DESTINATION Dalmatia
Since much of Croatia is essentially one long, narrow stretch of coast, it is an obvious candidate for a classic summer holiday. There’s more than 1,000 miles of seaside, reaching all the way down from Slovenia to Montenegro. Should you happen to run out of mainland, there are still 1,185 islands to play on, many as easy to reach from the mainland as the Isle of Wight.
True, most of the beaches are narrow, pebbly and hard on the tootsies (take jellies) but they are lapped by the clearest and cleanest waters on the Med. More than 100 beaches fly Blue Flags. The big issue is whether to opt for mainland resorts, which tend to have the larger hotels and more action, or an island such as Hvar – whose main town is a Renaissance showcase of palaces around a creamcheese white Venetian main square – or the 14th-century walled Korcula, allegedly the birthplace of Marco Polo (lots of Di Polos live on the island today).
But far from being packaged just for indolent holiday pleasures, Croatia comes with an incredible heritage of Unesco-protected cities, founded by the Venetians in the Middle Ages as showcases of their maritime supremacy. Dubrovnik, Byron’s Pearl of the Adriatic, is the best known, even more so since starring in Game Of Thrones. GO WITH: One week with Prestige Holidays (prestigeholidays.co.uk) from £369, including B&B in Cavtat, a small seaside town close to Dubrovnik, flights and transfers.