Join Soundwave 2018 for their tenth and final edition

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Here’s some exciting and somewhat bittersweet news about one of Croatia’s most popular festivals.

Soundwave 2018 will be celebrating its tenth birthday…and will also, unfortunately, be its last ever event. One of the longest running Adriatic festivals – along with the previously much-loved The Garden Festival and Outlook in Istria – Soundwave will conclude its epic odyssey in 2018.

Soundwave 2018

Running from Thursday 26th to Monday 30th July, Soundwave The Final Wave will the last chance to experience what is widely regarded as one of Europe’s best boutique events. Offering up a beautifully diverse music spectrum alongside a mesmeric holiday and festival experience, we’re sure many of you will be eager to head to the beautiful festival site, The Garden Tisno, for Soundwave’s last hurrah. Tickets are already on sale, so snap up some right away to be sure to celebrate with Soundwave next year.

Line-up for Soundwave 2018

As ever, some of the world’s finest live artists and DJs from across broken beat, reggae, afro, acid jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk, drum and bass and much more will be joining Soundwave. The first wave line-up has already been announced – in 2018, Soundwave will welcome Jordan Rakei, Romare (Live), Submotion Orchestra (Live), Horse Meat Disco, DJ Marky, Sons Of Kemet, Channel One Soundsystem, Riot Jazz (Live), Al Dobson Jr, Tenderlonious, Mahalia, Chunky, SNO, Desta, Jonny Dub, Rich Reason, DJ Gilla, DJ BobaFatt and DJ Mo Fingaz, with many more to be revealed.

Confirmed clubs, labels and collectives partnering up with Soundwave are Soundcrash, Hoya:Hoya, First Word Records, 22a Records, South London Soul Train, Main Squeeze, Bruk Up, Hidden, Tuckshop, So Flute and Good Life.

Soundwave 2018 - splashes and unicorns

Saying Goodbye to Soundwave

Noah Ball, one of Soundwave’s founders, explains:

“It’s not been an easy decision to bring Soundwave to a close in 2018, but for us it also feels like the right one to make, too. We’ve had an amazing run in Croatia, from the first years in Petrcane and now in Tisno, and we all look back with great pride and affection for what we have achieved in the last 9 years here in this wonderful country.

Finishing on our tenth year will bring everything together into one last adventure and we intend to make it a fitting climax for the festival and everyone who has ever been a part of it, from the music lovers around the world who come each year, the artists who are like our friends and all of the crew involved.

It’s going to be a very special few days next summer as we say goodbye to Soundwave, and we are putting together a line-up representative of the festival’s unique sound. It’s certainly going to be emotional – we hope to see lots of old faces and new joining us for this final edition!”

Tickets for Soundwave 2018

Early-bird tickets for next year’s Soundwave festival are already on sale, priced at £99. Tickets can be purchased here.

More information

Keep up to date on all the last news on Soundwave 2018 on the official website, as well as on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Soundwave Festival 2018
26th – 3oth July 2018 
The Garden, Tisno

Wines by Aizia

Discover Croatian wine in the UK with Wines by Aizia

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We’re sure you’ve enjoyed a glass or two of outstanding Croatian wine while on holiday in the country. Thanks to new company Wines by Aizia, it’s now possible to enjoy Croatian wine in the UK too!

Croatian Wines in the UK - Wines by Aizia

 

Croatia – A long history of wine

Although there are many fine wines that are produced in almost every region of the country, what many perhaps don’t know is that Croatia has a long history with wine. The plains of Stari Grad on the island of Hvar, for example, are a listed UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the oldest continuously cultivated vinicultural site in the world dating back to the 4th century BC.

And how’s this for a fascinating bit of Croatian wine trivia? For the coronation of Her Majesty The Queen in 1953, Buckingham Palace ordered 11,000 bottles of Traminac wine from Ilok Old Cellars. This 1947 vintage white wine, specially chosen for its intense perfume, full body and intense flavours of rose, orange blossom and tropical fruits can still be purchased today.

Croatian wine in the UK with Wines by Aizia

Wines by Aizia are proud to bring some of Croatia’s outstanding, award winning wines to the UK market. The company works closely with selected wineries and small local producers to offer a premium selection of the best Croatian wines at competitive prices. Their small producers produce award winning wines in limited quantities. The specials that they have are exciting and fresh, sometimes unusual and only available to Wines by Aizia’s members while stocks last.

