A packet of cigarettes in Croatia will cost you two Kunas more for one packet from today. The Regulation on excise duties on tobacco and tobacco products comes into force. "According to our calculations, this raise should not result in a price increase of more than two Kuna," Finance Minister Zdravko Maric commented.

This move has been due to alignment with the EU regulation. It is also expected that the price rise will encourage more smokers to quit.

Dubrovnik entered the first weekend of December with stunning sunshine and clear blue skies. Even though Christmas day is merely a few weeks away it felt more like August in Dubrovnik today as temperatures soared to highs of 18 degrees in the shade.

Truly a city for all seasons and absolutely the best time of the year to visit if you want to enjoy the tranquil peace and discover the secrets the ancient Old City holds.

Croatia is on course for a bumper Christmas in terms of spending with estimates suggesting that Croatians will spend a whopping 13.5 billion Kuna. The Croatian Chamber of Commerce has predicted that spending in December will surpass the pre-crisis levels of December 2008 and set a new record as the biggest Christmas spend on record.

"According to estimates by the Croatian Chamber of Economy, spending in December 2018 will amount to about HRK 13.5 billion, which is an increase of as much as one billion Kuna over the same period last year," commented a spokesperson for the Chamber of Commerce.

The estimate is based on the growth in retail trade turnover, which has been steadily increasing since 2014, and was 3.6 percent higher in the first nine months of this year than in the same period of 2017.

According to the results of last year's Chamber of Commerce survey, the largest number of respondents spent between 100 and 500 Kuna on holiday gifts (39 percent), followed by those who set between 500 and 1000 Kuna (31 percent). The upper limit of 1000 Kuna was exceeded by nine percent of people, while less than 100 Kuna or none was spent, or not spent, by 21 percent of the respondents.

Swimming in Dubrovnik is an all-year round hobby as these happy December swimmers proved today in the Bay of Lapad.

With the Adriatic Sea temperature in Dubrovnik around the 18 degrees mark it is a little refreshing and maybe only for the brave, however on the plus side at least you don’t have to worry about crowds in the sea or on the beaches.

With blue skies and sunshine Dubrovnik was one of the warmest cities in Croatia today as temperatures hit a balmy 18 degrees.

The fire service on the island of Lokrum not only protect Dubrovnik’s closest island from fires but they also spend hours and hours maintain the thick forests, cutting new paths and creating a safe and enjoyable environment. They also provide new benches for visitors to enjoy the panoramic views.

However, as this photo clearly shows, not every visitor to the island has the same respect for the hard work that goes into looking after and improving the island of Lokrum. Some mindless vandals have spray-painted on one of the very benches that the Lokrum fire service installed. As the Twitter feed of lovelokrum commented "Sad to see our firefighters hard and beautiful work runied with spray paint. Please keep our island beautiful for everyone."  

Two questions spring to mind, why would someone do this and why would someone take a can of spray paint to a nature reserve? God Help Us indeed!

The draw for the 2020 European Championships qualification groups was made today in Dublin and it has been kind for Croatia. Croatia have been drawn in Group E and will face Wales, Hungary, Slovakia and Azerbaijan.

The Euros 2020 will be played in 12 European countries from the 12th of June to the 12th of July, and the semi-finals and finals will be played at Wembley Stadium in London.

The matches of the first qualifying round will be played from March 21st to March 23rd 2019, and the final round is scheduled from the 17th to the 19th of November next year.

Rough Guides is responding to a changing travel market. For people who love adventure but are time-poor, Rough Guides is now organising tailor-made trips.

From winter 2018, the trusted travel brand will be creating bespoke trips based on customers’ individual wants and needs. From now on, customers won’t only need to rely on the Rough Guides books, blog, and podcast to get great travel advice, but can have a holiday tailor-made for them too. A local expert will turn the customer’s preferred destination, budget, and activities into a dream trip.

