Around 3:20 am there was an earthquake between Ljubinje and Stolac in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The earthquake was 3.8 magnitude on the Richter scale and it was felt in Dubrovnik too – Dubrovacki Vjesnik reports. 

The epicenter was located 9 kilometers southwest of Stolac, 2 kilometers deep, 44 kilometers north of Dubrovnik. It did not cause any damage, but it has awakened many of the people in Dubrovnik.

Just eight days ago Dubrovnik was shook by the earthquake from Montenegro that was 5.2 magnitude on the Richter scale.

Ever since Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle announced their wedding in May this year, world media have been speculating where on the planet these two lovebirds will spend their honeymoon.

According to British and world media, there is a whole array of possible honeymoon destinations, from Cappadocia in Turkey, Rwanda, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania in Africa to Hawaii, Mexico, the Philippines, Italy, Norway, Barbados, Brazil, Jamaica and Seychelles, and maybe Croatia.

The young couple have already received an invitation from Israel and Australia who would gladly welcome the newlyweds in their country.

Despite all these speculations and invitations, the honeymoon destination will probably be revealed after the wedding, which is to take place on the 19th of May at the Windsor castle, or a few days earlier.

However, in case Prince Harry and Markle still have dilemma on where to spend their honeymoon, we would be more than happy to say ‘’Why not in the Croatian region of Dalmatia?’’. This beautiful part of Croatia surely has so much to offer.

Besides, Dalmatia is already popular among newlyweds who opt for this region not only as their honeymoon destination but also as a place to organize their wedding.

 Prince Harry has already visited the Croatian coast. A few years ago, he partied on the island of Hvar or popularly called the ‘’Croatian St.Tropez’’. As a former actress, Markle would surely find it interesting to visit locations where popular films and TV series took place such as ‘’Game of Thrones’’, ‘’Robin Hood’’, ‘’Star Wars’’ and many others. Markle is also a fan of wine tasting and gourmet food, and the Dalmatian coast and its islands are teeming with delicacies worthy of the royal palate.

It is interesting to note that Prince Harry inherited a family tradition of visiting Croatia. In August 1936, only four months before his abdication, King Edward VIII sailed along the Croatian coast with his future wife-to-be Wallis Simpson. They visited the island of Rab, Šibenik, Trogir, the island of Korčula etc.

In 1972, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry’s grandmother, visited Croatia with her husband Prince Philip. They paid a visit to Zagreb, Đakovo and the Brijuni islands.

Prince Harry’s father, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited Zagreb and Slavonia in March 2016. It was his fifth visit to the country and the first one for Camilla.

All and all, it would be great if the young Prince decided to continue the family tradition of visiting Croatia and choose our beautiful country for his honeymoon nest.

Libertas, the public Dubrovnik bus company, awarded their tenth millionth passenger today with a small ceremony at their headquarters. The lucky passenger was Nada Puhier and she received gifts from the Director of Libertas, Ante Vojvodic, including an annual bass pass.

“Libertas has seen an increase in passengers in recent years. In 2015 we had 900,508, and in 2016 900,974 passengers and we hope to increase this year by at least one percent,” commented Vojvodic.

Puhier, in the company of her grandson, was extremely happy to be selected as the tenth millionth passenger. “I thank Libertas and I hope that they will continue to serve our citizens and guests they are the pride of city of Dubrovnik. I ride the bus every day, several times and I am very happy with the level of service,” added Puhier.

Although they have ranked high on the list of the total tourist arrivals so far, the French will be even more numerous as guests in Croatia from this April.

One of the largest French tour operators in the SPA segment Thalasso N°1 has announced its arrival on the Croatian market in April 2018. The first charter flight to the island of Krk is scheduled for the 13th of April and will continue to operate until October.

Thalasso N°1 has developed a particularly rich production on the Canary Islands, in Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Morocco etc. As from this year, they will expand its operations to Croatia, more precisely, to the Kvarner region.

