Information to help you prepare for your holiday or vacation to Croatia courtesy of Rough Guide.
With a wealth of practical and background information, this travel guide is the essential companion for your holiday. Reading up on the places you visit will help you get a little more out of vacations and help you understand local sensitivities better.
Croatia (Hrvatska) has come a long way since the summer of 1991, when foreign tourists fled from a region standing on the verge of war. Now that stability has returned, visitors are steadily coming back to a holiday destination which boasts one of the most outstanding stretches of coastline that Europe has to offer. Croatia was an independent kingdom in the tenth century, but fell under the rule of Hungary in the eleventh and was subsequently absorbed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire before becoming part of the new state of Yugoslavia in 1918. Croatian aspirations were frustrated by a Yugoslav state which was initially dominated by Serbs, and then (after 1945) ruled by Communists. Croatia's declaration of independence on June 25, 1991 was fiercely contested by a Serb-dominated Yugoslav army eager to preserve their control over areas in which groups of ethnic Serbs lived. The period of war – and fragile, UN-supervised ceasefire that followed – was finally brought to a close by Croatian offensives during the summer of 1995.
Croatia's capital, Zagreb, is a typical central-European metropolis, combining elegant nineteenth-century architecture with plenty of cultural diversions and a vibrant café scene. At the northern end of the Adriatic coast, the peninsula of Istria contains many of the country's most developed vacation resorts, with old Venetian towns such as Porec and Rovinj rubbing shoulders with the raffish port of Pula. Further south lies Dalmatia, a dramatic, mountain-fringed stretch of coastline studded with islands. Dalmatia's main town is Split, an ancient Roman settlement and modern port which provides a jumping-off point to travel to the enchanting islands of Brac, Hvar, Vis and Korcula, on which you'll find lively fishing villages and the best of the beaches. South of Split lies the medieval walled city of Dubrovnik, site of an important festival in the summer and a magical place to be on holiday, whatever the season.
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