CROATIA

Croatia (Hrvatska) has come a long way since 1991, when foreign tourists fled from a region standing on the verge of war. Now that stability has returned, visitors are flooding back to a country which boasts one of Europe's finest stretches of coastline.

Croatia was an independent kingdom in the tenth century, but was subsequently absorbed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire before becoming part of the new state of Yugoslavia in 1918. Local aspirations were frustrated by a Yugoslav state which was initially dominated by Serbs, and then (after 1945) ruled by Communists. Croatia's declaration of independence on June 25, 1991, was fiercely contested by a Serb-dominated Yugoslav army eager to preserve their control over areas in which groups of ethnic Serbs lived. The period of war – and fragile, UN-supervised ceasefire that followed – was finally brought to a close in 1995.

The capital, Zagreb, is a typical central European metropolis, combining elegant nineteenth-century architecture with plenty of cultural diversions and a vibrant café scene. At the northern end of the Adriatic coast, the peninsula of Istria contains many of the country's most developed resorts, with old Venetian towns like Rovinj rubbing shoulders with the raffish port of Pula. Further south lies Dalmatia, a dramatic, mountain-fringed stretch of coastline studded with islands.

Dalmatia's main towns are Zadar, an Italianate peninsula town, and Split, an ancient Roman settlement and modern port which provides a jumping-off point to a series of enchanting islands. It's on Brac, Hvar, Vis and Korcula that you'll find the best of the beaches, as well as some lively fishing villages. South of Split lies the medieval walled city of Dubrovnik, site of an important festival in the summer and a magical place to be, whatever the season.

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