Tuesday, 18 February 2025
Ivana Smilović

Ivana Smilović

Ivana Smilović – a senior journalist at The Dubrovnik Times. Born and raised in Dubrovnik, Ivana (or Smile as she is known to all) graduated Media Studies from the University of Dubrovnik. A book worm, coffee addict and want-to-be world traveller Ivana brings her unique local insight, connections and general optimistic and well smiley feel to the Times.

Email: ivana@thedubrovniktimes.com

The Guardian has recently published an article featuring 12 best beach towns in southern Europe and two of them are in Croatia! If your guess is Dubrovnik and Split, you are wrong – two Croatian cities that made it to the list are Sibenik and Zadar.

Sibenik has been put on the first place of the list.

-It’s known as the gateway to Krka national park and the Kornati islands, but this 1,000-year-old city has enough in itself to keep visitors happily busy for days. A slow amble along its waterfront goes past bars, restaurants and the 15th-century Cathedral of St James, a Unesco world heritage site with a blend of gothic and renaissance architecture. In the labyrinthine old town are several of Šibenik’s fortresses, including Sveti Mihovila, a magical spot for outdoor concerts in summer. There’s also the newly renovated Barone fortress, which has stunning views. Cool off at Plaža Banj, a pebbly blue-flag beach north of the old town – writes the Guardian, continuing with advices where to eat and drink, where to stay and how to get there.

Just behind Sibenik, there is one more beautiful Croatian city, Zadar.
-With a fascinating Roman, Byzantine and Venetian history, laid-back beaches, a shimmering promenade and audacious public art, Zadar is instantly beguiling. Among its attractions is Nikola Bašić’s underwater art installation, Sea Organ, with its mournful sounds and disco dancefloor-like Greeting to the Sun companion piece. Then there are the remains of the Roman forum and the imposing ninth-century St Donat church and wonderful Venetian marble lanes and stone houses. You can dive into the sea from the promenade or walk 15 minutes south to the pebbly Kolovare beach. For old-fashioned seaside atmosphere, head north along the coast to the Borik and Diklo beach resorts. The town is a great base for day trips: to islands, like Dugi Otok, one of the loveliest in the Zadar archipelago; and glorious national parks such as Paklenica – Guardian explains.

To see the other cities included on the list, visit the original article.

Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) conducted a survey during the first arrival of the Norwegian Spirit cruise ship, which was in Dubrovnik on April 17th with about 2200 passengers on a trip from Valetta to Venice. Besides the three mentioned cities the ship also visited Corfu, Katakolon, Split and Koper in the period from 13 to 20 April 2018. On this occasion, Dubrovnik became a champion by being declared as the best destination, leaving Venice, Kopar, Split, Corfu, Katakolon and Valletta behind.

This is a regular survey of customer satisfaction through a questionnaire conducted by Norwegian Cruise Lines on each trip, and includes the rating of each destination according to several parameters: general tourist offer of destination, bus quality and excursion guides and shuttle service, cleanliness of destination and general impression.

From the point of view of agency services in the destination, the company also evaluates the participation of guests on excursions, and in the Dubrovnik that was just over 40 percent, which is far better than in other ports, and far beyond the average of Dubrovnik (25-30 percent).

Based on this, Dubrovnik can really boast because of an excellent start of the season!

Norwegian Cruise Lines (NLC) is one of the cruise companies for which Gulliver travel, the part of Intercruises Group, offers daily trips.

It's been five days since famous tennis player Marin Cilic and beautiful Kristina Milkovic said yes in the Saint Nicholas Church in Cavtat, but it seems that newlyweds are still full of impressions and excitement.

Just today, Cilic shared a beautiful wedding photo on his official Instagram account, with the caption – The happiest day of my life. It shows him and Kristina, with beautiful city of Dubrovnik behind them – photo obviously made at the Revelin Fort, where they had their wedding party. The photo full of love collected over 13 thousand likes in five hours, along with numerous comments.

Cilic also thanked DT Studio, who is behind this beautiful photo. Studio didn’t miss the chance to share their impression either and published a photo of the lovely couple + with the caption:

- An amazing couple...beautiful souls...great love.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We are soo proud to be your wedding photographer and videographer...Love you guys!

The bride replied with hearts to these kind words of the studio.

 

marin cilic and kristina milkovic 2

 

For those who don't know (if anybody), Kristina and Marin had the so-called wedding of the year in Cavtat just five days ago. The ceremony was intimate and romantic and the party continued in the Revelin Fortress.

Kristina just shined in her simple, but elegant wedding dress, designed by Caroline Castigliano, big traditional earrings from Konavle and discreet make-up and hair.

The groom didn’t fall behind either, but he especially delighted his fans when he proved how modest and down to earth he was by helping with the cleaning of the leftovers from the party, just few hours after his wedding was over.

It seems that we just can’t stop talking about the wedding of this beautiful couple – at least until they decide to have a baby!

This weekend in the evening, Stradun will be the scene of fashion and beauty. On Saturday, May 5th, there will be a spectacular fashion event - Glamor Fashion Show Dubrovnik, which will be held in front of the Church of St. Blaise, starting at 8:30 pm.

