Around Croatia

We spent two weeks in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia, July 5-18, 2006, on the motorcoach tour “Crossroads of Cultures & Contrasts” with Brendan Worldwide Vacations (21625 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311-5833; 800/421-8446, www.brendanvacations.com). The cost was $1,623 per person, land only.

We had a wonderful time. We started in Sarajevo, which is pretty, safe and reasonably priced. Then we drove to the Adriatic coast and down to Dubrovnik, which is unbelievable. You feel as though you have been transported back in time. We continued up the coast through Slovenia, and the tour ended in Zagreb, Croatia. It was excellent in every respect, but the real high point of our vacation came next.

We had wanted to spend a few more days in Croatia, but we couldn’t find a suitable tour to add on to the Brendan tour, so we had arranged a 2-day private tour with Atlas Airtours (d.o.o. Heinzelova 62a, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; phone +385 1/6102 000, fax 6102 018 or visit www.atlasairtours.hr). The tour would normally be three days including a tour of Zagreb, but we deleted the city tour.

It cost $1,112 for the two of us, which was not a great deal more than if we had rented a car and driven ourselves. The price included not only the tour but the 4-star Sheraton Hotel for two nights, breakfast at the hotel each morning, a wonderful 2-hour lunch each day and transfer to the airport.

Our guide was Kristina Mueronja and our driver was Mario Martinovic. Mario is usually Atlas’ incoming department manager, but they do not normally do individual tours, and he didn’t think it would be safe for one driver-guide to talk, navigate the winding hilly roads and drive all at the same time.

We went to many of the sites shown on the tourist map of Croatia that are located north of Zagreb along the border with Slovenia and Hungary. This beautiful area, called Hrvatsko Zagorje, is filled with castles, historic towns, churches and museums. Atlas had arranged for English-speaking local guides in many of the sites, and in every case we were the only people in the group. In one place we didn’t arrive until after 6 p.m., and we still had a local guide.

Everywhere we went, we seemed to be the only foreign tourists, and in one or two cases we were the only tourists. Everywhere we went, we were treated like old friends coming for a visit. It couldn’t have been nicer.

I would encourage anyone to see this beautiful and little-visited section of Croatia, and our experience with Atlas was excellent.

DAVE SMITH
Irvine, CA