There will be generalizations in this post. And I know not everyone is going to be happy with my points. But no place is perfect and I know our Croatian friends agree with most of my observances.
Special alert: Lissette doesn’t endorse of any of my negative comments. She thinks Croatians are perfect. Even their farts smell like lavender. So if you get upset with my comments blame me – Lissette is on your side.
My Good and Bad of Croatians.
What are Croatians like? The Good
They’re welcoming. This is what struck us the first time when we arrived in Croatia in 2015. We arrived at our Airbnb and the hosts greeted us in person with open arms, had a weekend’s worth of food for us in the fridge, and bottle of wine on the table. We were charmed right away. This experience has been replicated over and over, especially by Airbnb hosts. I’m not going to tell you that it’ll happen if you walk into a hotel or a restaurant…but if you meet ordinary people at their level you might find Croatians to be among the most welcoming people you’ll ever meet. Later, as foreigners living in Croatia for a year and not speaking Croatian, we never had that held against us. Only once did we have someone say to me “this is Croatia! You have to speak Croatian!”. It turned out the guy was Albanian.
You’ll always feel welcome as a foreigner to Croatia.
They’re Honest. We never ever felt that a Croatian was conning or scamming us. Never. If anything, Croatians we met were always honest. A simple example: grocery stores always seem to lack coin change. They love it if you come in with coins to exchange for bills. Every few weeks we’d come in with a bag of coins and whoever the cashier was, their eyes would always light up like Christmas had come early. The first few times I had always counted the change prior to going to the store but after a couple of experiences, where the cashier would make it a point to count the change out loud right in front of us, we learned to trust them entirely and would just hand over the bag for them to count. This simple example extended to every aspect of life and we never had our guard up in Croatia. Very trusting, very moral people.
Croatia is safe. Croatians are not confrontational or aggressive and never did we ever worry walking around late at night. A very safe society.
Croatians have a sense of humour. Croatians like to laugh and are self-depreciating. They’re good-natured, relaxed and like to play practical jokes. It’s not in the Croatian character to be snooty or uptight and if that’s your character you’ll probably never see their sense of humour. Relax and know that if they make a little comment about you they’re (probably) just poking fun at you.
Croatians are generous. Not generous with money because they often don’t have a lot of money, but if you’re friends with a Croatian you’ll often find yourself being invited over for food, wine and rakija. They’ll always be too much food and drink on the table. You might have your Croatian friends unexpectedly bring you some fruits or a homemade cake.
What are Croatians like? The Bad
Their social manners could use some improvement. As much as Croatians you meet might be welcoming and generous and all the other traits that I mention, you need only go in public to see some of the negatives. I, for example, hate going grocery shopping in Croatia. Get in line at the cash and you’ll always have a Croatian halfway up your ass, huffing and puffing in impatience like he’s a doctor with a life-saving operation that he’s in a rush to get to. Some bum is always going to come, a single can of beer in hand, and ask if he can pass in front of you with his one item. Then he’ll proceed to order a pack of cigarettes and start examining his pockets for money to pay for his items. He’ll end up taking longer than you with your 20 items.
Lining up for anything in Croatia is a mess. Croatians don’t like to line up. Walking in public is something else that Croatians seemingly have a hard time with – nowhere else have I seen people pretend that a sidewalk is a one-way street for them. It’s like nobody else exists. It often drove me crazy.
Croatians are not the greatest neighbors. Having stayed in different Airbnb apartments in Croatia and having had an apartment for a year in Split, we never experienced as many nosy neighbors anywhere. Example: a Croatian friend and I did a 5 hour bike ride from Split to Makarska where we ran into his uncle. His uncle offered us his empty apartment for the night (“you’ve come all this way. Relax, enjoy Makarska and ride back in the morning”). I told you how generous Croatians are. When we arrived at the apartment block a woman, the self-appointed building guardian, saw us and gave my friend a hard time, asking who we were and what we wanted. He started out nice but after a few too many questions he got upset and ended up telling her to mind her own business. That’s just one example of many.
In some countries people want nothing to do with neighbors and avoid them at all cost. In Croatia we felt that neighbors were always spying and implying themselves in our business.
