8 Days Croatian Food and Culture Tour in Spring

Departure after breakfast for the beautiful Baroque styled mid-sized city of Varazdin. We will have a walk through the main square and castle. After Varazdin, we will visit a small winery in the Zagorije region of Croatia, for a tasting and serving of local food specialties. Our next stop will be the famous Trakoscan Castle, once home to a very powerful local family, now a museum. We will finish our day at a beautiful location of another winery, Vuglec Breg, where we will tour the wine cellar, taste some of their finest wines, and later have dinner.

We will depart Zagreb the capital today, for the coast. Our first stop will be Opatija, about 2 and a half hours drive. Opatija was the first sea resort town built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Opulent is a word to best describe Opatija, full of historic, grand hotels, parks and statures. We will have time to walk around, shop and have lunch. Our next stop on the tour is Hum " the smallest city in the world. " Medieval Hum is built on top of a hill and is famous for "Biska" or Mistletoe Brandy. Next we check into our beautiful boutique hotel, where we will stay the next two nights in Svetvincenat, a small medieval town in Istria. Dinner will be at a local restaurant serving local food.

We start the day with a very special visit to a small church in the forest. Within itself holds one of the most valuable accomplishments of Istrian medieval painting. Well preserved late-gothic frescos almost entirely cover the inner walls of the church, the most famous being "Dancing with Death." After our visit, we will get to know the truffle. We will visit the Karlic family and learn about truffles. We will accompany a hunter and their dogs to go look for truffles, come back and cook lunch together. After this we will visit the medieval town of Motovun, the most famous medieval town in Croatia. Following our walk through medieval times, we visit the nearby Tomaz winery, where we will taste some amazing Istrian wines, including white Malvazija and red Teran, we will also sample their olive oils. Just before dinner we will head to Rovinj a beautiful coastal city, and very popular tourist destination in summer. Dinner will be on the Lim Canal in a famous seafood restaurant, where we will have a feast of local shell fish, fish, and lobster.

We will begin our day in Pula visiting the famous Arena. The Pula Arena is a Roman amphitheatre located in Pula, Croatia. It is the only remaining Roman amphitheatre to have four side towers entirely preserved. From here we will take partial coastal route to Dalmatia. Combination of Coastal Route and highway, it is a five hour journey. On arrival to Dalmatia, our first stop will be a very old Vineyard, where we will taste Posip, Plavac Mala, and other wines. This unique vineyard is set in a very special way, where not only does it receive direct sunlight, but also reflections from the sea on one side, and reflections from the rocks on the other. Moving further, we will arrive to Zadar, the largest city in northern Dalmatia. We will stay two nights in a wonderful boutique hotel in the old city center. We will indulge in a great 3 course meal after our walk around Zadar seeing the major sights.

We will start our day with a lovely tour of the small village of Skradin, a small harbor hidden from the elements through a canal on the Krka River. It is from here that we will take a boat to the National Park Krka. Our next stop is the wonderful city of Sibenik, which houses St. James Cathedral and also 3 fortresses, one of which we will visit. We will take the coastal route back to Zadar where we will have a very nice dinner at Fosa Restaurant. We will have a night walk through the city and end at the world famous sea organ where you can listen to the music made by waves " playing " the sea organ before going back to the hotel.

A visit to Croatia would not be whole without visiting this amazing UNESCO protected national park which boasts 16 lakes, all on different levels above sea-level, all connected by waterfalls. We will spend a couple of hours wandering on the paths over the lakes. Lunch will follow at the very famous "Lika House " restaurant, where you will try regional specialties. After Plitvice, we stop at the picturesque Rastoke in Slunj. We continue and finish in Zagreb for our last dinner with wine, of course

We will have airport transfers and you will continue home or continue to Dubrovnik or Eastern Croatia.