Natural beauty of a recovering Croatia surprises

[Croat]

My wife and I like to travel to different places and are always looking for travel bargains. Croatia was a wonderful trip to a destination that will only become more popular as war memories recede.

We actually traveled through five countries, beginning and ending our trip in Venice, Italy. Except for Italy, the other four countries, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Montenegro, were all part of the former Yugoslavia. While we have wonderful memories from the whole trip, Croatia is a standout.

Crossing the border into Croatia gave insight into the country. The border guards were not looking for illegal people so much as illegal produce. The country bans genetically-engineered food. Clean living permeates society. The countryside is clean, the Adriatic coast is clean, the water is clear and the skies unpolluted.

We started on the Istrian Peninsula, the western side of the Adriatic. Some towns, like Opatija, are relatively new (1870s), built for Venetian tourism. Others, like Pula, are ancient Roman towns. Pula has an oval coliseum that is the third largest and most complete in the world. There is an interesting mix of old and new. Past a Roman gate on the walking street, we saw a ship in the harbor being built for Japan to transport 7,000 automobiles at a time, most likely to the U.S. market.

Before our trip, my image of Croatia was of buildings with red-tiled roofs in walled cities clinging to the mountainous Dalmatian Coast. That describes Dubrovnik. Walking through the city gate is like stepping back in time. Dubrovnik has a long history as a free city, buying its freedom through annual tributes. Its wealth came from salt, a valuable commodity in the Middle Ages. It is ironic that the city walls were never used to defend against invaders until the 1991-92 siege of Dubrovnik during the break up of Yugoslavia. Just outside the wall, a wonderful shop sells handicrafts made by war refugees.

We visited many wonderful walled towns, but the natural beauty of Plitvice Lakes National Park is worth a mention. The park has spectacular waterfalls along a string of terraced lakes formed by calcium-rich deposits. Wooden walkways cross the fast-flowing river barely above the surface, often at the edge of these waterfalls. While visited by more than 750,000 tourists a year, the park road is only open for brief periods between land mine sweeping. Near the border with Bosnia, this was at the front lines of the war.

Created beauty, natural beauty and the stark reality of war — that is Croatia.

Durbin works at Austin Regional Clinic; his wife Donna volunteers at 10,000 Villages.

Planning a group trip with family or friends can have even the most organized among us screaming for the exit. Enter Triphub.com and Evite.com, which make planning big get-togethers a joy — well, almost.

What's hot: It has easy interfaces that enable you to e-mail invitees, confer with them through a trip blog and keep them informed of developments through a home page.

What's not: The lodging reservations are powered through Hotels.com, which offers a lot of chains and large hotels but skips many smaller options. Flights are researched on Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz.

[Croatia hotels]

Visitors from the USA are expected to flock to Croatia in record numbers this summer as a survey by U.S. Tour Operators revealed the country was tied at second for hottest places to visit this year. Only two years ago 200,000 Americans visited the beautiful country bordering the Adriatic Sea, and this year the Croatians are expecting double that number. So, what do the canny Americans know that us Brits don't?

Most obvious are the financial considerations. With the dollar taking a hammering in the international money markets Americans are finding it increasingly expensive, to the point of prohibitive, to visit their traditional European stomping grounds of the Italy, Greece and the French Riviera. Searching for cheaper alternatives has led Americans to Croatia, eager to establish itself as a top European destination. Outstanding quality food and drink at incredible value combined with the clean water, less-than-crowded beaches and friendly, helpful approach of the locals immediately makes the Croatian Tourist slogan of: "The Mediterranean as it once was" ring true. It also helps their ambition to be big on the European tourist map.

Picking up the pieces from the horrendous four-year conflict that saw the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s, Croatia emerged with a spectacular 1,100-mile coast and almost 2,000 islands. Add the imposing and historic city of Dubrovnik to the mix and you already have the basic ingredients for an enticing country. Inland is found one of the country's biggest tourist attractions: Plitvice Lakes National Park. A series of waterfalls joins 16 beautiful turquoise coloured lakes between the Mala Kapela and Pljesevica Mountains. This gorgeous natural attraction, mixed with the coastal hotspots, the friendly locals and the amazing value all make Croatia one of Europe's great undiscovered destinations. It is easy to see why the Americans are flocking here in their hundreds of thousands; it is the antithesis of their crowded, busy and expensive culture.

To make the most of a trip to Croatia, especially those planning on island hopping or travelling up the stunning coast will find that car hire is not essential as the country is well-served by buses and ferries. However, those who prefer to drive, like most things in the country, will find incredibly cheap car hire in Croatia . Most major airlines operate directly to Split which is centrally located on the Adriatic coastline, and also has one of the highest concentration of car rental offices in Croatia.