Oh what a stay. too bad it was only 4 days.
We arrived on Croatian Airlines from VIE. Great short flight. Same plane as the one Pope John Paul II took on his 3rd papal visit to Croatia.
On landing, luggage was delivered without fuss, no issues at customs and passport control was a breeze. They did not even ask for our return tickets. Our driver was waiting for us (arranged directly with our hotel) and was talkative with lots of information about Croatian history (at least the recent one).
Our hotel, the Hotel Bellevue, is at a great location, with wonderful staff all around (all departments). We made our tour plans through the Adriatic Luxury Services (ALS) desk manned by Sanija in the hotel lobby. She was extremely helpful and knowledgeable.
We had an English guide tour of the Old City, ate at Gils, Proto and Nautika (all superb). English is nicely spoken all most everywhere and Croatian (a south slavic land) is very similar to russian that got my wife all excited about.
We rented Smart Car (yes, I finally did it) and drove it to Korcula. Great scenic drive and lovely ferry ride over. Not one soul gave us any reason to complain or think ill of the place save one. More later on that.
We took an ATV ride through Konavale and saw its war museum and the damage to the Church there.
Our only quibbles were with the panoramic flight over the islands in a cessna (9A-DBK) and the glass bottom boat ride in the Dubrovnik harbor.
Unprofessional pilot. I identified myself as pilot and since he had dispensed with the usual safety procedures, I had to ask him about is contingency plans in a single engine plane over water. %26quot;Land on water%26quot; was his answer but no indication of life vests. None were on board. Who certifies this craft for commercial use is beyond me.
No headsets and when I insisted on one, he produced one but his intercom connection was absolutely horrific in its lack of clarity. So, I had to take off my head set and yell at him and he would mumble back. Thank God there was no in-flight emergency other than my wife in the back seat got nauseous and wanted an airsick bag. He had to scramble back, no autopilot, so he handed off controls to me. Luckily, the moment passed and we landed without incident.
After landing, he took us to his boat to get us to sign up for a boat ride the next day. We decided to think it over and then called him to say no. The very next AM, he called the ALS and claimed that he had flown us an extra 30 mins over the agreed upon 100 mins and wanted to be paid. I refused as he did not go over the flight plan with us, and if he did deviate and it had cost implications, it behoove him to point it out in clear communication to us and get our okay. With his antiquated comm equip that was essentially ineffective (could it be deliberate?), we had no clue what he was up to. Good thing we did not agree to that boat ride with him. So, we told Sania at ALS about it and stood our ground in not paying an extra Kuna.
Yes, the islands are gorgeous and the scenery from the air, setting aside the in-flight issues, was spectacular. Hopefully, by the time our ship comes in, and socialism as not taken us down the tube in the US, perhaps, and real estate does not go through the roof here, my wife and I could perhaps retire here in this part of the world.
What is there not to love about this place. It is Christian, unlike the direction the US is going in and it is picturesque to boot.
Oh, the glass bottom boat ride was just a harbor ride. Nothing glass bottomy about it. Nothing to see and the optics were horrid even if the guy slowed enough for us to see.
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Informative and interesting, thanks for getting back to us.
Nice to see wife felt good among the Mediterranean branch of Slavs
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Thanks for the report. Always good to hear that people have enjoyed beautiful Croatia!
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