Naturally, this is a vacation for people with some intelligence. There is no endless food and drink. Although, if someone needs only this, then you can get drunk anywhere, including in Croatia.
I went on excursions in Montenegro. I advise you to go on a sea excursion, and not along a serpentine. Faster, safer. You can see more. I was on a tour of Croatia itself. Also very interesting. Best of all, of course, individual excursions. You can see and understand much more than when you walk in a herd. Traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina. A strong impression of the bridge, which was destroyed and now restored again. Herzegovina gives the impression of an oriental medieval bazaar. Very colorful.
In general, even for my very pretentious taste - the trip is wonderful and the hotel is excellent.
Rest 14 days from July 18-31.2008 In my review I will try to adhere to the following plan: 1. General brief information about Croatia. 2. Grand Park Hotel 4*.
3. Beach, swimming pool. 4. Excursions, leisure. 5. Conclusions.
So. 1. General brief information about Croatia:
Gentlemen who are accustomed to relaxing in club hotels should clearly understand that almost all hotels in Croatia are without territory, that is, for your money you will receive only a hotel room and meals in the hotel restaurant. There is only one beach in Dubrovnik: public, urban, and with paid sunbeds (20 kunas = 2.8 euros) and umbrellas (10 kunas = 1.4 euros) and terribly dirty (I will try to post a photo). The only thing on which Croatia is promoted is nature, but in the same Abkhazia it is much richer! The climate of Croatia is mild, the sea is rather cold. The city of Dubrovnik is a quiet, peaceful place; local mothers calmly let their children go for night walks. The main contingent of tourists: mothers with children, married couples of age.
They say Croats love Russians, nonsense! When they find out that you are Russians, laxity appears, some kind of incomprehensible fun begins, free jokes are made, open discussion and viewing you like in a zoo. In general, talking about the service of Croatia does not turn around, that is, it is not only unobtrusive, it simply does not exist!
2. Grand Park Hotel 4*.
The cost of the tour for 14 days on special. offer (half a day before departure): 1100 euros per person, and basic price: 2500 -3000 euros per person. As mentioned above, for this money you get only a room and meals. No one will ever provide you with any information: you will have to find out everything yourself or stumble by chance, this is not a club, but just a hotel! Of course, there are no animations in the hotel either, in the evenings there is only live music of one single musician and soloist.
For 2 weeks, only 1 time they brought a group of schoolchildren who danced 5 dances, but, again, I note that there was no information in the hotel about this event ....who accidentally turned out to be a passer-by, he brightened up his leisure. In the evenings, all vacationers go to the pedestrian zone (1 min. From the hotel, because it is located in the center of the resort), there is nowhere to walk there, because this "local Arbat" is 500 meters long! (ridicule! ), it remains only to sit in taverns! I'm not talking about hotels outside the city, there is generally melancholy!!
If we talk about the hotel (as a building located within the city), then after the reconstruction in 2008, he added an extra. star and, I think, fully justifies its 4 *. Its location is the best among the nearest hotels in Dubrovnik, a stunning panorama overlooking the sea, everything in the rooms is new and modern. Air conditioners are powerful.
Cleaning without tips is average: towels are changed daily, linen is changed about 1 time in 5 days, garbage is taken out ...but don’t count on more: they won’t touch your bed (make the bedspreads yourself), wet cleaning is done occasionally, maybe for several days and don't vacuum.
The kitchen is of high quality, dishes are European, seafood is 1-2 r. in Week. from fruits only watermelons, melons, plums, apples. Breakfast is always the same. At dinners - more varied, but ALL drinks are PAID (including just water) prices are 30% more expensive than in bars and 4 times higher than in a store! , one joy - b / paid ice cream! But the service in the restaurant is top notch!
3. Beach, swimming pool.
City beach (5-7 minutes from the hotel across a short road past a beer shop! ) - pebbles, when entering the sea - sand and boulders. You can not pay for sunbeds and umbrellas, but lie on your towels, but be prepared for the fact that the beach is not cleaned at all.
After the first imprudent experience of such sunbathing, we had to tear off the chewing gum from the towels and urgently wash it! For 1 sq. a meter of the beach you will find a dozen cigarette butts, ice cream sticks, peach pits, bottle caps, besides, some "highly cultured" foreigners spit, smoke at all whoever wants and whenever they want, and it doesn't matter that around children and people come to breathe fresh sea air! In a word, not a beach, but an ASHTRAY! The density of the bodies is huge, there are 5-6 rows of sunbeds, there is also a practice of “camping” as the gypsies come, apparently locals, for the whole day, they are located 100 meters from the beach in the shade of trees, on concrete or on dirty ground, they turn everything around own household: trunks of linen, food, diapers, folding chairs ...a motor home, in short. And you see it and walk through them!!
The sea is cold, at the entrance - dirty: moss, algae, candy wrappers, sometimes gasoline from boats, what can I say, not pleasant enough ..
but deep down the water is crystal clear!
Swimming pool. The hotel has 2 swimming pools: outdoor and indoor, both with sea water. Open in the heat, by 16 o'clock it is already dying down, the stench is disgusting to come in ...There are only 50 sunbeds for the whole hotel and 20 pieces of non-folding beach chairs, so you had to get up in turn at 6 in the morning (! ) to take normal places. Oh, and be prepared - pool towels are stolen! I have been traveling the world for 8 years already, I have been to different countries, and here I encountered this for the first time! I was shocked, okay b on the beach, by the sea, and then by the pool, on the territory of the hotel ! ! I got to the director of the hotel (as compensation we received a present - 1 hotel towel for 2 stolen ones, what a generosity !! ), who said with confidence that this was the work of the guests, and that the hotel was missing 65 towels every month ...But we are sure that either servants, or crooks, because
, again, the hotel is not responsible for anything, there are no “watchers” by the pool and everyone who is not lazy is dragged there! (the territory is not fenced, there are no bracelets on the hands, they do not ask for passports).