Anything official… Try getting anything official done in Croatia. All the nice things I say about Croatians don’t apply when dealing with government officials (with a few exceptions). We learned that when applying for our 1 year Temporary residency and we feel bad for Croatians who have to deal with official stuff on an everyday basis. It makes you realize how lucky we are to have efficient government in other countries.
Croatians complain against their government all the time. But as a foreigner you’re not allowed to say anything because Croatians suddenly get very patriotic when you say anything negative no matter how true.
Racism, homophobia and sexism. On our 1st trip I remember a Croatian we know laughing as he told the story of Split’s first gay pride parade where the local football club came out to pelt “the gays” with rocks. I was shocked. But that was in 2015, 5 years ago. Things must be changing, right?
Well, last year we were back in Split and one day we noticed that the police were out in full force. We had never seen so many police around in Split. What were they doing? Well, it seems the gays were at it again. We came out hoping to see the parade but it never passed. We heard later that it had been delayed by 3 hours. Police precautions? I don’t know…
Racism. I don’t think that Croatians are inherently racist. But they’ll make jokes about races that you don’t hear in more politically-correct places. But again, I don’t think Croatians are any more racist than anyone else – if you hear something racist it is often because of the language factor or because having different races come to Croatia is still relatively new. Perfect example: a few years ago we were in a taxi with a young taxi driver and we were talking about the different nationalities that vacation in Split. It used to be mostly Germans and Eastern Europeans but with time that’s changed as Croatia has become more of an “up-market” destination. Now Croatia gets a lot of Scandinavians, British, Americans, Koreans and even Indians. That’s when the young driver said it: “I don’t care where people are from, they can come from anywhere I don’t care. I like them all. I like the Asians, I like the Niggers. I don’t care, they are welcome!”
We looked at each other in shock. There was obviously no malice behind his comment, he just didn’t know. In hindsight we should have corrected him because who knows who he says that to next time…
Just know that Croatians are conservative and that things like homosexuality and dealing with different races are new things to them.
Miscellaneous. Tons of smoking, constant yelling into cell phones, and aggressive drivers who if not yelling into their phones are texting while driving. If Croatians could text, smoke and eat a burek all at the same time while driving they would.
I guess the common thread to my negative points is that Croatians are a little rough around the edges. But you can really say the same about many Eastern Europeans. See this post: Are Eastern Europeans unfriendly? As I say in that post, it’s all about what you’re used to.
Summing it Up
The key to getting a good impression of Croatians? Meet locals. Stay in an Airbnb where you’ll meet ‘real’ Croatians. Do your shopping in places Croatians shop. Croatians always treat foreigners better than they treat each other. Don’t be shy. Yes, some of the little day-to-day things can be a little stressful but I can’t tell you how many great interactions we’ve had with people who we’ve met and who went out of their way to engage with us.
This post isn’t meant as a slam on Croatians. As I said up top, no place is perfect and if you’re one of those visitors that came away finding Croatians “rude and charmless” I hope I’ve given you perspectives on a different side to their character.
And again, Lissette loves Croatians. Somehow, even all the “negatives” just give them even more charm in her books…
Have you been to Croatia? What were your experiences?
Related: The Best Day Trips from Split (Croatia)
Related: Tourism…and when the locals hate you
Related: The Best of Croatia (and around) Itinerary
Ps. If you find our blog helpful, please consider using our links to book your flights, hotels, tours, and car rentals. Have a look at our Travel Resources page.
Living in Croatia, one quickly realizes the profound impact neighbours can have on daily life. Reading the blog post, I nodded in agreement, recalling the countless instances where my neighbours seemed to possess an uncanny ability to know every detail of my existence. Their curious eyes and unsolicited involvement often left me feeling exposed, as if there were no boundaries to my private sanctuary. The struggle for personal space and privacy was real.
