Tour of Croatia & Slovenia 2026-27

Croatia, “a small country for a great holiday”.

This country, one of the youngest in the world, has had a rather troubled history. Shaken over the last 20 years both by the implosion of the former Yugoslavia and by the collapse of communism, in the early 1990s it was also torn apart by a civil war, becoming known only as a war zone. The war, which ended in 1995, was followed by reconstruction and by the effort to bring tourism back after more than 20 years. In recent years, however, tourists have begun to return, above all to the seaside resorts of the coast. Croatia covers an area of 56,538 sq km; it is not a very large country, but it has a splendid coastline and a forested hinterland where nature is still unspoilt. Croatian culture shows Latin influences in the coastal regions and Central European influences inland. Along the Adriatic coast you can admire the remains of palaces, amphitheatres and temples from the Roman era, as well as villages and fortresses built during the centuries of Venetian rule. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, meanwhile, left its mark on the architecture of the interior, particularly in the baroque towns that sprang up between the 17th and 18th centuries.

The ancient walls of Zadar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The defensive walls of Zadar have recently been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Zadar’s fortifications date from the 15th and 16th centuries and were built by the Venetians to defend the port from raids by the Ottoman navy. After conquering the city in 1409, the Serenissima made Zadar the capital of its Dalmatian dominions and controlled it for almost 400 years, until the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797). However, after the bombing of the Second World War and that caused by the Serbo-Croatian conflict of the 1990s, only some sections of the walls are visible today, among them the famous Land Gate, the monumental entrance to the city designed in 1543 by Michele Sanmicheli, which still serves this purpose. In Šibenik, it is the Fortress of St Nicholas that is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Another jewel of Venetian military architecture, the fortress was built between 1540 and 1547 by Gian Girolamo Sanmicheli. Located at the entrance to St Anthony’s Channel, west of the city, the Renaissance fort occupies the whole of the islet of Ljuljevac with its triangular shape.

Plitvice Lakes National Park, a natural paradise, lies halfway between Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and Zadar in Dalmatia, and is made up of 16 lakes fed by the Bijela Rijeka and Crna Rijeka (White River and Black River) and by underground springs, linked to one another by a series of waterfalls that flow into the River Korana. In 1979 the lakes were proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site and can be visited thanks to a well-marked network of paths and 18 km of wooden walkways that lend the water-level route a unique charm. Plitvice Park is divided into two parts: the upper part, whose lakes lie in a dolomite valley surrounded by forests and are linked by spectacular waterfalls, and the lower part, where smaller lakes and lower vegetation can be seen. Many animal species live within the Park, including bears, wolves, wild boar, foxes and badgers, as well as various species of birds. Besides the wooden walkways, electric boats, rowing boats and a little train are available for getting around inside the park.