Why Croatia Holds a Special Place in My Heart

That was 50 years ago, when Tony was 18 and I was 17. We were both working full-time and studying in the evenings so all we wanted to do was to spend our wages on going out and exploring.

With nearly a year’s pay under our belts we booked a holiday to Rimini, in Italy, with travel agency Lunn Poly but after paying our deposit the package tour was cancelled and we were offered Pula, in Yugoslavia. We had never heard of Pula and knew nothing about the country but went for it.

This month, exactly half a century on, I was back in Pula after a wonderful week’s sailing on 36-guest yacht My Wish. Every day we cruised into a different bay to swim, kayak or paddleboard and in the afternoons explored Croatian islands before eating out at restaurants by the waterside.

With sunny weather and a friendly, efficient crew, the week could not have been better until, on the final morning, at My Wish’s reception, I checked the list of transfers to the airport.

On that list I saw Hotel Brioni, Pula. Previously I hadn’t been able to remember the name of our 1970s’ hotel but that brief glance triggered a lightbulb moment.

That was it, after an already planned trip to re-visit the Roman amphitheatre in Pula I took a cab to the Hotel Brioni which is now unrecognisable as a five-star Radisson hotel.

Here on the Istrian peninsula I walked through the gleaming reception and out onto the vast patio – and then it hit me – the bluer-than-blue bay edged with clear turquoise water lapping against the rocks.

That view was the first time that Tony and I had witnessed such incredible natural beauty and we had loved being by, or on, the sea from that day on.

Yes, I did cry with joy remembering the complete happiness of that first holiday.

Tony passed away in 2017 and while I had not been able to remember the name of the hotel, I could remember the smell of pine trees and Tony getting dressed up in the evening in his flares, long-collared shirt and over-sized silver St Christopher medallion.

We married in 1979 but never went back to Yugoslavia although it always held a special place our heart.

At the new Hotel Brioni reception I asked if there were any books or memorabilia linked to the original hotel. The concierge couldn’t help so instead offered to show me round. The wooden panelling and mustard coloured décor had long gone and each of the glistening new suites were probably all at least three times the size of our former seafront one-room apartment.

I had to catch my flight but in that short visit I learned that Yugoslavia’s Communist leader Josip Tito’s private summer residence, the White Villa on Brioni Island, was just across the water from Hotel Brioni.

Prior to Tito’s death in 1980, Brioni Island was an influential centre of world politics where he entertained monarchs and former heads of state including Queen Elizabeth II, Soviet politician Leonid Brezhnev, Libyan revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi, Cuban president Fidel Castro and the last Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie as well as the likes of Sophia Loren, ABBA, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

How Tony and I could have been so blissfully unaware, while spending our days swimming in the sea, is beyond me. However, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

I have, though, pledged to visit Brioni Island, now a national park, to carry on the Croatian adventure.

Thank you to Cruise Croatia for enticing me back to Croatia. It was truly an Unforgettable trip!

So, what was your first holiday?

Lesley Bellew sailed on the ‘Hidden Gems Signature Cruise’ from Split via Primeston, Sibenik, Plitvice Lakes of Kornati National Park, Zadar, Losinj Island, Rab Island, Krk Island and Opatija.