27 Unusual Things to Do and See in Croatia

The sinking of elegant passenger ship the Baron Gautsch during World War I has error-ridden echoes of the Titanic disaster two years before. Carrying refugees, holidaymakers and military personnel, it was making one last journey from Kotor, Montenegro back to port in Trieste. While the captain slept and the first officer dined, an inexperienced understudy ignored warnings and sailed into a minefield laid by fellow Austro-Hungarian forces. Fatalities numbered 147. The wreck lies some 40 metres down off the Brijuni Islands, a popular site for experienced divers at clubs in Pula and Poreč.

A small and sparsely populated island close to Vis, Biševo contains one of Croatia’s most striking and unusual natural wonders. In the summer, it attracts daily boat trips, particularly from the nearby resort of Komiža. Accessible only by sea, the Blue Cave of Biševo is a limestone grotto with an underwater opening that lets in the sun’s light as noon approaches. The effect lasts for two hours, with beams shooting through the water to bathe the cave in an azure light. Visitors plunge into the waters for the full experience. Tours usually involve a picnic lunch at a nearby beach.

Once the private Xanadu of post-war national leader Tito, the Brijuni Islands hold a strange fascination. An archipelago off Fažana, near Pula where excursions can be arranged, Brijuni is a national park of 14 islands. The largest, Veliki Brijuni, contains rare treasures such as dinosaur footprints, Roman and Byzantine ruins and Europe’s first golf course. The Habsburgs also created exotic botanical gardens. Tito later set up his own safari park, filled with elephants and zebras provided as gifts by national leaders who visited him here. Some still survive, the rest are stuffed and displayed in a nearby museum.

One of the strangest attractions to open in Croatia’s capital of Zagreb, the Grič tunnel sits under the fortifications of the Upper Town. Above, a cannon blast famously signals high noon. Below, a 350-metre-long tunnel was created to serve as an air-raid shelter during World War II. By the time it was ready, the Allies were no longer bombing Croatia. Abandoned, the tunnel became a meeting place until being assailed by DJs and ravers in the early 1990s. Recently renovated, it now stages fashion shows and exhibitions, and will soon host a Museum of the Senses.

The idyllic island of Mljet in the far south of Dalmatia is home to more than 1,000 souls and a national park. Running wild is an unknown number of mongooses, introduced from Asia a century or more ago to rid the island of poisonous snakes. While they succeeded, their population exploded and these venom-protected mammals then went after most of Mljet’s birdlife. Any exploration of Mljet today, along its single thoroughfare that cuts through the island, is bound to feature a guest appearance by this creature of Jungle Book legend, scampering across or alongside the road.

What started as an art installation is now one of Zagreb’s most unlikely tourist attractions. The Museum of Broken Relationships explores that most puzzling of experiences, the end of a romantic affair. Conceived by artist Dražen Grubišić and producer Olinka Vištica, themselves a former item, it comprises heartbreaking souvenirs, letters, notes and bizarre knick-knacks left behind after couples split up. Today with a permanent home in the Upper Town and with a sister operation in Los Angeles, the collection is divided into the various stages of break-up trauma, including grief, rage and jealousy.

Before it became a tourist destination, Vis was a military outpost. Its rocky and remote isolation allowed World War II leader Tito to convert one of its many hidden caves into his headquarters. While the conflict raged in the winter of 1943-44, Tito and his partisans plotted up here, planning Hitler’s downfall. Writer Evelyn Waugh met Tito here while on reconnaissance. The site can still be visited, with an organised tour or individually. It is located south-east of Komiža, near Podšpilje (‘Under the Cave’), where steps lead from a bend in the road.

Close to the centre of the main city of northern Dalmatia, Zadar, a bizarre attraction has become part of the urban landscape. Through holes bored into the pavement above a set of steps lapped by the sea, 35 organ pipes emit ethereal tones that hang in the air as you approach. The brainchild of local installation artist Nikola Bašić, the Sea Organ is powered by the strength and pattern of the waves. In similar vein, he later created the nearby ‘Greeting To The Sun’, a circle of glass panels that follows similar rhythms.

Though served by five ferries a day in high season from Split, Šolta is often overlooked for neighbouring Brač. Both are attractive island destinations an hour from Dalmatia’s main transport hub. One is crowded, the other blissfully free of holidaymakers. The choice of unspoiled beaches starts at Rogač where the ferries come in, with a reasonable choice of restaurants and apartments. The rest of the island is given over to the cultivation of wine and olives, with a boutique hotel located on the far western tip at Maslinica.

On Sundays, Croatia’s capital Zagreb empties and locals head out of town. Many make for Samobor, a picture-postcard community close to the Slovenian border, well versed in providing visitors with traditional dishes of veal, game and trout. Samobor is synonymous with cream cake, the celebrated samoborska kremšnita, served in coffeehouses little changed since poets gathered here in the Habsburg days. Today, hikers convene before and after bracing ascents of the nearby wooded slopes.

Uninhabited Badija lies off the coast of Korčula, where Bosnian monks built a monastery in the 1400s. Undisturbed for 500 years, this secluded community was broken up after World War II and in recent years the island was repopulated with deer. The creatures mingle among the pine forests and venture down to the pebble beaches, where naturists relax in tranquil surroundings. Badija is accessible by regular taxi boat from the smaller of Korčula’s harbours.

The Kvarner littoral is usually ignored by today’s foreign visitors, who prefer the island of Krk immediately opposite. Popular with the Habsburgs a century ago, the former Roman settlement of Crikvenica is a case in point. Lined with Blue-Flag beaches, the largest resort on the Vinodol coast offers surfing, diving and sailing, cycling trails and hiking paths. What it doesn’t have is crowds, only day-trippers from Zagreb and returning holidaymakers from the Kvarner region.

Idyllic Mljet, Dalmatia’s most southerly island, has long been a tourist favourite. One-third of Mljet is national park and nearly all of its forest has been long settled by mongooses that scatter across the solitary road running the island’s length. At its far eastern tip is Saplunara, where visitors rarely venture. Those who do find three sandy beaches will discover it is a rarity in Croatia. Naturists prefer the most secluded one, Blace.

One of those things that locals – hikers and cyclists – do on a regular basis, the Parenzana is the name of a rail line that once ran from Trieste to Poreč in Istria, through bucolic countryside. Abandoned before World War II, it lay neglected for decades until being slowly revived and renewed, section by section. Now it provides a route for active recreation, on foot or on two wheels, passing picturesque Motovun, Buje and Grožnjan on the way.

As well as the famous truffles, Istrians also head out to pick mushrooms, a communal activity and an economic way to create several delicious, healthy meals. There’s little glamour involved – you set your alarm early, get up in the dark, and usually it’s raining (or at least damp), but you reach prime spots in the woods first. The uninitiated must have a local in tow – there are plenty of prize porcini mushrooms out there but there are poisonous ones, too. Plus, once you get your haul back home, the local can show you the best way to prepare your catch.