Later this year Wines by Aizia will also be offering wine tasting tours to Croatia, visiting a selection of carefully chosen vineyards. Guests will be shown around the vineyard’s cellar and the estate by the winemaker and English speaking guides and enjoy a tasking session of the best local food and wine.

Mikki Hall, the MD of Wines by Aizia, said:

“I am excited to be bringing Croatia’s excellent wines to the UK giving consumers the opportunity to discover the great variety and quality available. Our autumn collection showcases producers from Eastern Croatia, Feravino, Vina Papak and Wineries Erdut.”

Wines by Aizia - Vina Papak

The Vina Papak Traminac Radosh (left) and the Vina Papak Graševina Radosh (right)

Vina Papak is a family owned winery run by husband and wife team, Mladen and Snjezana Papak. Malden was director of the famous Old Ilok Cellars and in 2014 took a brave step to pursue his passion and started their own vineyard and wine production, creating the most eco-friendly vineyard in Ilok and perhaps all of Croatia.

Wines by Aizia are very pleased to announce that in a recent wine tasting by esteemed wine critic Jancis Robinson OBE, their Feravino Dika Grasevina scored 16 out of possible 20 points.

Mikki’s passion for Croatian wine is as a result of hailing from Croatia herself. Although she moved to the UK when she was 19, she and her husband David (co-owner of Wines by Aizia) have explored the vineyards and wine cellars of Croatia for years. Their aim is to improve the availability of ease of purchase of fine Croatian wine in the UK.

More information

For more details on Wines by Aizia and full information on how to purchase some of their very fine wines, please see aiziawines.com.

Video: 4,500km to Croatia by travel blog Gorgeous Globe

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Monica from the excellent travel blog Gorgeous Globe recently wrote in to us to share a beautiful video that she filmed on her travels in Croatia.

Gorgeous Globe

Titled “4,500 kilometers to Croatia”, it features many beautiful shots of Croatia’s coastline, interesting sights, gorgeous sunsets and sublime nature. There are glimpses of Rovinj, Pula, Zadar, Krka National Park, Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik, the Plitvice Lakes and more! Monica sure covered a great deal of Croatia in her two weeks in the country, and it certainly looks like she had plenty of fun!

You can take a look for yourself below:

If you’d like to read more about Monica’s travels in the country, check out her new blogpost European Road Trip: Two Weeks in Croatia. It features plenty of tips on visiting Croatia, as well as lots of stunning imagery of her travels in the country!

Tickets on sale for Love International 2018!

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Following a supremely successful second festival in July – which saw a sell out crowd of 2,500 descended on Tisno – Love International 2018 has already started selling tickets!

The third Love International will be taking place from Wednesday 27th June to Wednesday 4th July 2018. As ever, Love International will kick things off for the festival season in Tisno and present a glorious seven days and nights of electronic music, surprises, adventure and wonder on this beautiful section of Croatia’s Adriatic coast.

Love International 2018

This year’s festival saw stand-out sets from The Black Madonna, Craig Richards, Ben UFO, Tony Humphries, Prosumer, Horse Meat Disco, DJ Nature and countless other stellar performances. The many areas of the festival site in Tisno also created a sublime festival and holiday experience for all those who came – from the glorious waterside Beach Bar, the stunning shaded Olive Grove which once more came into its own, the larger Main Stage in the centre of the site, the incredible boat parties, the intimate Terraza, the Secret Island Party and of course the mesmeric fully-open air club Barbarella’s.

To get a gorgeous feel of this year’s event, check out the official aftermovie:

The first artists on the bill for Love International 2018 will be announced in the coming weeks – keep your eyes peeled!

© Photography by Daisy Denham for Here & Now (www.fb.com/wearehereandnow)

© Photography by Daisy Denham for Here & Now

Love International © Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now (www.fb.com/wearehereandnow)

© Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now

Tickets for Love International 2018

There’s a limited selection of early bird tickets currently on sale for £125 for the full week. Once these have sold out, the tickets will be priced £135. Snap up tickets quick to take advantage of this special offer at www.loveinternationalfestival.com.

