With the comment “Winter is coming? 11 °C today” this amazing aerial photo quite clearly shows that Dubrovnik is doing its best to avoid winter this year.

Whilst most of northern Europe freezes under a coating of ice Dubrovnik is gliding through winter with blue skies and bucket loads of sunshine.

Even we didn’t believe that the photo was taken today, but the authors of the photo 2thesign, confirmed to us that is was indeed taken high above the Old City today. Truly amazing colours and the contrast between the turquoise Adriatic Sea and the terracotta roofs certainly caught our eye.

And you thought Dubrovnik was only a summer destination.

Amazing shot of Dubrovnik from the air

The Republic of Croatia has allocated slightly more than 2 million Kunas for Croats living outside the homeland.

The Central State Office allocated the funds after it had sent the public announcement for Croats outside Croatia and received 531 applications. The financial support will be allocated to 93 projects in the field of education, culture, sports and other areas of interest to Croats living outside Croatia as well as 16 one-time grants to socially and materially endangered individuals in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Approved grants will go to non-profit organizations and physical persons in 14 countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia, the United States, Argentina, Chile and Canada) in amounts of 4,000 up to 75,000 Kunas.

These grants for special needs and projects are approved for 2017 and will be paid depending on the possibilities of the State Budget this year. The Central State Office will sign contracts with the grant recipients, associations and individuals no later than the end of January.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Tourism activated a new website of the Coordination Body for the Development of Croatian Cyclotourism.

The launching of the new website www.cikloturizam.hr was one of the tasks of the Action Plan for the Development of Cyclotourism and the Tourism Development Strategy of the Republic Croatia by 2020.

The Coordination Body for the Development of Cyclotourism in Croatia is working on the implementation of the main tasks and priority activities of Croatia’s Cyclotourism Action Plan such as infrastructure, legal regulations, education, a cyclotourist offer as well as information and marketing.

The establishment of the Coordination Body was enabled by the access to the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), which is the holder of the EuroVelo project, the European cycle route network connecting the countries of the European Union.
By signing the contract with ECF, the Croatian Coordination Body has taken over the rights and obligations regarding the management of the EuroVelo routes.

Out of the 15 EuroVelo routes, four of them are passing through Croatia; EV6 – Atlantic-Black Sea, EV8 - Mediterranean Route, EV9 - Baltic-Adriatic and EV13 - Iron Curtain Trail.

Apart from defining the national network of cyclotourist routes based on existing county and local routes, one of the basic tasks of the Coordination Body is integration into the European cycle route network and work on its improvement.

The Mayor of the City of Dubrovnik, Mato Franković, thanked all the employees of the emergency service and utility companies that assisted during the New Year's Eve.

In an open letter on the city’s website the mayor wrote -

On behalf of the city of Dubrovnik, I would like to thank all of the emergency services and all the employees of the municipal utility services who spent New Year's night on duty for the smooth functioning of the city as well as the safety of our fellow citizens and visitors.

Dubrovnik showed that it is the most beautiful open stage in the world for New Year's Eve. According to official estimates of the Ministry of Interior there were between 15 and 20 thousand people on the Stradun for New Year, which is the largest organized open event that has been held in our town since 2000. This is also supported by the data of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, according to which 28% more guests decided to spend their New Year in Dubrovnik compared to the previous year.

Therefore, once again, I express my sincere gratitude to all the public services that ensured that New Year's Eve, and that the New Year's night passed peacefully and with the highest level of organization, just as the City of Dubrovnik deserves, to the pride of all our citizens.

A small family hotel from the Croatian city of Split has been awarded Best Heritage Hotel in the world.

At the end of the tourist season 2017, the prestigious nomination house World Luxury Hotel Awards headquartered in the Republic of South Africa awarded the best hotels in the world in thirty categories at the gala dinner held in Saint Moritz, Switzerland in December 2017.

Several other hotels from Croatia were nominated in various categories, however, numerous international jury i.e. more than 300,000 online voters selected Heritage Hotel Antique Split as the best in the Luxury Heritage Hotel category.

‘’We are very honoured to receive this award. In the first place, we were most surprised by the nomination itself. At the end of last September, the World Luxury manager sent us an invitation to participate at this event. She discovered us thanks to excellent reviews on Trip Advisor’’, commented Jakov Milun, the proud owner of Heritage Hotel Antique Split.

The family-run hotel is located in the heart of the Diocletian’s Palace in the centre of Split. It has eight rooms and is actually a small boutique hotel situated in an antique ‘’facility with patina’’ thanks to which the hotel made it to the additional Heritage Hotel category.

Apart from interestingly decorated rooms, the hotel offers breakfast in a rich Dalmatian style, which, along with an excellent service led this small tourist facility to the prestigious title – the world’s Best Heritage Hotel.

Award winning hotel in Split

In mid-October last year Croatia was visited by Chinese celebrities and their accompanying staff and now the product is out – Day Day Up show about Croatia.

Day Day Up is a popular Chinese talk show broadcast on the Hunan Television. The show is co-hosted by Wang Han, Da Zhangwei, Qian Feng and Wang Yibo. It has drawn great attention from the public especially student groups and other young people for its humor, style, and the public figures who appear as guests.

This show, according to the Chinese media, influences public opinion, especially where the Chinese will travel and which country they will choose for their vacation. And if that’s right, we are pretty sure that Croatia may be their next dream destination. Or more precisely – Dubrovnik, because a big part of the show was filmed in our beautiful city. There is Game of Thrones story and all this includes some amazing shots of Dubrovnik.

Hosts tried our specialties, learned to dance Lindo, listened Croatian music and many other things, since the show is a combination of entertainment and education. Some of the famous people that presented Croatia are Ana Rucner, Maksim Mrvica, Miroslav Ciro Blazevic, Jelena Rozga…

The show was recently broadcast on Hunan TV, and the Chinese estimate that it was watched by an incredible number of 300 million people, while it’s expected that it will reach even more viewers on the internet.
And the influence of this type of shows shouldn’t be underestimated. One similar show, after being broadcasted in South Korea, brought 100 thousand new guests to Croatia.

You can watch the show that lasts over an hour and a half beneath and we must say – it’s entertaining. 

The German airline giant, Lufthansa, is expanding its operations in Croatia in 2018 by making the Dalmatian coastal resort of Zadar a new destination.

From the 28th of April Lufthansa will operate two flights a week from Frankfurt to Zadar, on Saturdays and Sundays, for the duration of their summer 2018 flight schedule.

This new route, which will be operated with an Airbus A319 aircraft, will be the fifth Croatian destination for the biggest German airline company, after Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Pula and Split.

Along with the thousands of party goers who celebrated New Year’s Eve on the Stradun in the heart of the Old City of Dubrovnik was a famous face from the world of football.

Former Manchester City striker and current forward for Serie A club Roma, Edin Dzeko, brought in the New Year with his wife, Amra Silajdžić, and they kissed as the fireworks echoed the sounds of 2018.

Dzeko, who is also the captain of the Bosnian and Herzegovina National team, is a frequent visitor to Dubrovnik and from the looks of these photos that were uploaded onto social media he and his wife will remember the beginning of 2018 with smiles on their faces.