Charter Flights from Osaka to Zagreb

Zagreb, Croatia

At the beginning of June, the first direct charter flight from Osaka to Zagreb arrived at Zagreb airport. The Croatian National Tourist Board organized a welcome ceremony for the 350 passengers and crew-members, who enjoyed a performance of the folklore ensemble “Turopolje”, each receiving a traditional gingerbread heart (“licitarsko srce”) as a gift. The charter flights are organized by the Japanese agency “Hankyu”. For Japanese visitors, they enable faster and easier travel to Zagreb, the capital with the highest increase in the number of visitors from Japan in the region. Since the World Expo exhibition was held in the Japanese city of Aichi in 2005, Zagreb is witnessing a 50 % annual growth rate in the number of Japanese visitors. According to surveys, it is the historical monuments, natural beauties and relaxed way of life that Japanese visitors enjoy most in Zagreb. They also like to visit certain cultural institutions. Two of them are certainly the interesting Museum of Naïve Art and the Botanical Garden, which will be celebrating its 120th anniversary in July. The garden was opened in 1899 and is located within the ‘Lenuci horseshoe’, a stretch of parks and green areas comprising a monumental frame around the lower town. In the garden, numerous rare plants are cultivated. The garden comprises an arboretum, a flower section, 14 greenhouses, three stone areas and two artificial lakes, an inexhaustible source of inspiration to many great Croatian painters. It is on these lakes that the great aquarelle painter Slava Raškaj painted some of her paintings from the ‘nenuphar’ series. Today, these are considered masterpieces of Croatian aquarelle painting from the turn of the 19th century. As part of the Zagreb University, the Botanical Garden belongs to the School of Natural Sciences and has always had educational, cultural and historical value. For the past couple of decades it has realized its full potential in tourism as well. On account of its exceptional cultural and historical value, it was proclaimed a monument of garden architecture in 1971.

Read more:

• ‘Big return’ Serbian flights to Croatia get scrapped early
• Panoramic Sightseeing Buses
• Zagreb – A Year Rich in Concerts

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Croatian Motorway

On the busiest Croatian motorway, A1 Zagreb-Split-Dubrovnik, both pipes in the tunnels “Mala Kapela” and “Sveti Rok” were opened for traffic. This will make it impossible for gridlocks to ever create problems again during the tourist season. Both pipes feature the most contemporary security and power system in Europe, and it is estimated that daily, 29,000 vehicles will pass through “Mala Kapela” and 30,000 through “Sveti Rok”. To prevent gridlocks on the A1 motorway, electronic toll collection (ETC) booths were set up in Demerje, three km before reaching regular toll boots in Lučko, where one gets on the motorway from Zagreb. The ETC device needs to be placed on the windshield of the vehicle, and its signal will be detected by the antenna, allowing the gate to be lifted. Vehicles can pass through the two lanes in Demerje at a speed of 40 km/h without stopping. Should a driver leave the ETC device in a drawer in the vehicle, the gate will not be lifted and the driver will have to return to the lane for a regular toll booth in Lučko.

The A1 motorway also features ten other new lanes for noncash toll payment, two ETC booths and eight booths where drivers pay by card: Smart card, Ina card, Maestro, Visa, Visa electron, Diners, Master and American Express. For drivers coming from Hungary and other countries to the East, the old border crossing with Hungary, Goričan, has been reopened for truck-drivers, enabling a faster traffic flow on the motorway section from the border with Hungary to Zagreb.

Read more:

• 3 Croatian Hostels among top 10 boutique hostels in eastern Europe
• Largest Croatian Marian Sanctuary soon to have a hotel
• ‘Big return’ Serbian flights to Croatia get scrapped early

Welcome to Croatia - Travel and Holidays in Croatia. Your guide to holidays in Croatia.

Tourist often, before their arrival, ask us about prices here in Croatia, especially after the global crises started, lots of people  has been asking about this, so to save my selves some work replying on e-mails, I though it was easier to finally post the information on our blogs!

As prices vary a lot inside Croatia (depending on the location), I will indicate a price range, the highest prices you can expect to find in the top tourist areas, like Istria, Dubrovnik and islands, the cheapest prices are found in the mainland, and in the smaller Dalmatian cities.

If you have anything to add, like extremely good offers found here, or the stuff which could be helpful to other tourist, please fell free to add a comment at the bottom of the page.

Hotels:

The Hotel prices in Croatia, does not seam to have been effect by the global crises, so I still find them to high: (price is per person in double room)

Accommodation (Private)

I talked with many private owners, most of them are complaining about the low number of bookings, I told them maybe they should lower there price or invest some more in marketing, Although the general reply was no, I have noticed that some of them have started lowering their prices, so this year you can make a good deal. (price per person/day in a full 2-4 persons Unit).

*Like hotels also private accommodation is rated with stars here in Croatia.

Eating out: (restaurants and coffee bars)

Like everywhere else in the world, there is two thinks which seams to mainly determine the prices on a restaurant or a cafe - location and location. So if you like to eat in the best locations you will pay for it, if you on the other hand only are interested in getting some good food, eating out in Croatia is not at all expensive. We (2 adults, 2 kids) normally pay around 35-40 for an evening meal, including soda for the kids and wine for the adults. (this is prices in a regular resturant).

Drinking out!

In the late evening ours, you might want to visit the local disco or bar, here you need to know the following, vodka, gin, rum etc are normally available in to variations, the global brands, like Smirnoff, Gordans and Bacardi, but you can also ask for local variations of this, called Domaci rum, Domaci gin etc, if you do so, your drink will only cost half, but the effect will be the same.