Afterparty will be held at the Culture Club Revelin at 11 pm, and perhaps the most beautiful component of this event is the socializing of designers and users of the Josipovac Rehabilitation Centre in Sponza from 11 am to 5 pm.

The fashion show includes Ivica Skoko, Glamor Sposa, Duchess, Womenswear, Arileo, Bakus Sposa, Lella Design, Borza Group. Ana's Studio will be responsible for the make up, while the stylist will be Ivan Pervan. During the first night, guests will be entertained by DJ Maha, The organizer of the event is Dubrovnik Glamor.

On Sunday, May 6th, in front of the Church of St. Blaise, beauty pageant for the Miss of Dubrovnik-Neretva County will be held at 8.30 pm. Beautiful ladies from our county will be dressed up by Ivica Skoko, Duchess Womenswear, Lella Design, Borza Group, Van Gogh, Mare Adriaticum and Tom Sayli.

The girls that are in the competition are: Eva Škorić, Ivana Mudnić, Barbara Đugum, Martina Glibota, Tijana Ivanišević, Kristina Ilivača, Laura Lendić, Iva Šprljan, Matea Vulić, Gabriela Belić.

The users of social media absoultely love mistakes, typos and bad translations – so no wonder that one stand from Zadar went viral and turned out to be a real hit.

First – the stand shows you the way to 'sea organs'. Doesn't sound too good, right? Zadar is really known for its sea organ, but this 's' really makes a difference. And it seems to make everyone laug.

But that's not all! The stand also has a really interesting offers for daily tours and trips. For example, did you know that you can go on the alligator tour? Or visit Syria?

Not a regular offer you'd expect in Zadar, for sure. However, excellent for a good laugh!

stand zadar

 

Photo by Jure Miskovic/CROPIX

 

 

 

 

The Concert Season of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra starts with the concert on Friday, May 4th at the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik. Orchestra will be conducted by Noam Zur from Israel and soloist will be mezzo-soprano from Dubrovnik - Dubravka Separovic Musovic. The start of the concert is at 8 pm.

Dubravka Separovic Musovic performs with the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra from their beginnings and, besides various concerts, they performed together a series of respectable cycles (Wesendonklieder, Les nuits d'ete, Oratory of the City of Freedom and others). She is the winner of a series of awards, including: Orlando (2000 and 2013), Milka Trnina Award (2006), City of Zagreb Award (2009), Tito Strozzi Award (2011), City of Zagreb Award (2012) , the award of Danica Hrvatska with the character of Marko Marulic and the Best Wagnerian Award 2013, the Marijana Radev Award (2003, 2011, 2015) and the City of Dubrovnik Award (2018).

The concert will be directed by Maestro Noam Zur, Israeli conductor and music director of the International Opera Festival Tino Pattiera, currently on the function of chief conductor in the symphonic orchestra of Salte, Argentina. Otherwise, he is equally sought as composer and conductor for the opera and symphonic repertoire. His repertoire includes more than 30 operas and more than 250 symphonic works from all styles and periods. Since 2001 Zur conducts in renowned concert halls and leading orchestras of USA, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Switzerland, Austria, France , Estonia, Romania, Scandinavia, Czech Republic, Serbia and Italy. In addition to his composing and conducting career, Noam Zur is actively teaching conductors, instrumentalists and singers, and is often a visiting professor in Israel, Argentina, Mexico and Romania.

One of the most popular singers at the moment – Rita Ora – is coming to Croatia for the first time! Her Croatian debut will be in Porec, at the Rise Up Festival, which will be held from 6th to 8th of July.

The tickets are on sale at the price of 120 kuna, but only until Sunday. This is a great chance to miss this beautiful town, located at the western coast of Istrian peninsula and have really good time.

For those who don't know, Rita Ora is a British singer and actress, originally from Pristina, Kosovo. She rose to prominence in February 2012 when she featured on DJ Fresh's single "Hot Right Now", which reached number one in the UK. Her debut studio album, Ora, released in August 2012, debuted at number one in the United Kingdom. The album contained the UK number-one singles "R.I.P." and "How We Do (Party)". Ora was the artist with the most number-one singles on the UK Singles Chart in 2012, with three consecutive singles reaching the top position. The two singles from her upcoming second studio album, "Your Song" and "Anywhere", both reached the UK top-ten in 2017.

More than 240 thousand tourists are currently enoying their holidays in Croatia, just before Labour Day (tomorrow, May 1st), while during the last weekend – from April 27th to April 29th there were 260 thousand arrivals and 654 thousand overnight stays, which is a bit more than the last year during the same period – Croatian National Tourist Board reports. 

The largest number of overnight stays during the weekend were made by Slovenian tourists, followed by tourist from Austria, Italy, Poland and Germany. Most of the overnight stays were in Dubrovnik, Porec, Rovinj, Umag and Zagreb, according to the eVisitor system data.

Last year, during the same holiday period – from April 28th to May 2nd, there were 267 thousand arrivals and around 883 thousand overnight stays.

The figures and the first indicators of tourist traffic from the beginning of the year to the end of April 29th this year are really good, with a total of 1.8 million tourists realized a total of 4.8 million overnight stays, which rose by 9 and 7 percent compared to the same period last year .

Most of the overnight stays were realized by the tourists from Germany, Slovenia and Austria, in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Rovinj, Porec and Split.

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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