Another point: to the right of the pool behind the fence is a playground, do not expect peace! On the left, the construction of 3 (! ) hotels is in full swing!!
4. Excursions, leisure.
There is almost nothing to see in Croatia, it will only be interesting to visit the “Old Town”, where you must climb the walls (it costs 40 kunas = 6 euros), 2 km long, the walk will take a little more than an hour, the views there are amazing, breathtaking ! ! I heard there were amateurs repeating this detour 8 times!
Of course, the guide will offer 2-3 more excursions around the islands, but all this is nothing ordinary, besides, the Croatians have the norm to combine tourists of different nationalities into one group, so that half the way you will listen to the guide speak in your non-native language ...
When traveling to Montenegro, they didn’t catch much difference with Croatia (after all, it’s not for nothing that they were one country for so many years! ), but you will come across the soulless attitude of the guides! Croats generally make money only on what nature has created, and not on their own labor. During the tour, the main thing for them is to withdraw money from you, put you on a bus, and organize your leisure time yourself: look out the window, at nature, take a picture, what else is there to tell? ! In the city, the guide gives 1 hour: go where your eyes look ...personally, we just sat on a bench ...But the guides ran purposefully and returned with full bags, and to the question of tourists: “what can you see here? ”, received the answer: “there is only one church here, but I never recommend it, because it is closed all the time! ". The people were shocked!
As for shopping, they bring corals and souvenirs from Croatia. There are only 4 small shopping centers in Dubrovnik where you can buy cheap summer shoes for leisure, bags…
5.
findings
In short, young people in Croatia have NOTHING to do, I would even say it is contraindicated, except to spend money in bars (1 dish + beer = 15 euros).
For comparison, for the same money in the same Turkey you will be carried in your arms, and in Italy, Spain plus to the sea you will get a lot of impressions from the sights! As a last resort, go to Montenegro to Budva (there is “movement” !! ). Or better - on a cruise on a liner in Europe, then, for sure, your vacation will be successful and you will be delighted !!
Good luck, good mood and sun for your vacation!
We chose this hotel because it is located in the bay (Lopad) and is surrounded by greenery. The air is very clean, the sea is turquoise as in the picture and also very clean!! ! Lots of greenery and flowers.
The beach is good with small pebbles, but you need special slippers-sneakers so as not to run into sea urchins - this is unlikely, but it's better not to risk it (slippers can be bought near the beach and they do not interfere with swimming at all). The sunbeds on the beach are paid, but we, like many others, lay on towels and sunbathed mostly at the hotel, where the sunbeds are free.
Nearby there is a supermarket where you can buy dairy products, water and other products - they call it Kerum (drinks are 4 times cheaper than in a hotel).
There are many more hotels in this bay - several 3 * hotels (Compass, Splendid and a few more) and one 5 * hotel. From our hotel to the sea it takes about 3-4 minutes to walk through a small road (mostly scooters drive along it, the traffic is not very active, it does not bother you and you don’t hear any noise from the hotel). The rest of the hotels are located on the very shore, in the evening there is a little noisy.
We liked our hotel very much.
1) the rooms are large, spacious, the beds are comfortable, good plumbing, well cleaned
2) we had a room with a balcony on the shady side, a view of the parking lot, but it’s not hot and during the day in the very heat, if we didn’t go on an excursion, we sat on the balcony, listened to music, chatted, etc.
3) the food was very tasty and varied. Our price included breakfast and dinner, for lunch we bought kefir in Kerum (we need to emphasize the second syllable) and took buns, yogurts, fruits from breakfast - to be honest, this is not accepted, but they quietly put it in a bag, we were not never stopped and said nothing. Drinks at dinner for a fee.
4) another plus - you can drink tap water without fear - the guide told us so and we checked on ourselves - we poured tap water and drank every day - everything is in order and good savings
5) the staff is very polite and, speaking slowly and clearly, understands Russian quite well
6) the hotel has 2 pools - 1 outdoor and 1 indoor - it is forbidden to jump from the side and foreigners (mostly Germans make comments), but there is no one in the indoor pool and you can jump as much as you like : )
7) there is table tennis - free of charge - we played almost every day
We went on several excursions
1) to Dubrovnik on a public bus - walked around the city - it is not big, but very beautiful, walked along the city wall, bought souvenirs, ate ice cream...
2) then we went to Dubrovnik again - it has a port and from it we went to 1 island - Peacock Island and some other island - I don’t remember the name
3) made a small cruise - we rode a boat around the surroundings all day, very beautiful, made several stops - 1. grottoes, 2. abyss - a place in the sea where the depth changes dramatically and it seems that you are falling into an abyss 3. the only sandy beach Croatia.
We really enjoyed. All this is done by one Croatian family - the head of the family - mother - is called Dolores - also called boats. They are very sociable and friendly, they are fun to be around. Dolores' husband went scuba diving and showed us - sea urchins, starfish, algae, etc.
Fed very tasty - seafood.
You can write a lot more good things about holidays in Croatia, but it's better to see everything for yourself.
We had a very good rest, slept, swam, gained impressions... And you have a good rest