Dude…we sometimes yell..curse…traffic and burreaucracy is a mess for sure, the transition and war brought forth some…less desired attributes, shinning in lack of critics comming from moderate, mild and goodhearted ppl (where agressive religious movements backed up by right wings completely dictate the xeno/lgbtiq politics due to clerical influence)…but for sure we are not racist cuz being a racist presumes a negative conotation and hostile stance while in reality calling an asian ” a chinese” or an african “a black guy” is not charged by any of those, but a simple attribute to be specific since not many around..sort of like calling someone “a redhead” or “a short guy” being straight forward easy to describe who is the subject. Mysoginic….sometimes, a patriarchal society it is (thanx to church again) but it is changing and i see it on a daily basis. The only actual constant thing that stretches way back to mid 20th century is the peeking neighbors (who needs a camera?) and often unresolved issues that are some court drawer decoration for decades 😀
Only just finished a week here in Zagreb but this seems accurate
I’ve been to Croatia three times, and spend about a week each time, in 2010, 2015 and 2019, if I remember the years correctly. I’ve been all over the country, so I met a lot of its people, from all walks of life and all corners of Croatia. Given all of this, I can fully attest that CROATIANS ARE THE UNFRIENDLIEST, RUDEST, UNWELCOMING, MOST XENOPHOBIC PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH. I will also say that I’ve been to close to 40 European countries, and in most of the other countries, people were really nice and welcoming. Not in Croatia, though. Every single encounter I’ve had with Croatians (old ones, young ones, Dalmatians, Istrians, Slavonians, Zagrebians, rich ones, poor ones – it doesn’t matter what category), they’ve all been horrible, xenophobic, racist encounters. It’s not like I haven’t given them chances – I visited the country three times, but that’s enough. Never again. Croatia is beautiful, but its biggest problem is that it has Croatians in it.
OUCH!! I’m surprised that you’ve had such negative encounters. I guess we all have countries like that…
As a Croatian, I can confirm that we are a crappy people (but still not crappy enough to be spelled in all-caps). In our defence, I have to tell you we are a bit more conservative because we used to be in countries that would be abusive towards LGBTQ+ community (Yugoslavia for example). We are also overwhelmingly catholic nation (>90%). We have problems with the lack of workers during the holiday season, so we import workers from ex-yu countries. Outside Zagreb, and maybe Rijeka, you won’t have the greatest time as a member of the LGBTQ community. Most of the people are nice because we know we depend on you, literally. It is a catastrophe that 25% of our GDP is from tourism. Split is literally the worst place to be a gay person. We may be xenophobic, because we have funny stereotypes of outsiders (fun part is most of them are true). For the racist part, we may be… We call most of the Asians “Chinese”, and black population like “blacks”. But not that many (I still think USA and UK have bigger problems with that). Also, bear in mind that almost one third of the population is in Zagreb…
Sorry to hear that people were shitty, but they will be if you’re poking those topics at they’re nose…
Lol this guy is a typical representative of a avg croatian. Hopefully he is 50+ years old
The observations by Jerry Watkins are largely true. God knows, I have given Croatia a chance, going there umpteen times with 2 different wives and 4 different children and my own family over a period of 50 years . We are not rude people but we have met so much rudeness back.
One time at a restuarant in Trogir, the waiter literally snatched the menu out of my hand after ordering. And in Dubrovnik at a campsite which was previously good, some military came into the restauarant, skipped the queue and the staff served them first and totally ignored us. Cars hooted at us (due to our number plate?), prices for apartment hire literally increased on the way from the travel agent to the property, border police asked us what we were doing here. The examples are endless.
I would even go as far as saying it was better when it was still Yugoslavia.
Sorry for your experience. Yes you can experience rudeness from: poor waiters (seasonal workers) and bureaucracy people in Croatia, people in cars. I think you are mostly talking about bad experiences on the coast during the summer time. We can’t say that’s “Croatians”, because its different in mainland for example or I’d say its a bit more welcoming in Istria
If you have been there umpteen times, you should have known what to expect from real Croatians.
Unfortunately, you probably went there at the wrong time and met the wrong people.
They are alot like Americans, so that’s why you experienced the conflict with them! Americans tell everyone if you don’t like it leave! I know I’m a Croatian American ❤
Agreed!
Have you been to Bosnia or Serbia? Are they much friendlier than Croatia?
In our opinion: yes.
Bosnia and Serbia more friendly? Are You sure?
They can be warm, after all, they are more countryside type than urban type people, which can make them behave more openly and closer, but that’s only one side of the coin.
They don’t have world, international culture, except fraction of population in capital cities.
You haven’t felt their imposive temper and exploding over nothing.
As long as You are not against their attitude, it can be OK, otherwise… There’s good reason why are they considered savage in Croatia and Slovenia, e.g. Austrian, German and Swedish police also know that. They know who’s crime-prone and who runs more criminal enterprises.
