Shifting down a gear and donning the flip-flops, we’ve spent the last few days in the historic seaside fishing town of Rovinj, roaming the cobble-stoned streets and hanging out in the cafes and restaurants along the picturesque waterfront.

Rovinj is one of those places where you can just fill the whole day without really doing anything, which speaks to its status as a tourist getaway. Indeed, we managed to fill our days here by just wandering around the streets, finding twittens and waterside hideaways off the well beaten (and quite slippery) cobblestone paths. With a multitude of aromas ranging from… (more)

Leaving the lakes of Plitvice behind, we’ve arrived in our next port-of-call in historic seaside town of Rovinj and are preparing to spend our first night in the luxurious boutique surrounds of the Villa Luttorotto.

We had a bit of a sobering drive as we began our journey north-west from Plitvice; dark clouds and eventually rain filled the windscreen of our hire car, and reminders of the Croatian-Serbian war were pretty evident everywhere we looked. Houses appeared to be riddled with bullet holes from machine gun fire, and despite being polyfillered were generally left unpainted like battle scars. Some houses… (more)

We couldn’t want for better conditions on our second day in the park; with gorgeous sunshine and a very comfortable temperature, it was like someone had turned the colour saturation up on the world; everything that made yesterday’s scenics impressive seemed even more vibrant in the sunshine. Topped up by solar energy (and a healthy helping of coffee and strudel), we set off to explore the lakes on the opposite side of the park.

Making our way past the lower lakes, it was a gentle stroll up to the rest stop where we paused before deciding our next move. Everything… (more)

We’ve spent the last couple of days in Pension Winnetou, a comfortable and extremely friendly guest house on the road to Plitvice and the Lakes National Park. We’ve had almost every type of weather since arriving here, experiencing brilliant sunshine and torrential rain in almost cyclical regularity. Needless to say, it’s caused us some issues in attiring ourselves appropriately for the conditions, but it hasn’t prevented us from admiring the amazing scenery at Croatia’s most visited beauty spot.

We arrived here yesterday in the early afternoon, following a smooth flight over from Gatwick and a stunning mountainous drive 150km North… (more)