Grand Park Hotel, Dubrovnik
Submitted by: Geoff and Wendy Wilding from Polegate, East
Sussex, UK
Email: geoffwilding@hotmail.com
Visited in: September 2004
Organised: Tour operator First Choice
Type of accommodation: Grand Park Hotel
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 4
How would you rate your holiday overall? 5
Comments:
One of the most relaxing and enjoyable holidays we have had.
People are so friendly and helpful. The scenery beautiful, we
hired a car for 2 days, roads were very good. The Old City is
like Venice without the canals. We only hope it can remain unspoilt.
Would you go again? Most definitely
Submitted October 14th 2004
Milna,
Hvar
Submitted by: T Johnston from Berkshire, UK
Visited in: August 2004
Organised: Organised it myself
Type of accommodation: Hotel, The Tudor Family Guest House,
Tudor Jurica and Josko
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 5
How would you rate your holiday overall? 5
Comments:
Beautiful family hotel, right on the small pebble beach in
the fishing village of Milna. Superb food, nice accommodation
with sea views, restaurant 2 steps away from the beach. Ideal
for families. Owners Jurica & Josko together with their staff
are really welcoming. Hvar town 4 km away, buzzing with night
life. Fantastic place for a holiday!
Would you go again? Any time!!!!!
Submitted October 10th 2004
Dubrovnik
& Korcula
Submitted by: Nel Palmer from the UK
Visited in: August 2004
Organised: Organised it myself
Type of accommodation: Camping
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 3
How would you rate your holiday overall? 5
Comments:
Spent three days in Dubrovnik - quality of environment fantastic,
food great, wine lovely, being able to swim off the city walls
- incredible.
Toured the islands on a boat we hired when staying on Korcula
- most relaxing days ever spent. Island very friendly and relaxing
- great place for a holiday.
Would you go again? Yes definitely
Submitted October 5th 2004
Hotel
Kvarner, Opatija
Submitted by: Stephen from Swansea
Email: stephen49uk@yahoo.co.uk
Visited in: September 2004
Organised: Tour operator
Type of accommodation: Hotel Kvarner
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 4
How would you rate your holiday overall? 5
Comments:
I stayed in the 3 star Kvarner Hotel. Meals were on a buffet
basis, and you could make a real pig of yourself if you were so
minded. The staff in the hotel were friendly and helpful and I
found the hotel very comfortable. It never fails to amaze me how
good linguists people are out there and how bad we Brits are.
The guide on the two tours I went on spoke fluent German, English,
Dutch and Italian. People in Opatija spoke very good English and
I didn't have any difficulty in communicating. It made me feel
guilty I hadn't learnt more Croatian before I went - I only know
a couple of words.
I didn't think pictures did Opatija justice - it
really is stunning. I went on two trips one around Istria - this
stopped at Pula, Rovinj and Porec - actually managed to climb
up to the church in Rovinj!! The other trip was to the Plitvice
Lakes. That included walks, a boat ride and a train ride.
It was interesting to see the Italian influence
particularly in the western side of Istria, where the place names
are in Italian as well as Croatian (Rovinj/Rovigno). Evident in
the food as well.
The trip I don't think I'd recommend is the trip
to Venice. You start at 6.00 am and back at 10.00pm and if any
rep thinks I was going to miss breakfast and dinner at the Kvarner
they've another think coming! Besides - you've come to visit Croatia
- haven't you? Venice is a holiday in itself.
I think I liked the Lungomare best in Opatija. Bring
your camera with you and loads of film!
Foodwise there seemed to be no unpleasant surprises
in Croatia - the Italian influence seems quite strong here and
possibly Austria as well. Nothing like a bit of Sachertorte to
keep the wolf from the door...!!
Considering the war has not long been over, I think
Croatia has done very well to put it's tourist industry back on
its feet again. I had a lovely time out there.
Would you go again? Absolutely
- like tomorrow?!!
Submitted September 29th 2004
Hotel
Albatros, Cavtat
Submitted by: Keltarz from Ireland
Visited in: September 2004
Organised: Tour operator Concorde Travel
Type of accommodation: Hotel Albatros
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 5
How would you rate your holiday overall? 5
Comments:
Stayed at the Hotel Albatros in Cavtat in Croatia for 1 week
in Sept. Four star hotel and it deserves its four star rating,
big room, and bathroom very modern and very very clean, small
balcony with fantastic view. Excellent food, staff very helpful
and friendly, Cavtat resort 10 minutes walk, great restaurants,
great walks great bus tours to take. Very little tourist shops
which I found a blessing. Very child friendly.
