The Croatian Prime Minister, Tihomir Oreskovic, visited Dubrovnik yesterday and held working meetings throughout a busy day. The privatization of the Maestral Hotel Group, a meeting with the mayor of Dubrovnik and a tour of the Dubrovnik Airport were all on the table for the Prime Minister yesterday.

The director of the Dubrovnik Airport, Roko Tolic, greeted Oreskovic at the airport and explained the current construction works that are taking place. The new passenger terminal, which will give the airport a capacity of 3 million passengers a year, is set to be completed by October this year. Oreskovic expressed his satisfaction with the works on the airport with which he ended his first official visit to Dubrovnik.

During his meeting with the mayor of Dubrovnik the Prime Minister was informed of the problem of winter flights to the city as well as the connection between Zagreb and Dubrovnik with Croatia Airlines. The mayor stated that Croatia Airlines needed to secure direct flights between Dubrovnik and Frankfurt during the winter. He also added that the City of Dubrovnik was planning to buy 50,000 tickets for the Dubrovnik to Zagreb route and to distribute these to citizens at reduced prices.

Photo - Zeljko Tutnjevic 

The fifth Aklapela Festival begins on Friday the 8th of April with an evening of vocal groups in the Lazareti complex. Six a capella vocal groups will perform on the first evening and the entertainment continues on Saturday with another six groups.

The Dubrovnik Times has teamed up with the Aklapela Festival to bring you the chance to see, and more importantly listen, to these stunning Croatian vocal choirs. We are giving away two tickets for the first night, the 8th of April, and two tickets for the second night, the 9th of April. Both of these performances will be held in the Lazareti complex and both start at 7.30pm.

To enter the competition for a chance to win two free tickets all you have to do is follow the instructions on our Facebook page. Good Luck!

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the plane crash in which the US Secretary of Commerce, Ronald Brown, was killed the mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahusic and the Country mayor, Nikola Dobroslavic, laid wreaths and lit candles at the memorial on the Strazisce Mountain. The commemoration was also attended by the US Ambassador to Croatia, Julieta Valls Noyes.

On the 3rd of April 1996 a United States Air Force Boeing crashed on approach to Dubrovnik while on an official trade mission. Ronald Brown, the United States Secretary of Commerce, and 34 other passengers were killed in the accident. The official Air Force accident investigation board reported several reasons that led to the Boeing crashing into the mountain side. Although the weather was far from ideal the findings reported that the main reasons were a “failure of command, aircrew error and an improperly designed instrument approach procedure.”

A large stainless steel cross on top of the Strazisce Mountain, which is 791 metres above sea level, stands in memoriam of the victims in the crash.

Sunday in Dubrovnik was indeed a sunny day! Temperatures reached 23 degrees with endless blue skies and calm seas; the first weekend of April was a great start. The tourist season in the city has already begun and the boats to Lokrum were busy today and the first swimmers enjoyed the Adriatic Sea.

According to predictions this summer could be a very hot one, the long range weather forecast for the rest of this month is for relatively settled weather with temperatures continuing to climb to the mid twenties.

The Stradun in Dubrovnik was busy today as locals and tourists enjoyed a coffee al fresco, there were even tourists wearing shorts and T-shirts in the early April sunshine. Summer in Dubrovnik is just around the corner.

Photos by Tonci Plazibat / CROPIX

With over 1,100 islands, stunning coves and bays, sheltered natural harbours and some of the cleanest seas in the world it is hardly surprising that one of the success stories of Croatia’s tourism industry in nautical tourism. And according to figures just released by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics back up this fact with an increase across the board, from revenue to the number of berths along the Adriatic coastline.

Croatia’s nautical business brought in around 100 million Euros in revenue last year, a growth of over 5 percent compared to 2014. There are a total of 121 ports along the Croatia coastline, which is again an increase over 2014, this time by nine. The statistics clearly show that the vast majority of the revenue was generated through berth rentals. The cost of renting a berth varies drastically from port to marina; there are 17,350 berths in the marinas and ports of Croatia. This number could, and should be increased, as the interest grows for nautical holidays in the Croatian Adriatic the number of berths has for some time been hopelessly inadequate. Dubrovnik will have two new marinas this year, with the construction of the ACI marina in Slano and the reconstruction of the marina in the Port of Dubrovnik.

In 2015 there were around 13,000 vessels permanently berthed in Croatia, the majority from Croatia followed by Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and the UK. Considering that over 43 percent of the vessels permanently moored in the country’s marinas come from Croatia it is clear that there is room for improvement in attracting foreign registered vessels to berth all year round. When you take into account that 193,450 vessels passed through Croatian waters in 2015, almost 7 percent more than in 2014, and that the country only has 17,350 berths it goes to show that much, much work is needed to make the most of nautical tourism.

Tickets for the fifth edition of the Aklapela festival have gone on sale and can be purchased at the following locations: Dubrovnik Partner agency, Vukovarska 26, tel: 020/448 180, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (9:00 to 16:00 h), and the Cultural Information Centre, KIC, Luža , 020/321 425 (16:00 to 21:00 h).

The fifth edition of the popular Aklapela Festival will be held from the 8th to the 10th of April in Dubrovnik, and during the festival renowned singing groups from all over Croatia will perform.

The program of the fifth edition of the festival Aklapela begins on Friday, the 8th of April in the Lazareti complex when the vocal groups Kapric, Luka Rijeka, Nostalgija, Subrenum, Luka Ploče and Orca.

On Saturday the 9th of April the program continues with performances from vocal groups Sinj, Dišpet, FA Linđo, Kaše, Tragos and Bunari. And on Sunday the 10th of April the festival traditionally ends with a concert in the Dominican Church with an emphaises on spiritual music. An entrance ticket to the first two days is 50 Kunas whilst the final day is free of charge.

The popular travel guide “Rough Guide” has published an article entitled “7 stunning European islands you’ve probably never heard of,” and the Dubrovnik island of Lastovo is featured.

If you are looking for a secret escape then the picturesque island of Lastovo is the place for you. “The emphasis here is on the ‘Last’ in Lastovo: from here there’s only open Adriatic all the way across to Italy. Most travellers these days know the Croatian tourist hotspots of Hvar and Brač, but this relaxed charmer remains relatively untrammelled by tourism, at least in part due to the vagaries of the ferry timetable,” writes Rough Guide.

Rough Guide states that we have all heard of the major islands in Europe, such as Ibiza, Corsica and Sicily, but what about the lesser known gems. Along with Lastovo the islands of Foula in Scotland, Porto Santo in Portugal, Saaremaa in Estonia, Graciosa in Spain, Viðoy, The Faroe Islands and Gozo in Malta were also mentioned.

“This outlying island boasts a rich sweep of Venetian-era architecture, with its natural attractions recognised by the Croatian government who have declared it a protected nature park. The local waters also dish up a rich bounty of seafood, the best of which is the plump local lobster, or jastog, which is best enjoyed simply grilled,” concludes the article in Rough Guide.

Whilst the filming of Star Wars VIII finished a few weeks ago info, videos and photos are continuing the leak out.

The latest video show a speeding car down the main street, the Stradun, the acceleration of this car is, to say the least, impressive. The car, which apparently was specially constructed to reach high speeds within a few metres, was used as to film.

Take your time with the video, it begins slowly, but then blasts to life, and don’t forget to turn the volume up...it goes with a boom. The main street, the Stradun, and all of the historic Old City of Dubrovnik is normally a car-free zone so seeing a souped-up black car almost flying down the stone street is even more unusual.

The UK press was full of photos from the filming with The Daily Mail and The Sun dedicating a full-page article in a few copies.