Country #8 — Croatia — REVISITED

“Nin” is actually a place

***Click here to read my original blog post on Croatia***

The Decade Countries

Croatia is one of the first countries I visited. I came here during my second major international travel — and my first cruise — back in 2011, when I was just thirteen years old. In July 2021, Croatia entered an exclusive club which I deem the “decade country”. Defined as, a country I have not visited in ten years or more.

Despite a plethora of Europe cruises over the years, I never returned to Croatia, and eventually it joined the Decade Countries, where it stayed… until May 2026.

Why do I have this whole “decade country” thing? Because when you don’t go to a country for that long, and then go back to it, it feels like a new country, even though it is not. Not only have your memories faded in that time, but the country itself may have undergone drastic changes. In the case of Croatia, both are true. When I wrote my Croatia blog post back in July 2025, I remembered very little about my two days there more than half my life ago. But not only that, since that visit, Croatia has joined the EU and adopted the Euro. And as I would later find out, become a bit of a tourist trap.

This is not the first time I have revisited a country after such a long time. Last September, I visited Greece for the first time in 14 years. I held off on writing a blog post about Greece until that trip, but at the time I wrote my Croatia blog post, I did not know I would be revisiting the country in 2026. In fact, my 2026 travel plans looked very different last summer.

So with my memories of Croatia refreshed and my 15-year abstinence from the country reset, I thought I would write a whole new blog post detailing my recent trip. Especially since the cruise I just disembarked did not actually visit any new countries and it’s been a while since I uploaded here.

And as of now, I now only have seven decade countries: Switzerland (2015), Vatican City (2008), Malta (2011), Belgium (2012), Finland (2012), Russia (2012), and Estonia (2012). If I return to any of these countries, they may get a new blog post too. And if I don’t visit Ireland before July 2027, that too will become a decade country.

Dubrovnik 2.0

Adventures in Going Too Far in Cavtat

Dubrovnik was the first stop upon my return to Croatia. Well, actually, I did not go straight to Dubrovnik. I was on a tour that would first take me to this little town called Cavtat, located about 20 miles up the road from Dubrovnik. It was on this road that I came so PAINFULLY close to a new country. If we had taken a turning, we’d have quickly ended up in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And if we had kept on our road a bit longer, we’d have ended up in Montenegro. Two countries I have not been to, that I came so close to. But alas, no time to eke out a new country, I had a Cavtat to see.

Cavtat Waterfront

Cavtat was charming enough, but there wasn’t actually a whole lot to do here. It was obviously a little town aimed at tourists, because there were tourist shops and markets everywhere in amongst the abundance of coffee shops.

We did not have much time here, but I decided to go for a walk along the side of the cliff. I knew it was safe, as “there is only one street here, you can’t possibly get lost!” the tour guide had said before our free time here.

Fancy a swim?

It was a nice walk through the woods, although I could’ve done that at home. Unfortunately, I did sort of lose track of just how far out I’d gone. I realised I needed to turn back to catch the tour bus on time. But clearly I made that decision far too late. I was 5 minutes past the time I was meant to be back at the bus, and the road just kept going and I never seemed to arrive back at the bus stop where we’d started. I was literally sprinting now, and the road just never seemed to end. When I finally got there, over 10 minutes late, to my horror, bus 12 was gone. Shit. Was I stranded out here in the middle of scenic nowhere, Croatia? I started to panic, and for a minute I figured I was going to have to try and find a way back to Dubrovnik myself. But then the bus did show up, having completed a loop looking for me. Yet again, I did the ultimate walk of shame back to my seat. This must be the fourth time this has happened now, and this was probably the worst case of it.

The drive between Dubrovnik and Cavtat was also nice and scenic, and the best part was seeing Dubrovnik from above.

Dubrovnik from above

Dubrovnik: Pay to Breathe

Dubrovnik is one of the places I remembered most from my first cruise all the way back in 2011. I detailed it all in my original blog post, but to recap: it was extremely hot, we went into a cathedral to cool down, I had a Carbonara, and there was an emotional moment in one of the oldest still-running synagogues. I mentioned also how charming the place was.

Well, it was charming 15 years ago. What I don’t remember was all these blooming TOURISTS!

Dubrovnik: tourist hell!

Clearly in the last 15 years, Dubrovnik has EXPLODED in popularity amongst tourists. The place also was a lot more developed than I remember it being. A lot more polished. Strange that I’ve now lived long enough that places have changed a lot in my lifetime.

The city, minus the tourists, was still a very nice and charming walled city. But clearly it had fallen squarely into the grips of capitalism. You could enter and walk on the walls, but to do that, you needed to purchase a so-called “day pass”. For €40! FORTY Euros! Fuck that! I then realised you needed to pay money to enter some other places as well, and others were also covered by this “day pass”. What an absolute bloody rip-off.

As I left the main hustle and bustle, I did still find some of those old little side streets that still had some charm, but it was mostly restaurants aimed at tourists. Everything here was touristy. No trace of the raw Croatia had remained, and for this reason, I found myself preferring Cavtat even though there was basically nothing there.

There were a lot of side streets formed of stairs, which I climbed to get a view of Dubrovnik. And as I climbed the 100-odd stairs, I was so glad it was only 24°C (75°F) and not the 37°C (98°F) and near 100% humidity it had been during my first visit.

Up all those steps to… um… this!