Would you go again? Yes! Yes!
Yes!
Submitted September 27th 2004
Hvar,
Sibenik, Split, Pula
Submitted by: Rosie from the UK
Email: PM littlesaint (in the forum)
for info
Visited in: September 2004
Organised: Organised it myself
Type of accommodation: Private accommodation, various types
ranging from student halls to private apartments
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 4
How would you rate the accommodation? 3
How would you rate your holiday overall? 5
Comments:
We used Ryanair's cheap flights to Italy and travelled between
there and Croatia, using ferry and boat. That seemed to work out
well. Once in Croatia, we travelled from South to north, landing
in Hvar town and travelling to Trieste in northern Italy.
We found Hvar to be the most backpacker friendly place. We found
more people there doing the same kind of thing as us and there
were a couple of hostels/pensions in the town, one of which we
stayed in. Our hostel, was clean, in a quiet suburban location,
although still handy for town. Unfortunately, our room was next
to some very loud Australian women, which meant that our 6am start
the next day was even hard after a night of interrupted sleep.
I would definitely recommend the restaurant Papa Teresa, in Hvar
town. Great service, friendly and matronly restaurant owner, who
will give you lots of tips about the food, which is excellent.
The beaches are great too.
Sibenik, surprised us. We expected it to be relatively free of
tourists. The guide books try to make out like it is not a tourist
destination, but we found it quite popular. It seems especially
popular with Italian families (still summer holiday for them),
who drag their kids around town until quite late in the evening.
Not great if you want a quiet meal. This surprised us, because
there didn't seem to be much in the way of family accommodation,
but a lady in a shop we visited told us that most stay in Solaris
(a bid out of town holiday complex) and drive into town for the
day.
Sibenik itself in quite nice. It's a former industrial town that
seems to be in the process of reinventing itself as a destination.
We got a well position, private room next to the Cathedral. It
has a great historic core, which makes it a good place to spend
time. But it doesn't quite have the infrastructure needed to support
tourism yet, and it often seems quite crowded and there are not
enough restaurants at the moment, though the ones we visited were
good.
Sibenik's main selling point is its location we makes it a good
place to explore the Krka and Kornati national parks. For the
Kornatis we went on an excursion run by Atlas, which was pricy,
but well worth it. Krka, however was a bit of a disappointment.
We went on a bus, packed to the gills with tourists up to the
town at the part's entrance. Once there we had to stick to the
heavily touristed paths and without our own transport we weren't
able to escape the crowds. Once we were there and had a quick
look around Skradinski But, there was no time to go on an excursion
further into the park, before having to get the infrequent buses
back. Our trip to one of the Islands close to Sibenik was much
more worthwhile.
Split seemed a nice place, with a great atmosphere. We stayed
in a student hall, which was a bit out of town but quite nice
all the same. The highlight of our 36 hours in Split was a walk
up the Marijan peninsular, which was lovely.
We got the ferry up to Rijeka to reach, Pula, our next destination,
where we stayed in a apartment, about ten minutes walk from the
town centre. Unfortunately the amphitheatre was closed for a concert,
while we were there but there was enough to do in town to keep
us amused. While there we made a trip to Rovinj, which I definitely
recommend and walked to the peninsular south of Pula.
On the subject of service, which I notice has cropped up on this
board, on balance, we found it to be much better in Istria than
in Dalmatia and the islands. In Istria, which the exception of
the rather rude people at the James Joyce Bar, waiters are much
more efficient and attentive. In Dalmatia, you can pop into a
cafe for a drink, and spend ages waiting for a waiter to return
to you for another order or to give you the bill.
My recommendations would be:
Go swimming in the sea, and wear a mask because there is lots
of sea life.
Rovinj - popular but still enchanting.
Krka - if you go there, go early.
Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps.
