Special-Interest Vacations

There is a wide variety of special-interest tours available in Croatia. Tour operators in and outside the country can arrange tours to suit almost any specification.

Cultural Tours

Classic Journeys, 7855 Ivanhoe Avenue, Suite 220 La Jolla, CA 92037 (tel. 800/200-3887: www.classicjourneys.com.) is a California-based operator that specializes in customized itineraries for small groups. The focus is culinary, family, and cultural walking tours. Accommodations, meals, and transport are first-rate and each tour is led by a local English-speaking guide, who accompanies you through the entire trip. Currently, Classic Journeys offers two Croatian itineraries, one to Dubrovnik and Hvar and another through Istria.

Smithsonian Journeys (tel. 1-877-338-8687: www.smithsonianjourneys.org) runs a 12-day Mediterranean boat adventure down the Dalmatian coast from Venice, Italy. The tour includes lectures on the culture and history of the area.

Adriatica.net (www.adriatica.net) is a general tour operator based in Zagreb that puts together stays in many of Croatia's lighthouses and farmhouses and arranges sailing vacations.

Sailing and Diving Tours

With 1185 islands and miles of coastline, Croatia attracts a huge number of boating and water sports enthusiasts. Croatia has a large number of charter companies that can put sailors in the captain's chair.

Sunsail, www.sunsail.com, offers charters with (skippered) or without (bareboat) crews that let you set your own course. If you have the proper boating certifications, you can captain your own ship. If you don't, you can rent a fully crewed ship and kick back and assume the role of pampered passenger. Sunsail has offices in Dubrovnik, Biograd (Kornati), and Kremik near Primosten.

Sail Croatia, www.sailcroatia.net, puts together customized floating holidays for experienced sailors and novices alike. Its offices are in Split, Pula, and Dubrovnik.

Dalmatia Charter, www.dalmatiacharter.com, operates boating holidays out of Trogir and Kremik. It is family-run.

The remains of the passenger ferry Baron Gautsch, off Rovinj, is one of the most popular diving sites in Croatia. Diving Petra (tel. 052/812-880: www.divingpetra.hr) in Rovinj organizes excursions to the 1914 wreck.

Check out the Issa Diving Center on the island ofVis (tel. 021/713-651: www.scubadiving.hr), to book a dive to the WWII US B17G bomber off the island's coast. Issa can arrange dives to other wrecks and it can put beginners through an elementary diving course, too.

Diving at Kornati National Park is strictly regulated. Most excursions to Kornati originate at Murter. Check with the Murter Tourist Office (tel. 022/434-995: www.tzo-murter.hr) for advice on diving trips to Kornati.

Food and Wine Tours

Increasingly, Croatian entrepreneurs are marketing local products by developing wine and olive roads as well as special excursions for truffle hunting and wine dinners. Istria, Medimurje, and Slavonia all have mapped out winery routes where you can stop and taste and even get a meal in some instances. For maps and information on Istria's wine roads go to www.istra.com/zupan/eng/v1.html. For Medimurje wine tours, check out the Tourist Board of Medmurje County in Cakovec at R. Boskovica 3, (tel. 040/390-191: www.tzm.hr). They can provide you with a well-done map tracing Medimurje's wine road and wineries where you can stop to taste or buy local vintages. You can get similar information at the Cakovec Tourist Office at Trg Kralja Tomislava 2, (tel. 040/313-319: www.tourism-cakovec.hr). Slavonia/Baranja wine road information can be found at www.tzosbarzup.hr. General information on Croatian wine is at www.vinocroatia.com.