Dubrovnik can be really crowded during the summer, everybody knows that, and tourists are often trying to find a way to avoid the crowds. Daily Mail published an article yesterday, offering the quieter side of Croatia – Elaphiti Islands. 

- Nothing can be said to be certain in this world, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, except death, taxes — and that there are more tourists in Dubrovnik than there are teapots in England – with this witty intro starts the article and the author continues with an explanation that Dubrovnik's walled seafront old town is a marvel, as picturesque and romantic as anywhere in southern Europe, but sometimes even the most committed sightseer needs a hideaway.

And what is a better solution than the Elaphiti Islands? The Daily Mail brings a few details about Kolocep, Lopud and Sipan – picking Lopud as their favourite.

- Dubrovnik surely ranks among Europe's top 20 destinations, but with travel, juxtaposition is all — and the Elaphiti Islands offer just that – concludes Daily Mail.

November exceeded expectations of tourist workers and despite a small number of direct flights from European centers this month record results were achieved again. According to the E-visitor system, in November there was 21 632 arrivals, which is an increase of 32 percent and 50,842 overnight stays, an increase of 27 percent. Most of the guests in November were from Croatia, Albania, the United States, Bosnia, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia... Dubrovnik is starting to get more and more attractive in the late autumn. The fact that direct year-round flights were established from Frankfurt and Istanbul and that the flight from London was kept meant a lot for the results.

Since the beginning of 2016 to the end of November in Dubrovnik, including the results of nautical tourism, there was 1,017,756 arrivals, or 12 percent more and 3,684,626 overnight stays or 13 percent more. Top guests were from the United Kingdom, followed by the Germans, the US, France, Croatia, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Australia and Italy.

Tonight, the 2nd of December, at 7.30pm in the Dubrovnik Cathedral a rather special concert will be held. To mark the 15th anniversary of the musical workshop “Sorgo.” This anniversary will see a special concert organised in the atmospheric Dubrovnik Cathedral to which entry will be free of charge.

The musical workshop Sorgo was created with the intention of reviving forgotten music from the archives of Dubrovnik and to explore new ways to perform these contemporary pieces. Over the years the workshops have become a meeting place for the old and the new as well as a space for dialogue between different musical styles.

I've been fortunate enough to have to travel to Istria on business last week. This northernmost coastal region of Croatia is lovely to behold any time of the year, but I found it completely empty of all the tourists. Yes, it seems “Croatian Tuscany” as some like to call Istria, is struggling with off-season tourism, much like us down south.

Most of the historical places on the coast: Pula, Rovinj, Porec, Umag, were all pretty much desolate. Many of the local hospitality businesses were closed. Stone cobbled streets in historical districts were quiet and felt as if they are hiding some horrible secrets. They would make few people traversing them pick up their pace wishing to escape this realm of silence as quickly as possible. The entire thing felt very familiar.

Dubrovnik Region and Istria share many similarities. Both are highly esteemed tourism destinations and both boast wonderful natural resources, picturesque countryside, well preserved historical cities, and great food and wine. However, one major difference is the location. Istria is very close to Italy, Slovenia, Austria, and even Germany, so most of Istrian guests travel there by car. This leaves them free to decide to travel spontaneously and they can do so any time of the year. Meanwhile, our most frequently visiting guests – the British, Americans, Scandinavians, Western Europeans...all fly to Dubrovnik. When major airlines stop their direct flights to Dubrovnik, it pretty much disables our guests from coming over without going through the hassle of many connecting flights. We do get cruise ships, unlike Istria, and while this is not as good as having guests that live 2-4hrs drive away from you, it does make our city a bit more active during off season periods. Still, it seems we are equally inefficient in getting guests to visit during winter.

One thing that struck me while visiting this time is that neither the people of Istria nor Dubrovnik travel much among our two regions, which is a real shame. Istria is a perfect place for someone from Dubrovnik to visit. There is plenty to see and do and much of it is relatable to what we have at home, but different enough to be interesting to explore. Historical cities are wonderful, scattered villages absolutely charming and food and wine is to die for. The people of Istria could love coming to Dubrovnik for practically all the same reasons. Also, travelling like this would give us the perfect opportunity to better exchange experiences and ideas about tourism, hospitality, managing historical sites, and traditional agriculture– all crucial things for both regions.

We Croatians are competitive people and we often mistrust each other. There is a silly trend of rising animosities between the country's north and south and it has to be stopped. Did I say „silly“? I meant „stupid“. It's a very stupid trend and so are the people who support it. Even though we are a small country in size, we have quite a few different regions and it seems to me we simply don’t know enough about each other. We desperately need to explore our country more, so we can appreciate it more. The people of Istria and Dubrovnik would benefit greatly from travelling among these two regions. We would get to know each other a bit better and could enjoy in the best of what these two beautiful parts of Europe have to offer – something that we usually reserve for our international guests. Who knows, we might learn a thing or two in the process.

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Bozidar Jukic, AKA The Restless Native, is a Dubrovnik local with too many interests to name them all, with writing being at the very top of the list. He is a lover of good food, music and film, and a firm believer in the healing power of laughter. His professional orientation is towards tourism and travel so it comes as no surprise he spends most of his time alongside Mrs. Jukic running their own local tour company. Their goal is helping travellers from all over the world get a more intimate experience of Dubrovnik and what it has to offer. To find out more about their work, visit their website or Facebook page.
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Nicole Isaacs, American trendsetter, is enjoying Dubrovnik. That is clear from the photos that she posted on her Instagram account, where she has almost 150 thousand followers. For now she has published seven photos, promoting beauty of our City and her beauty as well. 

Nicole is travel and food blogger, founder of multimedia creative agency HungryApe, former member of the girl band Soccx and has also former producer of the show Fashion Police. She was all over the press when it was asumed that she's in the relationship with Terrence J, American actor and TV personality.

She has celebrated her birthday in Culture Club Revelin last year and it seems that she fell in love with the City.

The northerly winds that have been battering Dubrovnik for the past week hit new highs last night.

Bitterly cold gale force winds swept down over the mountains and wiped up the Adriatic Sea.

This boat in the Port of Dubrovnik fell victim to the high seas and slowly sunk. The owner was greeted this morning with a half submerged boat.

Some people just lose their heads (and their trousers) in excitement when they arrive in Dubrovnik. This revealing photo appeared on social media yesterday of a tourist getting carried away with the view, and offering a rather different view of his own. And as the cold north wind is blowing we can only presume that the view he offered wasn’t very generous!

This naked photography has taken off, no pun intended, over the past few years and more and more people are stripping down to their birthday suits for a holiday album snap. Several photos of naked tourists from the top of the Srd Mounatin overlooking Dubrovnik have been posted on social media this year.

This latest “skin feast” was taken from the Lovrijenac Fortress, which was a location for the popular Game of Thrones series.

A photo posted by Matthew Donnet (@mattyd282) on Nov 30, 2016 at 11:52am PST

On the first day of December starts the program of vocal group performances at Stradun around the festive stands, as a part of the Dubrovnik Winter Festival. The magic of Dubrovnik's Advent with traditional songs and Christmas tunes on the most beautiful stage in the world will start at 8 pm. Dubrovnik vocal groups will perform through December on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

For children on Friday, 2 December at 6 o'clock in the cinema 'Sloboda' there will be an interective theatre play "Audition for Santa Claus", produced by the theater company Travelling Theatre. Tomislav Bralic and Intrade vocal group in the evening, in front of St. Blaise from 8 and 30 pm, are another musical gift from the Dubrovnik Winter Festival to their fellow citizens.