Island Hvar – Your place for best holiday

An international workshop featuring workshops on Japanese calligraphy, silversmithing, papier mache and silk and wool felting opens on the island of Hvar.

The Arts and Crafts Fun Festival opened at Hotel Podstine in Hvar Town on May 28 2011, the latest in an expanding range of tourism offers for the island of Hvar, voted one of the world’s top ten by readers of Conde Nast.

The festival is a series of workshops conducted by international experts in their fields, and affords participants with the opportunity to learn new skills while combining the workshop with a holiday in one of Europe’s hottest destinations.
Papier Mache – Nives Cicin Sain from Croatia (May 29 – June 4)

Each workshop last six days with a 3 hour stint each day, and participants are limited to 20. The first workshop started on May 29 and is being conducted by Croatian papier mache expert Nives Cicin Sain.

The course covers an introduction to papier mache, preparation of the front of the mask, construction of the mask header, how to join the header to the front of the mask, expression modelling, decorations and colouring, and mould removal, aperture opening and processing the back of the mask.
Silk and Wool Creative Felting – Louise Broad from UK (June 5 – 11)

Week two has two workshops running simultaneously. Louise Broad’s silk and wool creative felting course opens with an introduction to feltmaking, and covers various skills, including how to make a notebook cover and seamless bag, decorative items and jewellery, an introduction to nuno felting, how to make a nuno felted scarf, and how to make a group piece such as a wallhanging.
Silver Craft – Lazer Rok Lumezi from Croatia (June 5-11)

Croatian silver expert Lazer Rok Lumezi’s silver craft workshop packs in a lot of practical training on a variety of silver-making techniques. Skills covered include melting and processing, soldering and links modelling, wedding ring making and polishing and stone frame modelling and soldering to the base.

The latter stages of the course focus on shaping hemispheres and spheres from silver, arranging necklaces from stones and silver pieces, and making jewellery from the skills learned at the workshop.
Japanese Calligraphy – Kihachiro Nishiura (June 12-18)

The final week focuses on the Japanese calligraphy workshop of Kihachiro Nishiura, whose style is a blend of ancient and modern, developed through years of studying incense, the Japanese tea ceremony, calligraphy and flower arranging.

After an introduction to calligraphy, the course covers the basics of calligraphy and music in calligraphy, before examining more advanced techniques on the final day.
Additional Activities on the Island of Hvar

Workshop participants are entitled to a reduced rate at Podstine, one of the nicest of Hvar’s hotels. Located on the water in pine forests a pleasant walk north of the town, it has a relaxed atmosphere, which is conducive to artistic creativity.

With each workshop lasting three hours a day, there is plenty of opportunity for guests to indulge in other activities. Beaches and historic towns aside, there is a good choice for the more able-minded. Hvar Adventure, the leading local activity specialist, has a range of sports to indulge in, including rock climbing, sailing, kayaking, hiking and scuba diving, while Secret Hvar’s off-road safari is an excellent way to see the most beautiful and less discovered parts of the island.

Next year’s Arts and Crafts Fun Festival is scheduled to begin on May 26, 2012.

The intricately carved Venetian architecture and wide, welcoming seaside promenade of Hvar Town has helped make Hvar Island the chicest and most visited of southern Dalmatian islands. It’s a top sight in Croatia and one of the country’s most romantic spots. By day, excursion boats head out to one of the pine-wooded offshore Pakleni Islands of Stipanska or Jerolim where naturists have their own private coves.

For nightlife, you can’t do better .At night, the sleek and chic relax in one of the harbourside bars, sipping tropical cocktails and comparing tans.

Hvar is an island of sun and crickets, an island of lavander, palms, agaves, pine trees, laurel, sage and wine, an island of rosemary and lonely lagoons.
Hvar Theatre which is also one of the oldest Europen theatres, Fortress, Arsenal, City lodge, Cathedral, Franciscan monastery, are just some of the monuments that will enchant you with their beauty and take you back in time when Hvar was governed by Venice, Austria or Napoleon…

Summer night life in Hvar is by many said to be «the richest on the Adriatic». Parties literally last all night long, and guests can visit numerous cultural events: plays, exhibitions, concerts – from the offer of Hvar’s summer manifestations. Classical music lovers can assist many musical nights in the Franciscan monastery or Illyrian and organ musical nights in the Cathedral. Open air cinema in Veneranda is also very popular. There are a lot of different musical and folklore events going on all over the town (walking by the sea you will most probably find a local music ensemble Galešnik singing their tunes). The town has many original shops that offer souvenires made by local craftsmen, like lavender and rosemary oil that represents a real tradition of this island that, ever since the ancient times, has been called the island of lavander and rosemary. In the old part of the town there are traditional taverns where you can taste domestic wine and Dalmatian smoked ham.