Regarding Bosnia (and Herzegovina), it matters a lot if You’re dealing with Croat, Serb or Muslim.
Thanks Esteban. I feel that there is a lot of the usual Balkan prejudices in your response. And to say they don’t have international culture: we’ve met ordinary people in Belgrade who we’ve talked to in French. In fact Serbia is know for high level education.
We don’t have to agree, and in fact there are nice and friendly people everywhere just as there are nasty and unfriendly people everywhere. But I don’t want to brush different nationalities with stereotypes such as ¨crime prone¨ and ¨savage¨. I think that´s a bit small minded.
I’d say you are exaggerating biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig time dude!
Yes croats arent the nicest nation and dont have great manners. To me there are two worlds of croatians the old (50+) and the young new generations. The old are more problematic and the level of openmidness varies depending where the person is from, socio history like the owrking vs middle class mentality. No doubt the souther you go to balkan areas the more “traditional” people are and a lot of people from south migrated to croatia and croatians migrated abroad. The last state that brought some kinds of order was the Austro hungarian kingdom croata was part of. Since then the balkan influemce increased.
I think croatias will get better when the younger generations replace the old world generations that are now in power (corruption prone). Probably the most european part of croatia is Istria. In croatia they say “što južnije to tužnije” meaning the more south you go the sadder it is.
I am a Canadian of Croatian heritage. Having spent most of my life around Croatian people, I can confirm that Croatians are blunt, chauvinistic (bordering on misogynistic), homophobic (I am also a LGBTQ+ person), and most definitely racist. No question about it.
I dislike visiting relatives in Croatia because all of them have the best, latest iPhone, drive a BMW or Mercedes, and expect the rich Canadians to pick up the tab wherever we go out. Also, they have these nice things and perfectly matched outfits bags and purses, but their lights are on the verge of being shut off due to being behind in their electric bill. True story. All for show.
Agreed! It is very true! I have experienced the same things with my relatives in Ukraine.
Bok Stranci (Hi Foreigners),
We are arrogant, rude, better than everyone else, self absorbed, self centered, without table or bed side manors. We have no filters because we can say or tell you anything we want. However, we will temporarily try to fake and change all this if we see any interest or any benefit from you while you are here. We will still never let you into our inner circle or accept you.
If we decide to go or move to another elsewhere, we will turn into chameleons.
Forgot to mention in my previous comment – Croatians appear to treat each other horribly. In addition to being inconsiderate and rude, they seem to be quite petty and unable to solve conflicts and disagreements like adults. Thus, everybody seems to be suing somebody or is being sued. It’s truly rare to meet a Croat who isn’t in the middle of some lawsuit. Usually it’s neighbors suing neighbors, or siblings suing each other or even (adult) children suing their parents or relatives. It’s really bizarre and I have never seen anything like this anywhere else.
Thanks for the comments. I didn’t want this post to degenerate into bashing of Croatians. In fact, after more than a year of living in Croatia and visiting on 6 other occasions we have a very good overall impression of Croatians.
– we found them very welcoming and friendly towards foreigners. As I say, we never had a Croat ever say anything like “Croatia is only for Croats”. The one time it happened it turned out that the guy was Albanian. No, our experiences in that respect were only good.
– As far as how they treat each other I can’t really defend that. We heard it from our Croatian friends and saw it with our own eyes. And what you say about fighting/suing neighbors – well, we also saw it with our own eyes with our neighbors.
– In the workplace. I know a lot of very hard working Croatians including some of our friends. And I know many very hard working Croatians who left because they were smart/industrious enough to work overseas. We’re now living in Spain and we see what you describe, we also experienced plenty of incompetency in Canada. I think lazy, thieving contractors is a world-wide problem.
As I said, my wife absolutely loved Croatia and it’s people. I know where my bread is buttered so I learned to just live with the negatives 🙂
Sorry, I didn’t meant to be *that* negative. You know how it is – ten good experiences can be very poisoned by one or two bad ones. For me, some are quite fresh (like “Get out of my country”).
But the weather is great, my immediate neighbors are nice and I recently had a positive experience with the government workers at a local office.
I love Spain btw. Spent two months in Mallorca – my favorite place on Earth (minus Magaluf, which sux) and a few months in other Spanish locations. Great people too.
