Croatia

Croatia stretches 1,777 km along the Adriatic (5,835 km counting the islands), from continental Istria in the north — a heart-shaped peninsula extending Italy in spirit, with its white truffles, hilltop stone villages and malvasia vineyards — to the southern Dalmatian coast and Dubrovnik, the UNESCO-walled "Pearl of the Adriatic". Between them, 1,244 islands, islets and reefs scatter the Adriatic Sea: Hvar and its lavender fields, medieval Korčula, Brač and its white stone quarries, authentic Vis, Mljet and its national park, the Elafiti Islands and the Kornati archipelago — a sailing labyrinth unmatched in the Mediterranean.

Inland, Croatia delivers landscapes of a different order: the cascading turquoise lakes of Plitvice (UNESCO since 1979), the Cetina canyon, the natural parks of Krka and Paklenica, the karst plateaus of Lika and the green Mura Valley. The inland capital Zagreb keeps a Mitteleuropean atmosphere inherited from the Austro-Hungarian Empire — coffee houses, open-air markets, original museums like the Museum of Broken Relationships.

Independent since 1991 after a painful war (1991-1995), an EU member since 2013, and part of Schengen and the eurozone since 2023, Croatia has accomplished a spectacular transformation in three decades. It now ranks among Europe's fastest-growing tourist destinations — with the challenges that entails: Dubrovnik overrun (up to 10,000 visitors per day in July-August for 1,200 inner-city residents), prices rocketing on Hvar and Korčula. The country more than ever deserves a visit in May-June or September, and rewards travellers who venture beyond the Dubrovnik–Hvar–Split trio to lesser-known islands like Vis, Lastovo, Cres and Lošinj.