Later in the night, people are gathering around many bars such as “Archie’s bar”, “Atelier”, “Loco bar”, “Kofein”. If you are into some “harder” partying do not miss to visit “Nautica” and “Kiva” (party is guaranteed!), and don’t forget the best cocktail bar in Croatia Carpe Diem, or “seize the day”, who’s round the clock programme will surely satisfy you…and if you want to see the dawn and the most beautiful sunrise on the Adriatic you can pay a visit to the discotheque “Veneranda”…
More romantic types can follow the old road to Brusje until they reach a path that almost imperceptibly turns right and climbs to the astronomical observatory with the best position in Europe. You’ll be able to watch the sun rising from the open sea replacing the stars, while peaks of little Hvar’s archipelago islands emerge from the clouds. By far famous Pakleni Islands are situated just a couple of nautical miles away. We could, without exaggeration, say that Pakleni Islands are the most beautiful part of Croatia and also the whole Croatian coast; playfull string of wooded islands dipped into the clear, azure sea, a couple of beaches, excursion centers and myriad of little hidden shores, sunny stone terraces and gorgeous lonely lagoons.

A significant motive for year round visits by guests is also event tourism. The Tourist Board of the Primorje-Gorski kotar County has dedicated special attention to this type of tourism by issuing an events calendar titled “From day to day” through the tourist information provider “Kvarner info” which is issued in 8 languages and is the basic source of information about the region and manifestations and is updated and reprinted quarterly.
Tourist offer events start in January and February with carnival activities which culminate in one of the largest and most recognisable European carnivals – the Rijeka carnival. The cities of Rijeka and Novi Vinodolski are members of the International Association of Carnival Cities which most vividly indicates the importance, in a tourist sense, of these events founded on traditions and within whose framework are a whole series of traditional manifestations like the zvončari (bell ringing) in Kastav and Matulja, Muna, Žejana…to the Opatija Balinjerade, International Carnival Day and Children’s Carnival Promenade. These are followed by entertainment-musical, gastronomy and sports events, which upon the approach of Easter and the pre-season, especially the main tourist season, increase in numbers and grow into a fireworks of attractive tourist events in the summer months.

February
The two-day Split Carnival in the middle of this month includes various fun activities, the highlight of which is an evening procession with many locals, donning masks, joining in. The main carnival is normally preceeded a few days before by a children’s carnival in which the little ones can also don masks and take part in their own procession.

March
Gast Fair is the largest gastro event in Croatia, and will be held in the city from 2nd to 6th March 2011.

April
Unsurprisingly, given its location, Split is home to the annual Croatia Boat Show. A large number of boats are exhibited by being moored in the city’s harbour and a spectactular parade of boats is held on the final day of the show. 2011 sees the 13th such event, and will be held from 12th to 17th April.

May
Split’s patron saint, Saint Domnius (Sveti Duje in Croatian) is celebrated with a feast day held each year on 7th May.

June
Picigin, a popular game played on the beaches of Split (read more about it here) has a “world” championship event held each year in early June – fun to watch!

The Mediterranean Film Festival Split will run from 11th to 18th June 2011, showcasing films from the region.

July
The Split Summer Festival runs for about a month from mid-July to mid-August. Much like the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, this one features open-air theatre, music and dance performances at various special venues around the city, including in and around Diocletian’s Palace.

September
The Split Film Festival runs for eight days from 10th to 17th September 2011, showing new films from across the world from a variety of categories, themes, genres and styles.
There is a wide selection of events significant to the enrichment of the tourist offer and extension of the season. From manifestations connected with culture (music festivals, concerts, exhibitions, competitions, press), sport (regattas, endurance, mountain car racing, motorcycling, water skiing, parachuting, cross bowing etc.), tradition (carnivals, folklore, gastronomy…), through to development of tourism (support for eco-centres, national parks and nature parks, improvement of places, walking and cycling trails, mountaineering trails…) to manifestations connected to the fruits of nature (Marunada – chestnut festival, Days of cherries, Days of asparagus, Days of mountain fruits…).All mentioned locations, you can visit at split map . Many tourists when come in Split, they stay in Split hotels or Split pansion. They really satisfied with Split accommodation.