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1StarCroatia – Zrmanja River

⭐⭐⭐ In South America you can see bigger and longer river for less money ⭐⭐⭐

This traveller went easy on river Zrmanja and gave it as much as a three-stars-review… even though, as he says, it’s more expensive than in Africa, and you can see longer rivers in South America.

You should take this review very seriously. If you’re coming to Croatia for the rivers, better change your plans. There are only 30-ish rivers that are longer than 40 km, and that’s still nothing when compared to, let’s say, Amazon. Croatia’s many river springs only make the country one of the richest sources of drinking water – nothing special about plain water if you ask me. If Zrmanja is one of the visually most stunning rivers of Croatia, with it’s green and blue serpent-like shape carved deep into rocks, than you know you should just turn around and not even bother visiting any rivers of Croatia.

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1StarCroatia – Kaštel Gomilica

⭐ There is a much better fort in the area ⭐

Those 16th century Benedictines really don’t know how to make a proper fort, do they? As the review says, there are other forts in the area. Actually the whole town is called Kaštela – very similar to English word “Castles” or Forts. There are seven castles, each one a part of a small historical town, each of them centuries old. But this one, Kaštel Gomilica, is especially lame, built on a reef. Whatever. We wonder why did they choose precisely this unimpressive one to act as Braavos in Game of Thrones.

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1StarCroatia – River Krka

⭐ If this is the famous Roški slap, then my name is Angelina Jolie. ⭐

Roški Slap waterfalls in Krka National Park can thank Angelina Jolie for the bad publicity – she obviously wasn’t very impressed and she let everybody know that, just look at the post above!
Take her advice and simply don’t bother. Skip yet another picturesque spot, since there are by far too many in Croatia anyway.

This particular part of the river Krka is surrounded by mills that could transport you back through time, viewpoints, unusual cascades commonly called “Necklace”… Why would the locals have a reason to compare that part of the river with pearls?… well, what do they know? Angelina and some others didn’t approve.

Listen to this and some other stories in this episode of Croatia Underrated podcast:

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1StarCroatia – Red Lake in Imotski

⭐⭐ Not red at all. ⭐⭐

Don’t you just hate it when the names are misleading?

They call this lake in Imotski „Red Lake”. It’s only because of the colour of the cliffs…and as a contrast to the nearby Blue Lake (that is actually blue, according to online reviews). I would expect the water to be red, hopefully radioactive, filled with blood, or whatever it takes to make the water red!

What a bad practice to use traditional naming for natural phenomena! Doesn’t anyone bother to rethink such names to meet the expectations of visitors!? This deserves no more than two stars on Google Places. A big thanks to everyone who sorted this out on Google, Tripadvisor etc, and made it clear to the unsuspecting tourists that the lake is not red!

Do yourself a favour and don’t even bother to check out yet another sinkhole. If you check out other sh**ty reviews, you will know what I mean: the rocks are too tall and steep which makes it impossible to reach the water. All you can do is enjoy the view. Really? Give us one good reason to do that. Half of Croatia lies on karst anyway, so what’s the point of looking at another karst phenomenon? More importantly, what’s the point of just looking at one of the deepest lakes in Europe (if not the deepest one)? Croatia, you disappoint once more.

Find this story together with some others on Episode 06 of Croatia Underrated podcast:

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1StarCroatia – Zagreb funicular

⭐ Why waste your money when you can simply walk up? ⭐

Thanks to this wonderful one-star-review on TripAdvisor, you are bound to ask yourself the same question and hopefully not make the same mistake as this unimpressed tourist.


She definitely has a strong point there. Zagreb funicular is indeed one of the shortest railways in the world. Not to mention the price of the ticket: it’s almost a full dollar! (it’s getting there as the dollar keeps dropping.) So, take this advice seriously, save your cents and don’t bother to go for a ride!