Senin, 31 Desember 2007

Croatia Online - Left Hand Drive Cars


If you're looking to move from the UK to Croatia, or going there for an extended stay, you may want to buy a left hand drive car to take with you. If so try The Left Hand Drive Place in Basingstoke. We've just bought our second car from them and couldn't want for a better service tailor made to our needs. They have a wide stock of used cars, some new cars and can also help with insurance and even delivery to wherever you need your car. All the cars we've looked at have a full history and the deal itself has, on both occasions, gone extremely smoothly. Take a look at their website, www.lhdplace.com for more information.
Today's photo is not of one of the Left Hand Drive Place's cars! It's one of the cars available for hire on Mljet Island in Southern Dalmatia. Go to www.mljet.hr/mini_brum1.asp for more information on cars with character for hire.

Jumat, 28 Desember 2007

Croatia Online - Travel News


One of our readers has emailed us to let us know of another potential "drop out" from flights to Split. It seems that Wizzair (http://wizzair.com/) is no longer listing Split as a destination. The obvious implication is that it will no longer operate flights between Split and Luton which proved highly popular last year. On top of British Airways withdrawal from the Split route it's a bizarre trend - just as Dalmatia has upped the ante in terms of what it can offer to discerning travellers, the choice of flights seems to be dwindling just a year or two after it improved. We'll be trying to get to the bottom of this in the next few weeks.

Those contemplating the trip by car might be interested to know that we managed to get from Split to Calais in two days driving fairly solidly from 9 am to 7 pm with a couple of half hour stops. We took the route through Slovenia, Austria and Germany - the shortest route according to RAC's routefinder. The German motorways are toll free so it's also a lot cheaper than the route through France but the downside is that the motorways are very busy - two lanes almost all the way with the inside lane packed with lorries and the outside lane a bit of a challenge if you're not one of the speed merchants that appears from nowhere behind you just as you're overtaking the second lorry. Remember to buy a vignette when you get to Austria - the fines for not having one are heavy and it's just a few pounds.

More news and tips on the car journey (and the practicalities of the Pet Passport Scheme) when we get back.

In the meantime, a Happy New Year to all our readers and perhaps some highlights of this year, if we get time, in the next couple of days.

Senin, 17 Desember 2007

Croatia Online - Happy Christmas


Just in case we don't get a chance later in the week, a very Happy Christmas and New Year to all Croatia Online readers and a quick catch up on news.

Croatia Cruising Companion - we're told it was the best selling book on the Wiley stand at the Earl's Court Boat Show and we understand it sold 400 copies in the first ten days which isn't bad going. Thanks to everyone who's helped and supported us in realising its publication and to everyone who's bought it.
The Croatia Business Report has done a report on the Croatia Cruising Companion - go to http://www.croatiabusinessreport.com for more details on this and for excellent insight, analysis, opinion and comment on the business and political world in Croatia.
Go to our sister blog www.croatiacruisingcompanion.blogspot.com for more details about the book and general updates on nautical tourism et al in Dalmatia.
Today's photo shows a flurry of snow settling on the hills behind Trogir two years ago. We've had our first snow flurry of the year this week, and it's bitterly cold, but the snow has so far only settled on the mountains.
Sretan Božić i Nova Godina

Sabtu, 08 Desember 2007

Croatia Online - News

We're just back from a short trip to London to take in the Earl's Court Boat Show and the launch of our Croatia Cruising Companion, covering the Dalmatian Coast and Islands. It's great to see it in print at last and it's been doing well on Wiley's stand at the show. Tomorrow is the last day so if you're in London and looking for something to do why not pay a visit. For more news on the Croatia Cruising Companion and the show, visit our sister site Croatia Cruising Companion. We had a good chat with a number of the charter companies exhibiting and gained some interesting insight on how Croatia compares with eg Turkey and Greece as a cruising destination. We'll be reporting on that soon on the CCC site. In the meantime today's posting on CCC will link you to an interesting article in the Sydney Times on cruising Dalmatia.

Onto land based news:

Travel News

It seems pretty definite that British Airways won't be flying to Split in the summer which is disappointing for many. See the immediately previous posting for more detail on what might lie behind the decision. We're waiting to see whether Ryanair will be back to Zadar in spring but that's looking more hopeful.

Croatian Politics

On 24th November we reported on the national elections that were due to take place the next day. As with the last general election, the vote itself is just a small part of the political process! These elections again resulted in a party with no clear overall majority and mandate to govern, though the result was much closer than the previous election. That means the two main parties have to negotiate long and hard with the smaller parties to see who can get a workable government together with enough seats to provide a mandate. As we suggested in our previous posting, that gives some of the smaller parties a disproportionate amount of power as "kingmakers" and in tight votes in Parliament. The other consequence is that, at the moment, Croatia is largely ungoverned leading to a number of important problems for which holding mechanisms are insufficient. For example, until a government is approved and formed, there is apparently no mechanism to pay pensioners their Christmas bonus which is obviously of great concern to a significant number of people. It's looking like HDZ, led by Ivo Sanader, will again be leading the government but there is a lot of negotiating and bargaining to take place before that result is official.

Time Out Publications in Croatia

We've started working on next year's magazine - A Visitors' Guide To Croatia - due out in April 2008. It will be the third year of the magazine which is growing in size and authority as each year progresses. We'll be preparing a fuller report in the next couple of weeks but can promise that the new magazine will be full of even more interesting features on contemporary Croatia as well as full, area by area, listings on where to eat, drink and stay, and what to do. Time Out now has a reputation in Croatia, as elsewhere, for being the first to discover what's new and what's best about the destinations it covers and there will be more than a few surprises in the new edition of the magazine. For those that can't wait till April, go to www.timeout.com/croatia to order a copy of the Visitors' Guide to Croatia 2007/8 or the full guide book.

Today's photo is of a spectacular sunset over Trogir two days ago. It was taken from the pedestrian bridge that links the main car park to the old town, over the canal that separates Trogir from the mainland. On the left is part of Trogir's ancient fortifications, now a music nuseum, music shop and cafe.