Considering the fact that Thalasso N°1 is one of few French high-quality tour operators who still have not developed their production in Croatia, and bearing in mind that they are owners of the strong brand Ovoyages, they have also announced to expand its operations to other Croatian regions in the following years.

The main obstacle to even more arrivals of French tourists in Croatia has always lied in the lack of airline connections; however, the solution is on the horizon.

The director of the Croatian Tourist Board in France Danijela Mihalić Đurica announced new regular flights from France to Croatia.

Apart from the introduction of new flights to Split and Dubrovnik, traditionally the most popular destinations among French tourists in Croatia, a new regular flight from Nantes to Pula will be introduced in May 2018, which will surely contribute to the further increase of French arrivals in Istria, Kvarner and continental parts of Croatia.

In addition, last year tourists from France achieved more than 540,000 arrivals (+9%) and a record-breaking number of overnight stays of 2,1 million or 5 percent more in comparison to 2016.

Get your gloves and rubbish bags ready it is time to clean up the Old City harbour. One of our readers, Steve Kustro, is organising a special clean up action in the Old City harbour and is calling on you for help. “I’m trying to get a clean-up day organised for this Friday and Saturday from 9am till noon each day,” he told us.

He is calling on people to jump in and help clean up the harbour, which is still suffering from the effects of the southerly winds that brought in tonnes of floating waste, including plastic bottles, just before the New Year.

Anyone interested in helping with this action should meet at the 360 Restaurant on Friday morning at 9.00am and as Kustro comments “Bring your gloves and a good happy attitude.” Help your city with a three-hour stint cleaning up this ancient harbour, from tomorrow and Saturday.

This year’s Miss Croatia Diaspora will take place in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

In organization of the Austrian-Croatian Community for Culture and Sport based in Vienna, the popular beauty pageant Miss Croatia Diaspora 2018 will be held at the 27th Traditional Ball in the Austrian capital on the 3rd of February 2018.

It is interesting to note that the top four finalists will represent the Croatian Diaspora at the Miss Supranational Croatia contest, which is to be held in Croatia later this year in June.

Based on the collected data it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 Croats living in Austria, most of them living in Vienna (35,000), followed by Styria (14,000), Upper Austria (12,000), Lower Austria (6,000), Salzburg (6,000), Tirol (5,600), Vorarlberg (5,000), Carinthia (5.000), and Burgenland (1.000).

With temperatures a "balmy" 15 °C in the last couple of days, it's hard to imagine that exactly a year ago Dubrovnik woke up covered with snow. January 11th 2017 turned out to be a true winter fairytale.

Snow is unusual sight around here so everybody were enchanted with the famous red roofs being completely white. It felt like the whole city stopped for one day, slowed down and turned into the magical place. Children were sledging all around – even on baking trays!

Before last year the last time that snow fell in Dubrovnik was in 2009 and the coldest recorded temperature in Dubrovnik was in January 1968 when thermometers dropped to – 6.6 degrees.

Check out photos and video made exactly a year ago.

Photos by - Tonci Plazibat / Hanza Media 

The Croatian passport is ranked the weakest in the European Union. According to a survey of the world’s passports by Henley & Partners the Croatian passport is ranked the least useful in the EU due to the number of countries that Croatians can travel to without a visa.

However, on a world ranking it fairs much better, out of the all of the countries in the survey Croatia came in at a respectable 21st position. There are a total of 155 countries that Croatia can travel to without having to obtain a visa.

The most useful passport in the world is a German one, which allows entry into 177 countries visa-free, followed by a Singapore passport that opens the door to 176 countries. France, Great Britain, Norway, Japan, Denmark, Sweden and Finland are all ranked in third place with 175 visa-free countries.

Bulgaria and Romania share 29th place on the list, a place in front of Croatia, and the last on the rankings is Afghanistan, which allows visa-free travel into a mere 24 countries.

In front of us are Bulgaria and Romania, which share 20th place. On the last, 104th place is Afghanistan (24 countries).
In fact, the Croatian passport has increased its value, as in 2016 visa-free travel was possible to 149 countries.