I know what you mean, we’ve had similar experiences and they’ve ruined places for us (like Poland). As you say, a few negative experiences can just change your opinion on a place.
I just wrote a post describing the differences between Spain and Croatia from an expat point of view (here). As you say, the Spanish are great and very welcoming. Many things we really liked about Croatia but the Spanish made us feel at home.
Regarding lawsuits and being toxic toward other Croats, You’re right.
Some regions are notorious with lawsuit passion. Over some small piece of land.
Legal processes protract because of notoriously slow courts, it takes several generations. Very common thing is thing come to that that (grand)sons have to solve problems of their (grand)grandfathers.
There was a joke regarding presidential elections in Croatia.
You know, many historically important leaders (=presidents) of Croatia were from NW Croatia (Zagorje area), they had a long mandate and they left historical mark, and they almost arrived in succession.
So when there’re presidential elections, all people from Zagorje withdrew all their mutual lawsuits, because You never know, maybe the person You sued might become new president, and then You’ll feel his revenge. :))))
I find Croatians generally unfriendly. I hear many tourist complain about the services, but those are relatively OK, in my opinion. However, the ‘real’ Croatians (as you say), tend to live by the motto “My attitude, your problem”. You provided a good example with the neighbors and I had the same experiences. Similar can be said about their driving or their tendencies to dump garbage on unsupervised land. There is also a general lack of professionalism and pride in their work – I have lots of experiences from working with local contractors, including established businesses – you have to be very careful to supervise them all the time and not pay them until everything is 100% finished or they will just leave with the money and ghost you. Even if they finish, it’s almost impossible to get them to come back if their work turns out to be faulty.
“Get out of my country” and “Croatia is only for Croats” is something you will hear at random occasions once you spend more time there and especially if you understand Croatian. It’s ironic, because 250 thousand mostly young Croats left the country for other EU countries just over the past decade.
Hi. I’m sorry for Your bad experience.
In Croatia we know the problem with our domestic arrogant lasy greedy morons. We live with such degenerates whole our lives. But not all of us are like those degenerates.
On the other side, we do not like to be patronized by foreigners if we feel that they are exaggerating.
Regarding Eastern Europeans, we don’t hate them, we find them as our dear silly countryside cousins.
But, if such persons from abroad, that until not a long ago were so poor and with weak paying and spending culture, come here and behave bossy, disrespective, exploitative, it irritates us. Then all our internal defensive mechanisms, mode of paranoic behaviour of small ethnicity activates.
Our tolerance level towards Eastern Europeans is much bigger, and we don’t like that being misused.
But generally, Croats are good, obedient, calm, law-abiding and timid people.
Our tolerance level, especially regarding the policy of the governement, is the one of dough. We are the dough that allow itself to be mercilessly kneaded. But we all have snap point.
Interesting that you call Croats racist, sexist and misogynistic. As a middle-aged Croat I have known gay Croats my whole life with zero issues in regards to their sexuality. Even related to a few. Racist? I know the difference between malice and “lost in translation”. Sexist people are everywhere, but a lot of Croatian men would not even think of treating me with disrespect. They know I’d sock them in the mouth, and they love me for it. I would also like to say that in Split, you have many transplants. And the most notoriously racist, sexist and homophobic ones are the ones from Bosnia and Hercegovina. The Dalmatians, especially the locals in Split find them awful and wish they would leave. They are the ones usually with the very extreme far-right views who think they are the biggest Croats in the world but are literally nothing like Croats at all. But unless you are tight with Croatian people, you will never pick up on those distinctions. Like the other commentator said, Croatia is diverse, regional with specific cultures to each city and village. it is like having 10 countries in 1 which is why it’s bizarre when people claim everyone in the Balkans is the same. Only someone who knows nothing about the local cultures would ever conclude such a thing. But I digress.