Shopping – daily goods!

There is plenty of supermarkets in Croatia, prices in general are similar to rest of Europe, although you should know that, imported goods (brands you know from home), most properly have higher price then you are used to, local brands on the other hand are normally quite cheap.

Our personal preference is to shop at Lidl as we find them having good leverage between price and quality of their products.

Shopping other goods and service:

Global brands (imported goods) will cost you almost the same as in your home country, Be aware! If you find global brands products at a bargain price, this might be a copy, so don’t bring it to Italy on your way home.

Dentist service and other service related to health care, are competitive with most European countries, and the service standard are normally very good.

As Croatia are still not in the EU, (not regulated by EU law) you could have high rates on using your Mobile phone, so if you want to be on the safe side, you should buy a calling card, which can be found on the local post office, and in kiosk like Slobodna Dalmacija or Glas Istra.

Other prices / cost which might be of interest:

Vignette for Slovenia
Many tourists drive from Austria into Slovenia.
Some discussions regarding the need for a Vignette( Highway Use Sticker ) for Slovenia and the pricing.
Effective July 1 2009
7 day vignette 15 euro
1 month vignette 30 euro
expensive but better than before.

As in Austria make certain that you have one whrn driving in the country. Police watch carefully – many places sell them at the border areas.
Ferry schedule and prices, road prices Croatian Motorways.

Article by: Croatian Expert. Full article here.

Welcome to Croatia - Travel and Holidays in Croatia. Your guide to holidays in Croatia.

Dubrovnik airport, Croatia

British Airways has awarded Dubrovnik Airport with the title of the best airport in the “short distance” category. Dubrovnik competed against 27 other airports. The recognition is all the more valuable when one considers that all activities connected to welcoming planes and passengers were evaluated. British Airways conducts its assessment, in the winter and summer period respectively, very rigorously as it is also a criterion for its choice of business partners. It is not a surprise, therefore, that all airports give their best to be successful, making Dubrovnik’s award even more impressive.

Read more:

• Lokrum Special Reserve of Forest Vegetation, Dubrovnik
• The May gathering of the best international tourism journalists in Dubrovnik
• Dubrovnik region: New hotels and facilities

Welcome to Croatia - Travel and Holidays in Croatia. Your guide to holidays in Croatia.

Flights Croatia from Serbia

Zagreb/Belgrade – Loudly billed as the big “return after 18 years,” tourist charters from Belgrade to the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik have been scrapped after only two flights, authorities in Zagreb confirmed Friday. Only two “promotional” flights had been agreed, one completed Thursday and the other planned for Monday, but the rest were not, Croatian transport ministry spokeswoman Marinka Haluzan said.

“Other flights were not allowed because there is no bilateral air traffic agreement between our countries,” Haluzan told the German Press Agency dpa.

The Serbian carrier JAT advertised the flights as a return to the Croatian market 18 years after the former Yugoslavia disintegrated.

But it has now stopped taking reservations and is refunding the 800 tickets sold, the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti said.

Serbian officials said talks would continue next week. In Zagreb, Haluzan said Croatia “in the past insisted on the air traffic agreement … it is unclear why the other side did not want it.”

Charter flights are not a part of air traffic agreements between countries, only regular airline flights. However, the agreement is a “basis for charters,” Haluzan said.

Serbian tourists faced a similar problem when Turkey revoked permits from JAT charters to its summer resorts, reacting to Serbia’s refusal to open the charter-flight market to Turkish companies.

Belgrade eventually allowed private Turkish carriers to take Serbian passengers. The cost of the haggling was eventually borne by tourist companies, which bought rooms in Turkey in advance and lost much business owing to uncertain flights.

Talks with Croatia are even more complex, because they involve issues of ownership over airports and other companies which remain open from the days of the former Yugoslavia.

“We expect that the talks might continue next week, but the question is whether the other side, Serbia, will want to continue,” Haluzan said.

Read more:

• No More Deadlocks in Tunnels Mala Kapela and Sveti Rok
• Medical tourism in Croatia
• Panoramic Sightseeing Buses

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Zadar Areal Photo, Croatia

At the beginning of April, the biggest European low-budget airline, Ryanair, announced that a new connection between Zadar and
Dusseldorf, will be operating from July 6th, on Mondays and Fridays.
The connection is expected to be of great interest, and by mid April tickets can be bought at the promotional price of just 10 Euros one way, including airport charges.
This is the sixth Ryanair connection operating from Zadar. Connections to London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Stockholm already exist, and
from June 5th, a new connection to Pisa, Italy, will be running.

Read more:

• Zadar
• No More Deadlocks in Tunnels Mala Kapela and Sveti Rok
• Zagreb – A Year Rich in Concerts

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Croatia Highway Tunnels

All visitors travelling along the motorway A1 need no longer fear deadlocks at the tunnels of Mala Kapela and Sveti Rok. At the beginning of April, a new lane was opened for traffic in each of these two longest Croatian tunnels, enabling two-lane traffic in both directions and greatly contributing to a better traffic flow.
The existing lanes have been temporarily closed so they can be adapted for one-way traffic and the ventilation system can be brought up to date. Two-lane traffic in both directions will be set up by the time the season begins.
After the adaptation, the speed limit will be 100 kilometres per hour (now it is 80 km/h). Both tunnels at the Sveti Rok tunnel are connected by four safety passages for cars and 15 safety passages for pedestrians. The Mala Kapela tunnel will feature six car passages and 14 pedestrian ones.

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