Carole Sweeney review 11 Jul 2009
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The river kayaking.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Take water shoes and plenty of sun cream. But also be prepared for some hard work as the kayaking can be very tiring.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Not really.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
It was OK but it would have been a lot better if the group had been made up of at least one or two children of similar age to ours and the guides had a better command of English and a bit more personality. They made no attempt to learn our names or to build any team spirit, to break the ice or to bring the group together in any meaningful way. By comparison, the holiday we booked with you a few years ago in Slovenia was much better mainly because of the guides and the other children.
Read the operator's response here:
We are a Croatian company with mostly local staff. Comments about the guides are welcome and we’ll try to improve it immediately. We can’t guarantee how many other teenagers will be on the same trip, as we stated to Mrs. Sweeney before she came to Croatia. Most of our activities are done with kayaks or rafts which have minimum or no impact on environment. Usage of boats with diesel engines in NP Krka is out of our influence, unfortunately. The group was based in a small hotel in Skradin which is owned by local Croatian family with all employees from the area. During the war in 90’s Skradin was on the front line and partly destroyed. Tourism is a significant part of economical and social recovery of the area we have two out of 5 trips there. Also, the most memorable part of the holiday from Mrs. Sweeney was river kayaking which goes one in one of the poorest parts of Croatia that was mostly abandoned after the recent war. River guides, equipment storage, local transfers etc are all done by people from the villages around the river which are our employees. Only other source of income for them is sheep herding or migration to bigger towns on the coast. Sea kayaking is done on the Island Vrgada – which has around 200 inhabitants, most of them older generation. Tourism is the only extra income they have during the year – tourists buy things in the only shop on the Island, eat in few restaurants and use boat transfer to and from the Island which is owned by local fishing community.
