Croatia Online - Highlights of 2007

A very happy and prosperous New Year to all our readers. Below are the highlights of 2007 on Croatia Online.


Croatia Cruising Companion - Dalmatian Coast and Islands
This was our biggest milestone of 2007, a book we'd been working on almost since we arrived in Croatia and one that demanded an intimate and up to date knowledge of the Dalmatian Coastline and Islands, and all things nautical. It's difficult not to get emotionally attached to this kind of project and easy to be critical of the finished product but, in fact, we're delighted with the results and our publishers have done us proud on the quality and finish of the end product. If you want to know more about the insiders' guide to cruising the Dalmatian Coast and islands, visit our sister blog
http://www.croatiacruisingcompanion.blogspot.com/

Travel News - Flights to Split and Zadar
Easyjet are introducing a new route from Bristol to Split but both Wizzair and BA seem to have stopped their scheduled flights to Split. BA say that they are concentrating on Dubrovnik this year. We believe Ryanair will be returning to Zadar in the spring after suspending winter flights in their first year of operating the Zadar route.

Politics
The elections in early November did not result in a clear majority for the leader of the party with the most seats, Ivo Sanader, so he is still in the process of trying to form an effective coalition government. Go to our earlier posting http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/11/croatia-on-line-elections-in-croatia.html for a more detailed report.

NATO In Croatia
Croatia was proud to host a NATO exercise earlier this year and there was much activity near us in Kaštela bay. Full details in our earlier posting http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/09/croatia-online-nato-in-croatia.html

Eating Out In The Split Area
The traditional Dalmatian fare of plain grilled fish and meat is great but it's good to have a change sometimes. 2007 was the year that Trogir got its first Chinese restaurant, a new macrobiotic restaurant came to Split and the Croatian Language School introduced a Croatian culinary course to complement the language courses in its summer schools in Losinj and Poreč.
For more information check out the following postings:
http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/11/croatia-online-new-chinese-restaurant.html
http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/11/croatia-online-vegetarians-now-very.html
http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/11/croatia-online-learning-croatian.html

Dalmatian Islands Ranked In Worlds Top Ten Island Destinations
US Magazine Travel and Leisure ranked the Dalmatian Islands in the Top Ten for the first time this year - for a full report go to http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/08/croatia-online-dalmatian-islands-in-top.html

Croatia Online Records 20,000 Hits
We reached 20,000 hits in August 2007 and on our second birthday coming up this month we should be approaching 30,000. More information on this on http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/08/croatia-online-20000-hits-celebration.html

Croatia Cost of Living Update
See http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/07/our-earlier-posting-on-cost-of-living.html for a report on what to expect compared with an earlier report in 2006. Re reading this posting it's already out of date as the cost of petrol has crept up so we'll be updating prices early in 2008.

Destinations
We revisted a number of destinations this year. Below are links to just a few:
Dugi Rat - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/07/dugi-rat-between-split-and-omi-has.html
Krka Waterfalls and surrounding area - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/06/croatia-online-krka-waterfalls-and.html
Vis - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/05/croatia-online-vis-revisited.html
Inland Croatia - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/07/croatia-online-inland-croatia.html
Krapanj Island, near Šibenik - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/10/croatia-online-hotel-spongiola-on.html
Trogir - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/03/croatia-online-trogir.html
Zadar and Šibenik - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/02/croatia-online-destination-news_25.html

Business
We reported on a number of key business areas, highlights as below:
Index of Economic Freedom - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/02/croatia-online-business-environment.html
Nautical Tourism - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/03/croatia-online-nautical-tourism.html
Croatian Business Environment - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/02/croatia-online-business.html

Entertainment
Split has a new multiplex cinema - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/11/croatia-online-film-lovers-in-dalmatia.html
The sound of Mandolins! - http://croatiaonline.blogspot.com/2007/03/croatia-online-music-with-difference.html

Review our postings for a wide range of other topics including snakes in Croatia, a visit from the Royal Navy's HMS Cornwall, Split's new Riva (now being revamped again after public protest about several aspects of the first makeover), tourism news and much, much more.
You can look forward to a similar wide variety of postings in 2008 and we hope you will add to the content with your comments and suggestions which are always very gratefully received. We've made a lot of new friends on this site and we hope that will continue in 2008.