Club night and boat party tickets are sold separately, and details of these will be announced in due course.

Love International © Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now (www.fb.com/wearehereandnow)

© Photography by Khris Cowley for Here & Now

Love International © Photography by Daisy Denham for Here & Now (www.fb.com/wearehereandnow)

© Photography by Daisy Denham for Here & Now

More on Love International 2018

Check out full details of the festival on the brand-new look website at www.loveinternationalfestival.com. and do also look them up on Facebook and Twitter!

Love International
Weds 27th June – Weds 4th July 2018
The Garden Resort
Petrica Glava 34,
22240 Tisno
Croatia

About Croatia

Share your Croatian trip report with Visit Croatia and other travellers!

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If you’re heading to Croatia this summer (or have already been), how would you like to share your Croatian trip report, experiences, tips and recommendations with other travellers?

Share your Croatian trip report!-trip-report

We’re asking you, dear travellers, to share your trip reports on Croatia with us and our readers. However long or short you’d like it to be, however many places you’d like to recommend (or perhaps you want to keep some secret!), we’d love to hear from you!

Whether you’ve enjoyed the magic of Dubrovnik, sailed to the beautiful islands such as Hvar or Vis, have partied at at a festival in Croatia, explored one of the national parks, or visited anything and everything in between, we’d certainly enjoy reading your Croatian trip report and are sure others would too.

We know that many of you are also very talented photographers (we certainly see the proof of that on our Instagram feed every day!) so we’d also love to display some of your gorgeous photos along with your trip report.

We’ll of course credit you fully – whether you’d like to see your full name up in lights…well, not literally…or something a bit more discreet!

Drop us a line at webmaster@visit-croatia.co.uk if you’d like to submit a piece, or have any questions.

Thank you for reading, and thank you if you’re considering sending in a report!

Note: The only thing that we ask is that your submission please be at least 200 words in length. Of course, we very much welcome reports longer than that! 

Say hello to the Edinburgh Scouts completing the Explorer Belt Challenge in Croatia!

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We were recently contacted by Craig from the Edinburgh Scouts, who is part of a group currently undertaking the Explorer Belt Challenge in Croatia.

The Explorer Belt is a Scouts challenge that involves travelling through a country for ten days while also completing different tasks along the way to get the know the country better. Craig and his group chose Croatia for their adventure, which means they’ve been walking from Zadar to Split. (Wow!)

Scouts Explorer Belt Challenge in Croatia

So far, the challenges they’ve completed in Croatia have been to do with learning more about Croatian culture and the country’s landscape. They’ve walked a mind-boggling 190km so far, including visiting the Biranj and Birnjac hills in Kastela, and Krka National Park. They’ve also had to carry all their kit – weighing 20kg – on their backs and are only allowed to spend 80 Kunas each a day.

Scouts Explorer Belt Challenge in Croatia

Craig’s group have also been eating and learning about local produce so have spent some time at a local vineyard, as well as at an olive oil producer. Other challenges they’ve undertaken have included a beach clean (no doubt a great help to Croatia!), as well as meeting with local fireman to discuss their jobs, and learn more about the problems they face with forest fires. They’ve also conversed with as many Croats as possible to help with their research on how tourism has affected the coastal area of Croatia.

You can see photos of some of their adventures in this post.

Scouts Explorer Belt Challenge in Croatia

We’re sending a big hello to Craig and his group companion Alice, and wish them all the very best on their challenge!

UberBOAT now available in Croatia for transfers & day tours

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You’ve probably used Uber in your home city or when travelling abroad – and in fact it’s also available in several Croatian towns and cities. But what do you do when you want a private transfer on the Adriatic Sea?

Easy – Uber + boat = UberBOAT!

uberBOAT sailing

UberBOAT is a service that’s available in Split, Dubrovnik and the island of Hvar, and can be utilised with the existing Uber app. With UberBOAT you can transfer to a destination and back, for a half-day or full-day trip that you can plan out yourself. That means that you can easily visit some of the local islands that you may otherwise find tricky to reach – especially useful if you only have a short amount of time for exploring.