When I got to the top, I found myself wondering if that synagogue was still there. The one my mother had visited in 1990, and as she discovered in 2011, it had in fact survived the Yugoslavian bombing. A quick search on Google Maps (no need to ask for directions this time!) revealed it was 4 minutes away. I was there in no time. In an instant, I remembered this lovely little place. I bounded up the stairs and… was met with a receptionist and a laminated paper sign reading “€10 to enter”. You have got to be fucking kidding. Ten Euros!?! Even the bloody SYNANOGUE had an entry fee now?!?! I wept internally, handed that lady a banknote with my hands clenched in rage, and went in. I was so angry at having to pay an entry fee I did not feel the same I’d felt back in 2011 at all. There were “no photography” signs plastered everywhere, but I took photos anyway. Nobody stopped me. Out of respect though, I won’t post any pictures here.

What I did learn though was that a grenade did in fact hit the building during the 1991 breakup of Yugoslavia. Part of the ceiling was damaged, but the building survived.

In just three hours, I felt I had seen enough of Dubrovnik. I was quite sad the place had become an absolute tourist trap with entry fees for many things. But as one of my longest gaps between two visits of any place, it was also interesting how even in my lifetime, a place has changed so much.

As we sailed away from Dubrovnik, suddenly, there was a big thunderstorm. I could see from the ship as distant rain poured and lightning struck the city while I was in glorious sunshine. It was quite bizarre actually.

Rain over Dubrovnik

Day 2: Zadar and Nin

As one of the few places on the May 2026 cruise I had never been to, I was certainly curious about Zadar. Which is why I barely spent any time in Zadar itself. We had booked onto a tour that was going to take us along the Dalmatian Coast. This was one of the trips I was most excited for. It was a five-and-a-half hour trip.

So we boarded the coach, and started to head towards what I thought was the coast, but first we were going to be stopping along the way in a little place called Nin. Pronounced “Neen”.

We arrived at a bridge that would take us over into Nin. That’s when the guide said “See you in 2 hours”, and drove off. Oh really? What about the coast? It seemed an awfully long time to be in this tiny village, but it was pretty.

The bridge to Nin

What I did not realise during my time here is that it is actually a tiny island. And way off in the distance, there were the mountains that separated South and North Croatia.

These mountains loomed over Nin

Nin was kind of surreal. It was an island, with mountains in the background that looked like a movie set, in a place where time stood still. It was clearly still a bit of a tourist place, but it was asleep.

There is apparently a tradition where if you touch the toes of a statue in the centre of town, your wishes come true. And they swear by a story where someone wished to not have rain, they touched the toes, and the rain seemed to be everywhere they weren’t for a day. I don’t believe in any of this stuff personally, but I guess the locals in this tiny town need something to believe in to spice up their day. And a story to have for the tourists. Speaking of which, tourists were lining up to touch the toes, so I did anyway. I hope my wish of seeing more countries comes true.

A good toe touchin’ time was had by all!

Most places in Nin were closed till 1, and we were going to be gone by then. But further up the road, we found a cafe that had cleverly decided to beat the competition by opening earlier. I say cleverly, because that’s where the whole bus ended up.

It was a lovely and tranquil place, sometimes rivalling parts of Iceland in how quiet it was. That is until an entire busload of schoolkids turned up. After we whiled away the 2 hours by chatting with others from our tour about everything from laundry to the situation in Iran, it was time to head back over the bridge to our bus. Along the way, I could see all the kids lining up to touch the toes of that statue. Good thing I got in before 50 kids’ germs turned that thing into a metal biohazard.

After leaving Nin, now it was finally time to hit the Dalmatio- oh wait what’s that? We’re going to a salt factory?! Um I am pretty sure this was not on the itinerary…… it was at this point I was beginning to wonder if we were going to see a coast at all. The salt factory was long, boring, pointless, and just another tourist trap.

Why the hell did we come here?? And why the hell did I take a picture?!?

By the time we left, less than 2 hours remained of the tour. Time to see the coast!!!!!!!!!!!!

is what I would’ve said, if not for the fact we were heading to a restaurant to eat a Croatian meal. Time was already running out, and this lunch was going to make this coastal drive even shorter. If we ever got there at all.

Okay, this meal was actually pretty nice, and allergy-safe. It was ham that had been “dipped in the salt of Croatia and dried by the wind of the mountains”. It was actually very salty, but I’m always happy when I can actually join in with the culinary adventure. Add Croatia to the list of countries I’ve eaten a meal in. I’m a bit of a cheese lover who loves to try and sample cheeses from all over, so I was happy some hard Croatian cheese was included in the meal too. It wasn’t the best cheese I’ve ever tasted, but it was still interesting to sample the dairy product Croatia-style.

Croatian cuisine

And then, it was time to head back.

I saw exactly zero coastline on this Dalmatian Coast tour. I was pretty miffed, but to be honest, I think I already saw the best coastline ever in South Africa’s Chapman Peak.

And with that, we waved goodbye to Croatia once more. See you in 2041. Maybe.

The Verdict

It certainly was interesting revisiting Croatia for the first time in 15 years. I have mixed feelings that are seemingly contradictory. On the one hand, I do feel Croatia is somewhat overlooked. It’s a small country, so it naturally can’t compete with its nearby heavyweights like Italy or Greece. But on the other hand, and perhaps somewhat ironically, much of what I saw felt incredibly touristy. Even when we got away from the obvious tourist traps like Dubrovnik. Cavtat was one long road of tourist shops. Dubrovnik itself was tourist hell. But even little Nin still had a long road of tourist shops. Then we ended up in a fucking salt factory which had, you guessed it, more tourist shops. It seems a bit paradoxical to me that a country less talked about has SO many tourist shops and tourist traps. Or maybe the guides only took us to tourist places. Who knows. Maybe I need to start travelling independently more.

Although it was nice to revisit the country so long after my first visit, I do not feel the need to return. I think even if I were to stay for a few days, I would get bored pretty fast. Maybe one day my travels will take me back to Croatia, but I don’t see it happening any time soon.

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