If you visit Croatia, there is a way to go across the country, from south to north (or the other way around), in less than two weeks and visiting its three most interesting cities:

Dubrovnik (south), Zagreb (north) y Split (in the middle).

Dubrovnik

To get downtown from the airport, take a taxi (30-40€) or the buses from ATLAS company which drive regularly through the 20 km. from the airport to the city centre.

In the old town, do not miss the wall, the Franciscan Monastery with a pharmacy from 14th century, Lovrijencac Fountaine, Onofrio Fountain or Luza Square, and its surroundings. If you need more information or maps, the nearest Tourism Office is on Brsalje Street.

From the city, go and visit the Korcula island, the National Park of Mjle island or the Elafit islansi. The city of Ston and its Chinese wall or the medieval city Cavtat are other destinations near Dubrovnik. You can get to all these islands and cities by ferries or bus.

To get to the next destination, Split, there are buses mostly every hour, doing 223km. between both cities.

Split

Walking around the old town or the Palace of Diocletian, UNESCO heritage, is the first thing you should do when you arrive to the city. After the palace, take a walk in the seafront by the Adriatic sea. From Split you can visit Brac islands, Hvar or Vis, accesible by ferry, sailboat or fast boats.

Roman ruins from old Salona (Solin nowadays) are only 10 km. away from Split and are one of the most important archaeological sites in the country. Trogir, 28 km north, is also UNESCO heritage. To get there, there are buses and boats from the seafront. Finally, by the end of Cetina river, you can find a pinturesque village, Omis, 24 km. south and connected by bus to the city.

Before the final destination, Zagreb, Sibenik is 88 km. away and you can get there by bus or train. Do not miss its streets and the Santiago Cathedral, a UNESCO heritage. The Plitvice National Park is also near and the most known in Croatia. 16 lakes connected by waterfalls, you can sped from 3 to 8 hors walking around the spot. In the park there are hotels and two camping areas. It’s convenient to book previously.

Zagreb

Just arrived to Zagreb, a city with more than 40 museums, including Broken relationships Museum, Mimara Museumor Naif Art Museum.

“Uptown” you can visit Ban Josip Jelacic Square, Dolac Market, Katarina square or the J.J. Strossmayer Avenue.”Downtown” there are squares dedicated to Nikola Subic Zrinski, to the king Tomislav, or to Mariscal Tito. Finally, in the city centre, there are Contemporary Art Museum, el Bundek park, Jarun lake, Mirogoj cementery or Maksimir Park.

To get to Zagreb airport, 17 km. from the city centre, take the bus for 4,10€ or taxi for 30-40€.

Photos by Stewart Morris, Elena and Delaina Haslam. Thanks to the Croatian Tourism Office for the information.

A place well worth discovering! Check out our flights here.

Camino de Santiago. A trip to experience.

It’s a fact. Everyone who has walked the road to Santiago agrees, the trip leaves marks for life. But, what does Camino de Santiago have to cause such profound impression to everyone? Is it for the people you meet along the way or the amazing landscapes it goes through? Is it, maybe, the reward of arriving by your own merits to the final destination, Santiago, after many days walking?.

The numbers are compelling: every year, more and more pilgrims arrive to Santiago de Compostela, especially on Holy Years. This is a unique experience that combines a sport challenge and seeking for authenticity and discovering your own self. The final goal is to arrive to Santiago, the center of Jacobean tradition and a place of pilgrimage, after the grave of apostle Santiago was found in the 9th century.

The route has become a mass phenomenon, connecting a network of roads with Santiago as the final destination. No other city is so warm welcoming for travelers and pilgrims; this is a meeting point for people from all over the world.

The city. A great monumental complex.

Santiago de Compostela was declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1985, because of its urban beauty, monuments and for keeping the spiritual essence of an apostolic sanctuary.

The city combines perfectly tradition and modernity, in a great monumental complex. The Obradoiro square, which welcomes thousands of pilgrims, is a good example of how the past and the future coexist here, hand-in-hand. Taking a look around the square we can discover many different architectonic styles from buildings that were built during over 700 years on the making. The people look from the Cathedral to the Hostal dos Reis Católicos or from the Colexio de San Xerome to the Pazo de Raxoi, headquarters for the city council.

Along to the abundant green areas, many urban parks and forests surrounding the city, Santiago is a magic and charming place to visit.

For the food lovers.

Whether you choose a good and economic three-course menu, which recovers the energy of the pilgrims, or you prefer a casual meal of tasty portions or original mixes, Santiago is the place to go for food lovers.

Who can resist a tasty pie filled with the most daring combinations, pork with turnip tops, the best seafood, veal, octopus or a strong Galician soup? Or the distinctive taste of a wide variety of cheese: tetilla cheese, Arzúa-Ulloa, O Cebreiro or San Simón?.

Tarta de Santiago is a famous dessert, with over 200 years of history, combining the right proportions of ground almonds, eggs, sugar, butter and hints of cinnamon, under the Apostle cross drawn on sugar.

You can combine culture and gastronomy, can’t you? The place to go is Abastos market, a beautiful building from 1941. This place is the second most visited place in Santiago after the Cathedral. Around here you will find great restaurants and even places where you can ask the owner to cook the products you have purchased at the market.

So you feel like visiting Santiago, do you? Book your flights here!

We’ve often been asked by friends and acquaintances to recommend a getatable romantic destination for some special celebration with their partner. We always give them the same answer – the Amalfi Coast, in Italy’s Campania region. Indeed, you cannot help but fall in love with this slice of coastline, bathed by the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, with winding roads concealing some of Italy’s sublimest, most picturesque villages.