So, you’re Canadian, huh? I lived in Vancouver, Canada for many years. Beautiful land. Minus one person who is still a friend, most locals were frankly awful and everyone nice I met was a temporary transplant from Toronto (you know how so many Canadians like to move cross country for a period in their youth. Seems like a right of passage of sorts). The people were petty, superficial, vindictive, jealous and have a pack mentality especially among the women. Very passive-aggressive and bitchy people, Canadians. Lost count of how many men tried to sexually assault me and various other women. I saw a man tried to sexually assault a woman on a bus because she was a burns victim. Or the lady who yelled at me to give her my seat when I was looking out the window and did not even notice her as I was looking in the other direction. It is like Anglo Canadians feel entitled to everything but think they are nice people. But back to sexual assault, one man even stalked our place of work and would do inappropriate acts when you were alone in the business. Of course, the boss did not care at all. Sooo much drug addiction, Hastings was insane, you would see people talking in conversation and just shoot up casually while doing so. And what’s even more insulting, the price houses command just because of the trees and mountains is ridiculous because it really is a cultural and touring wasteland. When I returned a year later I could not stand the place and took the first plane to Toronto. Great town. Amazing food. But it was the migrants and first-generation children of migrants that made Canada lovely, not the locals. Anglo-Canadians? The stereotypes they sell of Canada as being polite and easy going is pure horse sh**, lol. And my god, the “casual” racism that abounds especially from Anglo Canadians! Nice place to visit, but would never want to live there. At least with Croats I know where I can stand, I can share a laugh and if you can laugh at yourself, you’ll get by quite easily. To each their own.
You seem to have quite a thin skin as regards to my comments. As you say, to each their own, but quite telling that between this comment and the other you manage to crap on both Bosnians and Serbs (how predictable) but also Canadians. Bravo.
Only Anglo Canadians, Frank, Apparently the French ones are OK. So, by proxy, the poster also found time to have a go at the English. You have to admire the economy of effort there.
Wow… For someone claiming there isn’t any discrimination in Croatia, you sound AWFULLY disparaging towards every other nationality, and even blame Croatian problems on Bosnians.
How about this: I love places that rank high on rudeness. Paris is my favorite!!! And, It makes me cringe when I hear these bitchy places torn apart for being so far from perfect! It’s the candy floss environments that I find soul crushing and tiring. Everyone to its own 😆😊
People don’t understand that, Croatians were threatened from every side, throughout the history. They stopped the Turks breaching into Europe. There are great stories written about that. Rome never had a chance to take over fully, Austro-Hungarians never had a nice time in our lands, noone ever did. Napoleon said, if I had 100.000 Croatian army, I would conquer the world!
And that’s how they are today, you can feel it. We are very strong, clever, sharp. It’s hard and easy with us. But, if you are honest and positive, you will have the best of times!
One note also, this review was written by people from Dalmatia. You don’t understand how big of the difference in the people is from Zagreb and around Split Dubrovnik or Istria and we have much more. We are a very old nation, to do a review on people, you must travel the country or study history ✌🏼
Exactly. It’s funny because to me, I find people who live in Zagreb much more conservative where people from Zagreb think they are the most open minded. And than I find Dalmatians and Slavonians the most open minded because so many people from these areas migrated and brought back stories from time abroad. Or, because they know what it is like to live in a village they understand you have to know how to get along with many different types of people because you cannot be anonymous in a selo. Than you have Rijeka that is known as more “liberal” but the people are more reserved than your average Dalmatian. But it is also very personal and depends on your personality. I get along especially well with Dalmatians and Slavonians because I find they both can laugh at themselves (and each other) with ease which makes every day more fun. They are a little more surreal, but I love it and them for being exactly that way.
Croatians are not yelling. Just that we are louder than North Americans.
Latinos can be loud (isn’t your wife Puerto Rican?) PRers can be loud.
Also, not like Croatians are racist….they are not sensitive snowflakes. Let’s use Barrack Obama. You know, the black guy that was president a while ago?
In North America those 3 words (the black guy) would be racist, everywhere else where people are not such sensitive snowflakes that get insulted by anything and everything…………..wouldn’t be racist.
Also, there is nothing wrong with referring to more than one gay person as the gays.
The s in most words means plural.
the gays, the websites, the americans, the italians and so forth. So 2 or more gay people = gays.
Thank you for your comment. You made me laugh 🙂
I’m Croatian and lived in USA most of my life. Back in 2008 I missed my connection in Germany and ended up in a small hotel in suburb of Frankfurt. I went out to the hotels restaurant and met some Americans. Well we really had a good time, maybe too good. As we were saying our good night we were told you Americans are so loud everywhere you go. Wow, never been accused of that as a Croatian! Go figure!