Would you go again? Yes
Submitted September 26th 2004
Hotel
Neptun, Porec
Submitted by: Charlie Ross from the UK
Visited in: September 2004
Organised: Tour operator Holiday Options
Type of accommodation: Hotel Neptun
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 5
How would you rate your holiday overall? 4
Comments:
Porec great little town, plenty to do or just idle your time
by sunbathing. Hotel neptun very good, food excellent, rooms clean
and staff very friendly. A chat to Ivo and a day trip on the delphin
is good value (he stands down the bottom end of the sea front).
Would advise that holidaymakers give the Venice trips a big miss,
personally I found the trip to be a massive rip off and if you
do go dont buy meal and canal trips that they sell when on the
ferry these are very expensive and the meal is absolute rubbish.
All in all Porec was a very good centre to base the holiday from
and I was totally pleased with it.
ps just be aware of the motor scooters that tend to shoot around
the town.
Would you go again? yes
Submitted September 13th 2004
Vrulje,
Karin, Zadar
Submitted by: Tony from London
Email: on_the_out@hotmail.com
Visited in: almost every year since 1983
Organised: Organised it myself, went by car again
Type of accommodation: Private accommodation, our house
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 5
How would you rate your holiday overall? 5
Comments:
Vrulje is just a wonderful, peaceful, safe, beautiful place
to have a house. I love it there.
Would you go again? always
Submitted September 9th 2004
Hotel
Astarea, Mlini
Submitted by: Sophie from the UK
Visited in: August 2004
Organised: Tour operator Holiday Options/Elite travel
Type of accommodation: Hotel Astarea
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 4
How would you rate the accommodation? 3
How would you rate your holiday overall? 4
Comments:
I stayed in the hotel Astarea in Mlini for a week late in
August 2004.
Overall we enjoyed this holiday because the setting was beautiful
and the weather gorgeous.
A few points could be improved however:
The hotel has one main building, 2 annexes, and
plenty of "bungalows" which range from 2 to 8 room blocks.
I stayed in one of these, which was lucky because we were right
on the sea front and from our balcony had a fantastic views on
the bay (ask for bungalows from number 950 onwards). However,
the room was really small and fairly basic, we could not go around
the bed without asking one another to move out of the way first!
Similarly, the bathroom was a tiny and the shower attachment was
broken.
During our stay, we were half board, which means buffet breakfast
and diner. The food was OK-ihs, fairly basic but tasty. The restaurant
was huge and very canteen like. It was also very busy and as the
customers left the tables, the staff did not put any new plates/cutlery
on the empty tables which restricted the number of seating spaces.
One piece of advice: go early, on a couple of occasions some people
ended up sitting at our table because they could not find space
elsewhere, not much for a romantic diner! We also found the service
(for the drinks) was quite slow and not particularly friendly.
We ended up go out on a few occasions to enjoy a "proper"
diner!
Every night, in front of a bar on the sea front,
a man and a woman set up some keyboard and sound music system,
and sang some crappy eighties' s songs until 23h30. It was very
loud and meant that could not sleep until they stopped singing,
which annoyed us because some morning we were getting up at 6
am to go on excursions. When we complained to the hotel we were
told there was nothing they could do about it!
There was a general lack of concern for customer service, a "not
my problem" attitude, which we also encountered with some
of the Elite travel reps (the Croatian company that deals with
Holiday Options customers).
Would you go again? no
Submitted September 8th 2004
Laguna
Park Apartments, Porec
Submitted by: Lynn Geldart from Leeds
(Out of 5, best = 5)
How would you rate the town/city you stayed in? 5
How would you rate the accommodation? 3
Comments:
Porec I would rate as 5, the food is lovely and the town is
lovely. The Croatian taxi driver we had to take us from Trieste
to our hotel and to the airport at the end of our stay was absolutely
brilliant, a real dude.
The apartments I would rate as 3, basic but comfortable, the one
thing it lacked was a kettle. The food at the hotel was not all
that good and at 85 kuna each a bit on the expensive side.
The restaurant Spadici just over the road from the hotel was lovely
though. A really good choice in food. A great view of the wonderful
sunsets every night.
The town of Porec is an absolute delight, a jewel in the adriatic.
The best and most relaxing holiday for many a year.
We went to play tennis and the facilities at Hotel Laguna Materada
were excellent.
Would you go again? I intend to return to
Croatia next year.
Submitted September 6th 2004
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