Private Tours with UberBOAT

For example, from Split you could visit all the delights of the islands of Hvar, Solta, Vis, Bisevo (and the famous Blue Cave), and Brac, including the popular town of Bol with its famous Zlatni Rat beach.

From Dubrovnik you may be thinking of visiting the tranquil Elafiti islands, the lush island of Mljet, Korcula or perhaps even off-the-beaten track Lastovo.

The captain of an UberBoat stays with the passengers for as long as they want. That means there’s plenty of time to visit the islands, do a bit of sightseeing, the sampling of local cuisine and even a bit of time to buy some island souvenirs.

uberBOAT captain

UberBoat fares depend on boat size, mileage and duration of the trip. An eight-passenger speedboat starts at 330 Kunas, with each additional kilometre costing 29 Kunas and each minute costing 2.60 Kunas. A larger boat costs from 660 Kunas and 36 Kunas per kilometer and 3.30 Kunas per minute.

uberBOAT dropoff

Private transfers with UberBOAT

UberBOAT also offer a simple and fast transfer to a destination and back. For example, a transfer from Split to Hvar costs 2,600 Kunas for an eight-person speedboat, or 3,300 Kunas for a 12-person speedboat (UberBoat XL). Split to Bol costs 2,100 Kunas (2,800 for UberBoat XL), Dubrovnik to Mljet is 3,820 Kunas (4,600 Kunas for UberBoat XL), whilst Dubrovnik to Korcula is 5,000 Kunas (6,000 Kunas for UberBoat XL).

UberBOAT app

All Uber captains have valid licenses and are exceedingly familiar with the Croatian coastline, so any trip is very safe as well as lots of fun!

To get a feel for the service, check out this video on travelling in style:

More on UberBOAT

For more details, check out www.uber.com/hr/en/u/uberboat/. But if you need a boat, simply open up the Uber app and get tapping to ‘hail’ a boat!

MTV SummerBlast Festival back in Porec…with Will Smith!

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With the summer festival season in Croatia in full swing at the moment, here’s news of a fantastic end-of-season festival taking place in the pretty Istrian town of Porec. The MTV SummerBlast Festival will be held there on the 25th and 26th August 2017 with an amazing line-up – featuring none other than all-round international superstar Will Smith, alongside his long-standing musical partner-in-crime DJ Jazzy Jeff.

MTV SummerBlast

But there’s an even more amazing line-up besides these top two names! Top DJs and artists such as Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Oliver Heldens, Galantis, Jonas Blue, Duke Dumont, Tinie Tempah, Mike Perry, Far East Movement and R3wire & Varski will all also be appearing at MTV Summerblast!

MTV SummerBlast - Fedde Le Grande

MTV SummerBlast is visiting Porec for the second year in 2017, and this amazing line-up is sure to entice many of you to this beautiful part of the Croatian coast for a farewell to summer!

MTV SummerBlast

Tickets for MTV SummerBlast

Both 1-day and 2-day tickets are available. A 2-day ticket costs €67, whilst a 1-day ticket (for either the Saturday or the Sunday) costs €35.

VIP tickets are also available, priced at €150 for two days, or €100 for a 1-day ticket.

Tickets can be purchased on the official website: www.mtvsummerblast.com/en/tickets.

MTV SummerBlast

Travel and Accommodation for MTV SummerBlast

Travel packages are available which include accommodation as well as entry to the festival. Alternatively, you can also book official festival accommodation separately to your ticket. Full details are on the festival website’s travel section: www.mtvsummerblast.com/en/travel.

Porec has a wide variety of all types of accommodation otherwise – check out our Accommodation in Porec page for more.

MTV SummerBlast

The nearest airport to Porec and MTV SummerBlast is Pula Airport. Full details of which airlines fly there from the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe is on our Getting to Istria page. Slightly further away is Rijeka Airport, which also sees a number of flights from all over Europe – see our Getting to the Kvarner Riviera page for details of these.

Trieste Airport in Italy is also a suitable place to fly to to reach Porec and Istria. We have plenty of information on Travelling from Trieste to Croatia which details bus routes over to Porec.

More information

For more info visit the official web page www.mtvsummerblast.com, Facebook page and festival Instagram.