Frank, we’ve chatted before about our respective Croatia experiences. Regarding Dubrovnik, the best time to get to know locals and feel welcomed is Spring, as in March or April, before they are worn down by chain smoking rude Spaniards, ironically. And the hoards of lemmings getting off cruise ships.
The bad karma thrust upon Dubrovnik by their own misguided welcome of Cruise ships was their downfall. With UNESCO threats to revoke their certification, they may well return to their humble and congenial selves by putting the lavish on Cruise ships. I ve heard they may limit it to two. They need to encourage tourist stays that are only land based accommodation and they’ll get back to my fond old days.
The Croat guest hostel I routinely stay at in Dubrovnik once gave me their business card and said if police hassled me, give them the card. The one and only time I was stopped by an officer was out of concern I was lost. I wasn’t. But the card helped. My hostel owner told me it was inconceivable I’d be assaulted because Croats are nosey and everyone watches everything. A throwback to decades of Communist rule.
Lastly, Croats are indeed homophobic, racist and I would add, sexist. The men are straight out of 50’s and 60’s in how they relate to women, unless they’re under 30. Even then…
I still love the place and have spent about the same equivalent time there as you, with my longest stint 3 months in Zagreb. It does help to learn to speak the language if you travel off the tourist path as I do. But a smile goes a long way.
Great comment Marti and I agree with it all (but surprised by the chain smoking Spaniards – personally haven’t seen many Spaniards in Croatia).
YES about Dubrovnik and Cruise ships. And misguided an apt word for people in government in Croatia. Somehow they manage to hire the very worst. Which by the way is setting me off on a rant:
How many posts have a seen by Croatian blogs or newspapers have I seen chiding tourists for bad behaviour: for binge drinking, being lewd in public, for being inconsiderate of Croatians etc etc. They love to complain. Yet the Croatian government goes out of its way to attract shit tourists by promoting events like Ultra where young partygoers come ONLY to listen to music, drink, and take drugs.
One of the biggest problems with tourism in Croatia is the quality of the tourists. And people have complained for years and years yet they still market events catering to these young tourists.
In 2018 I started to follow your blog as soon as my husband and I decided to spend a year or two in Dalmatia. I am croatian, grew up in Venezuela, lived in the United States and been to Canada as well as other countries around the world. I have lived in Spain (Malaga) up to now for over 10 years and recently have come back to Spain after spending two years in Split to study Croatian History and Culture and, of course, the language which I had forgot after 50 years of living abroad. I agree with most of your impressions as I understand where you come from and how things work in Canada, even though I cannot help to feel a little patriotic also. Say hello to Lissette. As soon as this corona situation be over or not, I plan to return to live in Croatia for good. No place in the world is more welcoming to me than my own country and people.
Thank you for the comment Valentina. We’ve met a lot of people through our travels who have gone back to places that they left when they were younger. Just last year we met a couple in Belgrade that had spent most of their working lives in Vancouver but decided to cone back to Serbia. It’s nice to see that.
I think Lissette will forever have Croatia in her heart 🙂
We were happy with a slow-travel tour thru Croatia 2 years ago. It was our first booking with a tour group that provides private drivers and guides for each location and we spent 3 weeks going from Slovenia thru Croatia and ending in Dubrovnik. It was a great trip with lots of insider tips and tours. We rarely book a second vacation to the same place but we’re considering doing Croatia again!
Good to hear you enjoyed it Cheryl! I would also very much recommend stops in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro next time. Actually we love most of the Balkans, including Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Lots of variety.
i have no doubt they could eat burek, smoke, text and drive at the same time. could be a new event at the olympics. You know i found the people in Dubrovnik to be very cold Frank, but then it was Dubrovnik and tourists basically took over their town.
We had the same experience in Dubrovnik Andy. But as you say, Dubrovnik is not the best example. People have just seen too many tourists.
I’ve been specifically told by Croatians that if I ever visit, go ANYWHERE but Dubrovnik.
It’s a bit like going to France and not visiting Paris. If you’re coming all this way you have to. Yes, Dubrovnik is overly touristy, expensive, and locals aren’t that friendly. BUT it is beautiful and you have to visit, even if just for 1 day.
Are You sure that those people are from Dubrovnik?
Dubrovnikans do not have the reputation of being cold and distant. They are quite warm, pleasant and charming people.
Their motto has always been “with everyone be nice, with noone sincerely”. 🙂