The best spot to start out on your itinerary is Sorrento. While not strictly on the coastal route, it is still a charming destination whose luxury hotels have attracted the big names in opera, notably Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti, acclaimed for his memorable interpretations of Torna a Surriento, one of the best known Neapolitan songs in the world. The balconies so characteristic of the seafront of this Neapolitan town afford some of the best views of Mt Vesuvius, a volcano which has scored the history of this land with fire.

Positano is the first village we come to on the Amalfi Coast or Costiera Amalfitana. Before driving into it, there are some wonderful viewpoints affording vistas of the village, with its houses clinging to the hillside, providing one of the most elegant and iconic picture postcards in Italy. Picturesque and unique, Positano is a must-visit spot on the Amalfi Coast and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997. Its steep streets are lined with fashion boutiques and shops selling typical products, while some of its “almost affordable” hotels are veritable backwaters of peace and quiet where many a couple have uttered their “Yes, I do”. This is the case with the Hotel Poseidon, run by the Aonzo brothers, who pamper their guests as if they were true friends.

We still recall how Marco kindly let us use one of his collector cars, a crimson red Alfa Romeo Spider, which we drove like celebrities of the Italian Neorealism to visit other legendary villages on the Amalfi Coast –Amalfi and Ravello. The former, after which this stretch of coastline in the Gulf of Salerno is named, is noteworthy for its flamboyant Piazza del Duomo and the staircase leading up to the Cathedral. Amalfi is the ideal place for shopping along its crowded streets, as well as for sitting down in some secluded restaurant with sea views to lunch or dine on some of the local specialities, notably fish in acqua pazza, washed down with a fine white Fiano di Avellino wine. The final gastronomic flourish is provided by the local queen of liqueurs, limoncello, made from the large, aromatic lemons grown in this area.

Another renowned village on the Amalfi Coast is Ravello, which has a gem in its Villa Cimbrone gardens, which are open to the public, and the marvellous Villa Rufolo, a spot that has enchanted poets, artists and musicians and has helped turn this part of the Italian coastline into one of the ideal places to get married.

Book your Vueling to Naples and make a tour of the Amalfi Coast.

Text by Tus Destinos

Text by Aitor Lagunas | @aitorlagunas
Ilustration by Pep Boatella @pepboatella

Idealized goal for the European adolescence, Amsterdam is also the perfect destination for a weekend walking among cobbled streets and canals. Home and birthplace of the legendary Ajax and of Netherlands’s total football exhibited in Euro’88, this city also offers places that make it a treasure for the football culture.

SPORTING ELEVEN

1 Olympic Stadium | Designed by Jan Wils -founder of the movement De Stijl along with Piet Mondrian- hosted the 1928 Games.
2 Coffee Jonkhart | 1894: three students come together and they founded the Footh-Ball Club Ajax (misspelling included), predecessor of toda’s Ajax.
3 Museumplein | If you travel to Amsterdam just when Ajax wins an Eredivisie, you may celebrate it at the Rijksmuseum’s park.
4 Meer Stadium | Ajacied home demolished in 1996. The streets surrounding are named after football stadiums. Bernabeu, corner with Prater.
5 Cruyff | He was born at the Civil Hospital in 1947. He grew up in the Betondorp’s neighborhood, near to Meer, where his parents ran a fruit shop.
6 Amsterdamsche Hockey Club | it has more than 2,000 members and has won the last two leagues in Dutch’s other national sport.
7 Voldenpark | Here you will watch football games as well as play them. At this park, sided games are played during the weekend.
8 Oude West | Gullit, Rijkaard or Bergkamp grew In De Baarsjes’s neighborhood. Van Gaal, however, is from the other side of town …
9 FC Amsterdam | Ajax’s local hegemony had only opponent in the ’70s, when FC came to play European competition. Now is amateur.
10 Amsterdam Arena | Since 1996, Ajax finally has the stadium it deserves. Inaugurated the consumist version in the soccer fields.
11 Copa | A brand created by a former player in order to wear ingenious shirts about football. The shop is worth a visit.

TOURISTIC ELEVEN

A Rijksmuseum | Reopened in 2013, offers a wide collection of flamenco painters, led by Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer.
B Heineken Museum | It all started when Gerard Adriaan Heineken met a disciple of Pasteur. Today is Netherlands’s beer.
C Flowers Market | Tulips, national symbol, are the focus of this charming market between channels. An ecological and cheap souvenir.
D A Jordaan Festival | In Amsterdam’s trendiest neighborhood, there’s room in September for street concerts and food stalls.
E Canal Parade | Just before, on the first Saturday in August, a water caravan runs through the city canals with pride
F Ane Frank´s House | After visiting it, one still not understand what threat might suppose that girl who dreamed of being a writer.
G MacBike | Maybe the best way to explore a city with few avenues and many alleyways. And certainly, the native way.
H Red Light District | Around the oldest church in the city have been crowding nightspots, in a strange urban combination.
I National Library | It is one of the architectural emblems of new Amsterdam. It has a cafe on the terrace.
J Coffeshop | Attention: Dutch liberals are wiping out the classic destination for all stoner teenagers. There is still some places.
K Dam Square | City center. Every few minutes spanish-spoken tours depart from it for very little money.

Text by Aitor Lagunas | @aitorlagunas
Ilustration by Pep Boatella @pepboatella

So you feel like visiting Amsterdam, do you? Book your flights here!