Category: Croatia

Risnjak National park is a hilly, wooded park of forests and mountains, much like the interior of Croatia and the Balkan region. Mountains define the inland area of Croatia as it stretches in toward Bosnia and Risnjak Park is one of the most popular places to enjoy those mountains.

Risnjak became a national park in 1953 on the strength and popularity of its hiking trails, mountain climbing and diversity of forest wildlife. Brown bears, wolves, wild boars, wild cats and deer can be found in the park, as well as the Ris, a lynx-like cat whose presence in the park earned Risnjak its name.

There are several common sense rules to abide by in the park, all aimed at preserving the rich natural beauty of the mountain. Simply staying on the paths and hiking trails and leaving nature, in nature makes it easy to abide by all of them.

Risnjak Park also has an interesting geologic history. The park’s rocks are mostly limestone and dolomite with “karst” features add dynamic rock constructions to the mostly mundane rocks throughout the rest of Croatia. Outcroppings, sinkholes, tunnels and caves are all part of the geology of Risnjak and spelunking or “cave diving” is a popular recreation option as well.

The most famous caves in Risnjak is the Lokvarska cave, a 1000 meter long cave descending 140 m down through stalactites and stalagmites, but there are several others. The caves are technically outside of the park’s boundaries, but are near enough that they are worth seeing on the same trip.

If interested in other nearby attractions, the source of the river Kupa is nearby as well. A half-hour’s walk from the village of Razloge, the 50 m wide blue pool is a striking emerald color and consists of two separate channels each running deep, deep deep below the surface of the water. If you bring your fishing pole to the pool, you can try to hook both brown trout and grayling.

Getting to Risnjak is an easy task. From Zagreb, drive an hour southwest toward the Istria peninsula on the A-1 highway and take it to the Rijeka to Zagreb highway. The park is about 15 kilometers from the highway and you’ll need to buy tickets for your visit at the entrance to the park.

During the Croatian War of Independence, nearly two million land mines were laid down in the countryside by both sides in an effort to shore up their territory. Armies used land mines extensively throughout the former Yugoslavia during the 1990’s to compensate for their lack of infantry. With land mines placed along undefended front lines, fewer men were needed to defend and control territory. That tactic, however, left Croatia with one of the worst mine problems in Europe.

Mines are no longer much of a problem today. There has not been an injury caused by a mine in over a year. Although they do limit the places you can explore on their own, most mined areas have been identified and blockaded from tourists. Meanwhile, a massive education program with signs marking dangerous areas has led to a sharp drop in injuries and casualties over the last several years. The proliferation of signs has caused a bit of a struggle between the Croatian Mine Action Center and Zdenko Mcic, the Croatian minister of tourism, ensues over where to place the 13,000 signs warning of mines. Mcic would like the signs limited to only the places in which mines are present because the signs hurt Croatia’s image, but the program’s success is hard to argue with. Mines killed 101 people from 1998-2006, but there has not been a casualty caused by a mine in Croatia since April 2006.

The blogs were abuzz last summer when RyanAir, the Irish no-frills, low-fare airline announced service to Istria from London’s Stansted Airport. This would not only allow travelers to get from the U.K. into northern Croatia for next to nothing, but it would also provide a link for Croatian businesses to establish relationships with London clients.

Recently however, RyanAir announced that it will be withdrawing its flights connecting Croatia with London at the end of October, and in fact canceling all flights out of Stansted Airport because of an increase in the travel tarif from 6 to 11 British pounds. Controversy comes with the fact that RyanAir received half a million pounds for five years of their flights and under the terms of the contract are not required to return any of it, despite only completing one year of the contract.

RyanAir’s year round flights to Pula three times a week was expected to extend the tourist season and bring in more money to Croatia’s economy. Losing flights like this would really pull the rug out from under Istria’s tourism industry, except that RyanAir’s typical clientele lack the purchasing power to drive any real upswing in the economy. Not only that, but the tourism infrastructure of Pula and Zadar are not equipped to host any more travelers than they already receive.

Most airlines serve Croatia during the high-traffic summer months and then send their fleet elsewhere sometime in the fall. Airlines experience 80-90% occupancy during the April through October busy season; winter brings about 70% occupancy to the flights.

RyanAir will be transferring its fleet to compete in the high-profit Spain market with British Airline Easy Jet.

The very hurt-sounding Nacional magazine has the full-story on RyanAir’s break-up with Croatia.