Yes, the swimming season is still alive in Dubrovnik. The warmer and calmer weather has held until the end of October and the tourists in the city and locals are making the most of it by dipping in the Adriatic Sea.

The current sea temperature in Dubrovnik is around 21 degrees and with the roasting sunshine the Adriatic is a magnet for swimmers. The forecast is for more warm weather, at least until the end of the month, so why not take a dip.

Yesterday the Sunset Beach in the bay of Lapad was full of sunbathers, swimmers and people enjoying al fresco coffee in the golden sunshine.

‘’Recover, reshape, recharge’’ is a slogan of the first health hotel in Croatia recently presented to the public.

Nowadays health services are the most sought for among modern leisure and business travellers looking to maintain their healthy lifestyle while on vacation.

As from this year, Croatia has enriched its tourist offer with the first health hotel. After the ‘’soft opening’’ in June, Marvie Hotel & Health was officially presented to the public a few days ago.

The hotel is located by the sea in the part of Split called Zenta hence its name ‘’Marvie’’ which is derived from the Latin word ‘’mare’’ meaning ‘’ sea’’ and the French word ‘’vie’’ meaning ‘’life’’.

The Marvie hotel gives its guests an insight into the Mediterranean kind of life, providing tranquillity, relaxation and health. It spreads over 9,400 square metres with three floor underground garage, 76 rooms, 2 luxury suites and a large outdoor pool on the roof terrace with a spectacular view.

At guest’s disposal there is a whole array of specialized health care services with well-equipped spa and fitness facilities space. In addition to rest and relax facilities, there are physics and rehabilitation clinics as well as dermatological ambulance for aesthetic medicine. Gastronomic offer is based on a modern cuisine with Mediterranean ingredients along with a wide selection of gluten-free dishes.

The Marvie Hotel employs 30 people, whilst the Tromont construction company with the support of the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) realized this investment worth 105 million Kunas.

orest fires are raging in Konavle, south of Dubrovnik, and two special firefighting planes have been called in to help. Around 60 firefighters are believed to be on the ground controlling the blaze that started at 11.00 o’clock this morning between the villages of Gabriel and Uskople.

The fire spread to the east and as the terrain is difficult to navigate it managed to spread up the hills and has proved difficult to bring under control. No residences are at threat at the moment, however a thick pine forest has been burning throwing a huge acrid column of smoke in the air.

The Good Food Festival continued today, the penultimate day, with a presentation of fines wines from the island of Krk. As the sun shone down on the Sunset beach in Lapad guests were treated to traditional delicacies and wines from Krk whilst the vocal group Subrenum provided the music.

The Toljanić family from Vrbnik on Krk presented sparkling wines, fresh white wines and even a beer made from wine. The family own and run many successful vineyards on Krk and last year opened the first ever wine hotel in Croatia.

“We are happy to bring a piece of Krk to Dubrovnik, ours is a family business and the whole family is involved in one way or another,” commented the Toljanić family. 

Family run vineyard on Krk 

Along with the excellent wines guests had the opportunity to taste delicacies such as dried sausage with truffles, pasta with goulash, Krk prosciutto and award winning cooked ham.

 The 2017 Good Food Festival continues tomorrow with two great events, the Dubrovnik Table on the Stradun and the finale the Gala Dinner in the Rixos Libertas Hotel.

And yes beer from wine! 

Good Food Festival is one of the most favourite festivals in Dubrovnik and it again proves why. One part of rich programme was held today morning in the Tourist Information Centre at Pile – the presentation of Mandarica by Jadre Nicetic and Lucija Tomasic. Ladies did their best to present this special and yet simple dessert. Jadre researched it and Lucija prepared it.

Mandarica is an old forgotten cake, quite similar to pudding, that in the past Dubrovnik ladies prepared often. It’s special because it’s made with rice flour combined with rose water (commonly and gladly used in Dubrovnik) in pudding moulds. In the past rice for making sweets was milled in the special small household millstones. This cake is mentioned by the writer Josip Bersa in his book  ̋Dubrovacke slike i prilike ̋ and the art historian Cvito Fiskovic also left us a written record of this cake.

It is sure that Madarica was made back in 18th century and it’s possible that it was made even long time ago – in 16th century. However, in 1950’s it started disappearing and it’s almost not consumed nowdays. One of the reasons is surely an invention of pudding powder, which is easily mixed (even though Mandarica is quite simple to do too).

One of the goals of this presentation is to bring back Mandarica, especially in Dubrovnik restaurants. Since we had the chance to try it, we sure hope that Mandarica will make a comeback!
Good Food Festival continues until Sunday, October 22nd.

Australians clearly love Croatian bread and bakery products. Mlinar, one of Croatia’s largest and most well established bakery, has opened its second outlet in Australia. Last year Mlinar opened its first bakery in Australia, in Sydney, and after a year of successful business has expanded with another store this time in a suburb of Sydney, Liverpool.

This move into the international market for Mlinar isn’t the only one as the company have also been making huge steps in Germany with a statement saying that they plan to open 150 bakeries over the next five years.

One of the largest retail chains in Europe DM-drogerie markt recorded great results in Croatia in the business year 2016/2017.

According to Mirko Mrakuzic, the director of DM Croatia, in the business year 2016/2017, which ends in September for DM, the company achieved a total turnover of 2.1 billion Kunas or 5.4 percent growth.

‘’In the past business year, ‘’DM’’ has invested more than 74 million Kunas in the modernization of 37 stores, a new logistics centre and the opening of two specialized departments for non-prescription medicinal products’’, explained Mrakuzic.

Markuzic also announced that in the next business year ‘’DM’’ will invest 90 million Kunas in the modernization of 40 stores and the development of assortments.

Over the past business year, DM's stores were visited by more than 86,000 customers every day, and the average purchase was around 76 Kunas.

DM Croatia employs 1,399 people in 157 stores in 60 cities throughout Croatia. According to data from DM the average monthly net salary in stores is around 1,200 Euros.

The challenges facing Dubrovnik’s tourism industry, from the explosion of Game of Thrones tourists to the constant flood of cruise ships, has been making the news all over the world. Dubrovnik is certainly no longer in the shadows as a tourist destination, far from it, it is now and has been for the past few years well placed in the middle of the spotlight.

International film productions, such as Star Wars, Robin Hood and in particular Game of Thrones, have opened the city to a whole new generation of tourists. The growing number of American tourists is clear evidence that movie tourism is now one of the main sources of tourism to the city. In 2016 the second most numerous guests to Dubrovnik were Americans, which when you take into account that there are no direct flights from the US to Croatia goes to show the pull of the HBO serial.

One of the largest TV stations in Brazil, yes the Game of Thrones is truly a global phenomenon, Globo broadcast a program about Dubrovnik and the Game of Thrones syndrome and invited the editor of The Dubrovnik Times, Mark Thomas, to give his opinion.