SeeCroatia.net
The soul of the country
Charmaine O., Port Elizabeth
6 of us (South Africans) had been attempting to plan a trip to Croatia for some months.
All of us had researched the various regions and found it very difficult through the local travel agents to obtain a tour that suited our needs, particularly taking into account the ability to be flexible and not constrained time-wise.
Many of the tours/brochures offered to us were expensive, even more so should one deviate from the standard tour. Obtaining clarity or additional information was difficult.
Being South Africans, budget is always a consideration with the value of our currency, and being seasoned travelers, we had ideas of what we wanted, i.e. independence, value for money, the soul of the country and relative comfort.
Well, we found it in Stephen Robertson’s company. After many e-mails, costings, adding and removing destinations, he came up with a tailor-made holiday which gave us the freedom to plan our day but with set destinations (of our choosing). He gave us guidelines and even threw in an extra excursion. All we had to worry about was being ready at our mini-van for the day’s excursion.
The pleasure was being based at one place for 3 or 4 days at a time. We found beautiful little villages, hardly mentioned in the travel brochures or books; discovered local delicacies at the markets of the small villages; explored the stunning beauty of the UNESCO sites with his Croatian partner who provided insight on life now and during the war of 1991-95. All this whilst seeing everything that we had read about in the various travel guides.
I have not elaborated on the actual places we visited but merely wished to express in this testimonial that if one looks hard enough, there are smaller tour operators showcasing their country. For those of you who live in South Africa, I am more than happy to communicate with you in detail either via e-mail, telephonically or if you live in Port Elizabeth we could meet and I could attempt to answer any questions.