Smile Breakfast Co-Presenter, Lindy Hibbard dishes on her recent trip to Croatia and why it’s become such a popular tourist destination.
Lindy, born and raised in Cape Town has been co-presenting the Smile Breakfast with Bobby Brown show on Smile 90.4FM since 2013.
She recently visited Croatia and tells us why it should be on everyone’s bucket list:
- National parks
Croatia has eight national parks. We visited Mljet National park and hiked through a forest trail till we got to the peak. There’s a beautiful view of the entire National Park and the South Adriatic sea.
- Summer festivals
Croatia hosts a lot of open-air cultural festivals during the summer. During our trip we saw preparations being made for the annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival, held from mid-July until mid-August. Unfortunately, we just missed the start of this year’s festival, but the street performers and buskers were amazing.
- Local wines
There are more than 130 indigenous grape varieties, as well as five different climate zones, so whether you enjoy red or white, light or full-bodied wine, you’ll find something you love.
- Cable car trip
Taking the cable car to the top of Mount Srdj is a must-do experience in Dubrovnik. It’s 415 meters above sea level, so the views from the top are breathtaking. My fiancé Peter and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a sunset dinner at Panorama restaurant at the top and it was truly memorable.
- Game Of Thrones Tour
If you’re a fan of the TV series Game Of Thrones, you have to go on this tour. Our guide took us on a two hour walking tour through Old Town in Dubrovnik and showed us the exact locations that were used in the series. We also heard stories and gossip from behind the scenes.
- Island Hopping
We went on a 5-day adventure tour on a catamaran and it’s the best way to see Croatia off the beaten track. We got to experience what each island in the archipelago had to offer and do canoeing, sea kayaking, biking and stand up paddle boarding along the way. It was a lot of fun!
- Fresh seafood
I couldn’t get enough of the fresh seafood in Croatia. The Adriatic Sea is so clean, so the fish are healthy and delicious. We ate a lot of Sea Bream, Sardines, Squid and Shrimp and I love the simple way it’s prepared: always on the grill with a drizzle of olive oil, salt & pepper.
- Architecture
I’ve always been fascinated by historical cities and Dubrovnik is one of the most majestic of them. From the minute I arrived, I couldn’t take my eyes off the beautiful city architecture and I fell more and more in love with what I saw every day. Perhaps it’s the juxtaposition of two styles that’s so striking: Dubrovnik is a medieval city with a medieval infrastructure, street network city walls. On the other hand, most of its public spaces and public buildings are examples of Baroque. It’s a real feast for the eyes and makes for exquisite photographs.
- Markets
I’m a sucker for markets so I just had to have a browse around the open air market in the Old Town of Dubrovnik. It’s not very big, but they have fresh fruit and vegetables for sale and I landed up buying some juicy cherries and lavender oil, which is quite popular in the area.
- City Walls
The medieval city walls are something to behold! They’re approximately 24m high and up to 6m thick and date back to the 13th century. We explored them by taking a two-kilometre walk along the battlements. The views of the sea and over the old town are simply stunning!
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*Images supplied
