/nannajesperimonte*****

Click on Monte***** to see pictures

Cigaretteman

Re: Croatia
 

We are in a Political Correctness obsessed world...

Thank God for Loud Boats!

Re: Croatia
 

Amen!

Re: Croatia
 

Believe it or not there's a Nor-Tech 43 V running around w/ 850's and they just took delivery of a 50 cat. I have a dealer in Austria that keeps their boats in Croatia. I'm going to try and get over there this summer.

Re: Croatia
 

Here is a photo of me piloting a really high powered hot boat off the coast of Dubrovnik.

This was a rental boat and it took me 20 minutes to assure the guy that I could handle it. We went diving later this day and the clarity of the water is about the same as the Bahamas.

Just talking about this area makes me want to go back again.

My wife started a Humanitarian Aid agency to help the babies born from the rape camps. We collected goods over here, transported them and traveled over there during the war delivering aid and medical supplies. During the war we went there 15 times.

The restaurants in Mostar and Sarajevo knew how we liked our eggs. The people are the greatest.

Re: Croatia
 

Thanks for all the replys. Are we going to have to know the language or are there enough people that speak english? Are there people that you can hire as guides and drivers? I think the other thing that bothers me is, security. When my wife and I travel im usually up at 4or 5 in the morning and Ill venture off somewhere to get a soda pop. I try to stay out of the room till she gets up What is the comparitive size of croatia to a state in the U.S.? What is the exchange rate on money and would it be better to exchange in croatia or the U.S.? Are there smoking nazi's over there? As crazy as it sounds, do they have a dress code of sorts or are they just gonna know we're foreigners. Brian

Re: Croatia
 

My Mom spends the summers there to get out of Houston heat. hey gave up their apartment just this year, after 5-7 years hanging on to it. The US dollar isn't make it worthwhile to hang on to it as the landlord really had to start bumping rent up. They'll rent a place for the summer in the future.

He was born and grew up there until he hiked towards Italy at 15 yr's and made his way to the US. He still has family and some friends and my Mom just loves it. I've seen more pics than I can imagine that they've taken.

His home town and where they stay (he still has some property there) is in Zagreb. I recently went through and cleaned out my in-box and and deleted about 4mil Gb of pictures they had sent and only found one they took in October just before they came back to the states. In other pics you can see a Club Med sail ship just below them. It's pretty bizare. Lots of awesome European yachts too. He just sold his center console this year after getting tired of the high gas prices and dealing with pulling it in and out every year because it was not registered there so he couldn't keep a perm slip and when you try to register anything there, they look at you and estimate how much they think they can get out of you and you pay it. :D

As for tourists in summer, they say it's unbelievable how many people converge on the coast.

Re: Croatia
 

LOL, they sit around at coffee houses bi tching about how bad things are smoking like chimneys. And Frank had a tough time because, although he still speaks the language fluently, and has a strong accent so he can fit in, they don't want to hear anything about how great the US is. :D They want to talk about how bad things are there, like the 20-30% unemployment.

Oh, medical care is awesome and cheap. Frank waited last year until he got over there to have gal bladder surgery. Same procedure as he would have had here, but he paid about $400 total an had great care.

Re: Croatia
 

SeaRay, I don't blame your mom for getting out of the Houston heat. Part of my growing up was in spring branch. I went to spring branch hs. for my freshman year. An old friend of mine is a dentist in Garland Tex. I've gotten used to nice summer in the chicago area, and doubt ill ever go back. I dont imagine we will go to croatia till about july or august and would like to see the things that are must see's. I only want to go for a week but if the wife wants to stay longer than we can do that. As long as i'm home for the shootout i'm happy. Thanks Jim Brian