Package holidays and group tours can be soulless and uninteresting, but organising your own unique trip where you really experience the true culture of a place can be time-consuming. Rough Guides is launching a service to solve this problem – an adventurous trip is planned by local experts, and because it’s completely unique to each traveller, it is not the typical package holiday (you know - those that involve predictable visits to top attractions frequented mainly by other tourists. Yawn).

Each Rough Guides trip will cater for those with an adventurous spirit and include quirky locations that are off-the-beaten-track. The trip is planned by a local expert who lives in the area and knows the destination incredibly well. This means that every holiday will give a real flavour of the area and contain visits to places that are not frequented by the general tourist crowd.

What is the benefit of having your trip planned for you? Read more here: https://www.roughguides.com/article/should-you-book-a-tailor-made-trip-with-rough-guides/

Because the trips are fully bespoke and customisable, they are suitable for travellers who want to spend less time planning and more time enjoying the perfect trip away. People who book a Rough Guides trips will get a trip that is:

● Independent and unique – we don’t sell pre-planned packages. Each trip is unique to the customer, so no two will be the same.

● Adventurous– an adventurous spirit has no age limit. We champion adventurous travel for all, and get to know each customer’s wants and needs before seeking out the best experiences in their destination.

● Authentic – we understand that travellers don’t just want the same old thing wherever they go. That’s why we make sure that each trip helps travellers ‘live like locals’ and gives them a chance to experience the true charm of a place.

● Planned by a destination expert – with their knowledge, the expert can create unique, authentic itineraries that are completely personalised. The expert knows what’s worth seeing and what isn’t, how to avoid the crowds, and how to stay safe.

Rough Guides CEO, René Frey, comented that “As our readership has evolved over the years, we’re conscious that not everyone wants to travel the same way. Many people want to hand the time-consuming planning process to an expert and use the time saved to immerse themselves in the culture of a place. While many of our loyal readers would never travel without their Rough Guide, they perhaps want an itinerary that is a little less rough. And accommodation that’s not rough at all. So as part of our commitment to continue to serve adventurous travellers of all ages, we’re proud to launch our tailor-made trips.”

Croatia is preparing for the next step of European Union membership with the adoption of the Euro as the official currency. The first step could come as soon as next year as the Central Bank Governor, Boris Vujcic, announced that the exchange rate with which Croatia is expected to enter the Exchange Rate Mechanism could be set next year.

This is very much the first stage of changing the currency from the Kuna to the Euro. As part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism the national currency of an EU member state is tied to the Euro. The idea is to give the currency a balanced exchange rate on entry meaning that the transition period from one currency to another is seamless.

"There will be no conversion cost for citizens. It will be automatic, based on the exchange rate to be established earlier," commented Vujcic. Adding that “That will be the rate with which we will enter the Exchange Rate Mechanism and which we will de facto have to maintain as long as we are in the Mechanism, which essentially means that this will be, possibly with very small oscillations, end up being the conversion rate," Vucic added.

Croatia, as part of the EU membership, is obliged to take the Euro as the official currency and it would appear from comments by the Croatian Prime Minster that a referendum will not be held to ask the public’s opinion.

In the words of the Prime Minister a referendum for the introduction of the Euro has already been held when a referendum on Croatia’s accession into the European Union. However, quite plainly, this wasn’t the question on the voting ballots in the referendum the Prime Minister is convinced that when citizens voted yes to join the EU that the automatically also signed up for all the other EU treaties and projects.

Responding to a journalist's request on a referendum on introducing the Euro, the Prime Minister said it had already been resolved. "When we had a referendum on Croatia's accession to the European Union, we voted on the Accession Treaty. The Accession Treaty states that Croatia will join the European area," commented said Plenković.

For years Croatia's central bank has maintained the local currency Kuna in an already narrow fluctuation band, set between approximately 7.4 and 7.6 to the Euro, which some critics say makes the Kuna over-appreciated, hampering export-oriented businesses.