Video: Exploring Dubrovnik by Khurum Khan

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We were contacted by award-winning filmmaker and photographer Khurum Khan, who recently visited Dubrovnik to film a truly wonderful video of the city. Titled ‘Exploring Dubrovnik’, it really captures the beauty and magic of Dubrovnik, featuring many of the city’s highlights – in particular the Old Town, the nearby island of Lokrum, and Mount Srd. The video also features some absolutely stunning aerial shots, which always provide an amazing viewpoint of the city!

‘Exploring Dubrovnik’ is well worth a watch – take a look at it below:

Khurum Khan is a London based award winning filmmaker who specialises in creating cinematic videos and portrait, lifestyle and travel photography. His short film ‘Musafir’ was nominated as Best UK film at the prestigious Raindance film festival in 2012, which is a Bafta recognised festival.

Over the years Khurum has travelled around the world shooting documentaries. His most notable one being ‘Road to Indus Valley’, were he travelled through 13 countries from England to Pakistan. The documentary featured on Sky TV. Currently he’s shooting travel videos of his journey and hoping to inspire young filmmakers.

You can see more of Khurum’s wonderful work on his YouTube channel, on Facebook and on Instagram. More details about Khurum and his work can also be found on this website www.khurumakhan.com.

A weekend break in Croatia - Pula

Pula – Zadar catamaran re-introduced for 2017

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Details of the popular Pula – Zadar catamaran route – which ceased to operate a few years ago – have finally been announced for summer 2017, just a few weeks ahead of the route actually starting!

Now run by Croatia’s main ferry operator Jadrolinija, this catamaran will start running on 3rd June 2017, and will in fact be run as a year-round service. (With a greater frequency of sailings during the peak summer months, and far less – in fact, just once a week – in off season.)

The full route also takes in the islands of Unije, Susak, Mali Losinj, Ilovik and Silba en route.

Pula - Zadar catamaran

In June and September, the catamaran will sail twice-weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The catamaran will depart Pula at 7am, and arrive in Zadar at 1.15pm. For the return journey, the catamaran departs Zadar at 4pm, reaching Pula at 10.15pm.

During the peak months of July and August, the catamaran will operate five times a week (every day except Tuesdays and Thursdays). Again, the catamaran will depart Pula at 7am, reaching Zadar at 1.15pm, or 1.05pm on the days it does not make a stop on Ilovik. For the return journey, the catamaran sets sail from Zadar at 5pm (4pm on Fridays), arriving in Pula at 11.05pm/11.15pm (10.05pm on Fridays).

In off-season (early October onwards), the catamaran will only operate on Fridays.

The full timetable – including the times at which the catamaran calls at the islands – can be found on Jadrolinija’s website.

Tickets for the Pula – Zadar catamaran

Tickets can be booked online on Jadrolinija‘s website. A one-way ticket from Pula to Zadar (or reverse) costs 200 Kunas in high season (June to September inclusive). In low season, a one-way ticket costs 160 Kunas.

Prices for any of the other legs of the journey e.g. Pula – Mali Losinj, Zadar – Ilovik and so on, can be found on the above website.

Getting to Zadar - Ferry

Istria and Dalmatia are connected by sea!

This catamaran is certainly one that has been missing for many travellers in recent years, judging by the feedback we’ve had. We are sure many will welcome its return.

There are hardly any (actually, none!) ferry or catamaran routes from Istria to other parts of Croatia. That means this catamaran will be very handy for those in this part of the country.

In fact, there are currently hardly any sailings from the north Croatian coast to areas further south/Dalmatia. This Pula – Zadar catamaran is therefore a great way of connecting the north and south parts of the Croatian coastline.

Alternatives to the Pula – Zadar catamaran

One route that does exist connecting the north and south (ish!) parts of the coastline is the Rijeka – Rab – Novalja (on the island of Pag) catamaran. Also run by Jadrolinija, this sails daily year-round. Full timetable can be found on the Jadrolinija website.

There are frequent bus connections from Novalja/Pag to Zadar, so you can still reach this town by utilising this route.

There are also daily, year-round flights connecting Pula and Zadar. Operated by Croatia Airlines, this is the most suitable option if you need to travel quickly – flight time is only 40 minutes! (Although you obviously do need to factor in getting to and from each airport.)

Other useful travel information

The following sections may also be helpful to you: