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Croatia

Finding cheap hotels in Croatia just got easier

hotel croatiaRecently I’ve been confronted with having to look for cheap hotels in Croatia and the entire process proved to be time consuming and rather frustrating. But not anymore! We are proud to announce a brand new hotel search function on this site which allows you to get results from multiple travel-booking sites all at once. Finding cheap hotels in Croatia will sure be much easier from now on.

Once you get to the page, select the city you want to stay in and then you’ll have two options. There is a complete list with the hotels available in that area or you can input your travel details and then search multiple travel sites at the same time. Doing that enables you to quickly find hotels which have available rooms when you want to visit and to compare prices at a glance. This means you will be able to take your decision easier and faster.

Check out the new Croatia hotels section and you’ll easily see that the system is a very big help if you want to be sure you are getting the best price for the hotel of your choice.

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Articles Croatia

Random Croatia Photo of the Moment

Here’s a random photo from our Istria page of our Croatia photos page.

A glimpse of nature at Motovun castle.

Motovun castle

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Croatia Featured Articles

Brjuni Beach

peacock_feathers_plumage_278116_m.jpgThere are two distinct stories of Brijuni Beach. The first is of a fairy tale secluded romantic getaway for lovers that brings two people closer together walking hand in hand on the soft sand as the sun sets and waves flirt with toes and the sounds of silence accentuate the conversation. Brijuni is often voted Croatia’s most romantic beach and sometimes one of the top beaches for couples in Europe.

The second story of Brijuni Beach is that of a circus or a zoo. Marshal Tito considered Brijuni his personal playground and now the island runs wild with the offspring of the many and varied types of wildlife that he brought to the island as amusement for the aristocracy that he hosted and entertained.

Zebras, horses, peacocks ostriches and other animals populate the island and because of the diverse wildlife, the island has been slower to be settled and developed than other islands in Croatia.

Staying on Brijuni is more difficult than on some of the more popular islands. Tours are often sold in conjunction with accommodations, so if you don’t have a hotel room booked on the island it can be difficult to get out to the zoological wonderland.

This may be part of what makes Brijuni so romantic. Because getting there is so difficult, you’ll often find your parties limited to just you two and a forest full of unnatural wildlife.

Although the island is located just off the coast of the Istrian Peninsula, getting to Brijuni can be tricky. The best way to get to the island is to book transportation through your hotel. This will require an overnight stay, but you cannot do Brijuni justice in one day or less. Once you’re on Brijuni, be sure to get to the Roman ruins on the west side. There are several tours that go through here on their way around the island.

Brijuni is tough to see on a budget but it can be done. The hotels and resorts are three, four and five star hotels with prices to match. Luckily each one is right on the water and worth every penny that you sink into the trip.

The best of these hotels is the Istra Neptun, which provides you with activities and things to do on your trip like cycling and wine tasting. The Istra Neptun runs at 123 Euros a night but offers comparable service with a five star resort at that price which is significantly less than what you would pay for a comparable hotel in Dubrovnik or on one of the islands.

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Articles Croatia

Random Croatia Photo of the Moment

Here’s a random photo from our Plitvice Lakes page of our Croatia photos page.

Frog on the lake

Categories
Articles Croatia

Random Croatia Photo of the Moment

Here’s a random photo from our Istria page of our Croatia photos page.

Courtyard istria

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Los Angeles Things to Do

Walt Disney Concert Hall

la-disney-hall.jpgThe most striking thing about Walt Disney Concert Hall is the architecture. The curving metal faces of the structure seem to peek around corners and stare down streets. You catch glimpses of the concert hall from odd angles through the buildings of the city and your view of the structure sticks in your mind. Light plays tricks, casts odd shadows and certain angles seem to gleam prominently while others are cast in shadows.

The concert hall is certainly a sight to behold.

It is also a fine place to catch a show or symphony concert. The Los Angeles Philharmonic plays concerts eight times a week, two concerts a day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The LA Philharmonic is one of the top classical music organizations in the world and brings in some of the best guest talent to perform alongside it throughout the year.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall is a relatively new addition to the downtown area. A gift from the Disney family for a new concert hall in 1987 accumulated interest and generated other donors who put up the rest of the money for the concert hall. The county of Los Angeles provided the land and funded the construction of the parking garage. The building sits alongside the other performance halls in downtown, but was only completed in 2003. This is the LA Philharmonic’s 4th year in the building.

The hall is also used for other events. Concerts, TV show tapings like American Idol and the occasional charity event are held in the Disney Concert Hall.

Friday afternoon LA Philharmonic shows are the “casual Friday” shows where orchestra members and conductor Leonard Slatkin dress in casual clothes instead of the requisite tuxedo or formal wear as is the norm at symphony concerts.

Tickets to the LA Philharmonic or other events at the Walt Disney Concert Hall are available at the hall’s website. There are available payment plans and group discounts, as well as free shows every few months for special events.

Location

The Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Public parking at the hall is available underneath the structure and is accessible on Second Street, or across from the concert hall on Grand Avenue. Valet parking is available at the front of the building on Hope Street.

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Featured Articles Sweden Things to Do

Top Ten Museums in Stockholm

There are more than 100 museums in Stockholm to choose from, but here is a selection. See websites for admission and opening hours.

1. The Vasa Museum (Djurgården) – The world’s only intact 17th century ship, the Vasa, which sank on her maiden voyage in Stockholm’s habor in 1628.

2. Moderna Museet (Skeppsholmen) – Contemporary art from 1900, and photography from the 1840s. The permanent collection includes works by artists such as Duchamp, Picasso, Dalí and Matisse.

3. The National Museum (Blasieholmshamnen, next to the Grand Hotel) – The national gallery and Sweden’s largest art museum. More than 16,000 paintings and sculptures and an extensive collection of applied art, design and industrial design dating back to the 14th century.

4. The Nordic Heritage Museum – Swedish and Scandinavian cultural history.

5. Stockholm City Museum – History and development of the Swedish capital. Free admission.

6. Skansen (Djurgården) – Open air museum with historical buildings, a zoo and an aquarium. Open year round.

7. Ethnographic Museum (Djurgården). Rotating exhibitions on various world cultures.

8. Junibacken (Djurgården). The kids will love this real-life rendition of Astrid Lindgren’s stories. Meet Pippi Longstocking and the rest of the gang.

9. Nobel Museum (Gamla Stan). Located in the old Stock Exchange building in Stortorget, the big square in the Old Town. Learn all about the great minds who have won the prestigious Nobel Prize awarded in Stockholm every December.

10. Abba Museum. It’s not opening until June 2009, but tickets have already gone on sale to see this tribute to the most famous Swedish pop stars of all time.

Photo by: AbhijeetVardhan

Categories
Articles Croatia

Random Croatia Photo of the Moment

Here’s a random photo from our Boats and Beaches page of our Croatia photos page.

Waiting for the ferry

Categories
Articles Croatia

Random Croatia Photo of the Moment

Here’s a random photo from our Plitvice Lakes page of our Croatia photos page.

Duck on the lake , Plitvice

Categories
Croatia

Croatia’s Dingac Wine

grape_leaf_purple_281086_m.jpgThe Dingac wine region near Dubrovnik is one of the smallest and most unique producers of red wines in the Mediterranean latitudes. It also produces some of the best wine in Europe.

The key to the Dingac wine, like all wine, is the crop of grapes. The key grapes in this case are known as the Plavac Mali grapes, which grow on the south side of a restricted peninsula in southern Dalmatia known as the Peljesac peninsula. The tiny 2 km patch that house the grapes is called the Dingac region.

The grapes grow in such a specific location, that families tending the grapes could not transplant them to the other side of a short hill and instead spent their time walking up and down the mountains each day to tend the grapes or riding donkeys with their tools.

Because of this, in the 1970’s the wine growing families pooled their money and constructed a tunnel through the mountain running about a half a kilometer in length so that they could go to work on their crop of grapes without having to go up and over the entire hill. Only workers with the Dingac grapes tend their plants after traversing through a tunnel each day to get to the plants and Dingac has enjoyed some extra notoriety because of this.

Dingac wines are a part of Croatian culture. Most oenophiles and food critics recognize Dingac and could tell you where it came from. Perhaps because of that, Dingac is protected under the international Geneva Convention, perhaps the only wine protected under a treaty in Europe. The wine itself is noted for its dark red color and distinguished aroma. The wine is credited with a full and harmonious taste, that errs toward being slightly sweet as it goes down.

Dingac wine is exclusively red wine and the Plavac Mali grapes are so sensitive that tiny changes like the angle of the sun and the position of the hill change the way that the grapes taste. These positions and angles have been refined in the Dingac region for the last 470 years at least, but the tradition of winemaking in the area goes back even farther than that, to the very first people to inhabit the peninsula.