What are the best places to see in Croatia?

>>2802477 (OP)
I don't know -- I haven't been there. You shouldn't have made this thread.

>>2802477 (OP)
my house

>>2802477 (OP)
Adriatic coast:
- Dubrovnik (compact overcrowded old town; pictured)
- Split (larger less compact old city, home to the ruins of Diocletian's palace)
- Hvar, Korcula (islands)
- Rijeka (actually big city on the coast and not some historic town for tourists)
- Pula (on a peninsula, cool Roman ruins)

Inland:
- Zagreb (the capital, not much to do other than fly in)
- Plitvice Lakes (scenic area, national park, and UNESCO Heritage Site with turquoise lakes)

Culture stuff:
- Croatia used to be part of Italy, then Austria-Hungary, then Yugoslavia
- Croatia saw some pretty nasty fighting near the end of Yugoslavia, during like the 1990s which is fairly recent
- Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Montenegrin are all literally the same South Slavic (which is literally what "Yugoslavian" means) language, but they all act like
- Croatia is in the EU, and is the latest country to adopt the Euro
- Croatians are Roman Catholic
- Croatia has a pretty good cuisine, even though I can't name even one dish of theirs

>>2802588
>Inland
trakošćan is worth seeing
>Croatia has a pretty good cuisine, even though I can't name even one dish of theirs
pašticada in the south, kotlovina in the north are the best dishes

Anyone been to Rovinj? Been trying to get some advice on things to do/see. I booked a week in a pretty nice Airbnb right on the water in early October. Not looking for much beyond reading some books and a few nice dinners. Any good bars I'd have a chance of meeting other travelers? Don't need it but wouldn't mind some socializing.

>>2802588
>- Croatia used to be part of Italy, then Austria-Hungary, then Yugoslavia

QRD on this?

>>2802610
The territory of today's Croatia was first inhabited by Neanderthals, then Illyrian tribes, then the Romans.
After Rome fell it was variably held by Ostrogoths, Franks, Byzantium, HRE, Ottomans, Habsburgs, Hungary, Venice, Ragusa Republic, Croatian Kingdom, Bosnian Kingdom, Poljice Republic, Napoleon, Austria-Hungary.
When Austria-Hungary lost WW1, most of Croatia became part of newly created Yugoslavia, while the coast was ceded to Italy. WW2 was a multi-pronged civil war involving various kinds of fascists and communist Partisans, who won and established a socialist Yugoslavia, which imploded on ethnic lines in the 1990s over the course of four wars.

>>2802588
>compact overcrowded old town
The worst kind of /trv/ experience there is. Reminds me of San Gimignano, but there are many such cases.

>>2802477 (OP)
Benkovac
Drnis
Sinj
Imotski.
coastal but not "coastal". only real places left. zagreb sucks.

>>2802588
the only truly authentic croatian cuisine is lamb on a spit with green onion dipped in salt and white bread. the rest of all very modern and made up.

>>2802588
>Croatia has a pretty good cuisine, even though I can't name even one dish of theirs
https://www.tasteatlas.com/croatia

>>2802477 (OP)
If you're a history buff there's a lot to see. In one week in just Istria you can visit:
>dinosaur footprints
>Illyrian ruins
>Roman relics
>Byzantine and Carolingian churches
>ruins of Medieval castles
>Venetian architecture
>Austro-Hungarian fortresses, catacombs, villas
>Mussolini's futurist buildings
>communist statues, infrastructure and iconography