Selfguided tours… coming up

Croatia Underrated has been through quite a transformation during 2024. Based on the success of the award-winning podcast, and the development of self-guided tours for our sister project Secret Zagreb, we started working on the same thing for the entire country. We are working on developing Croatia Underrated selfguided tours, in the shape of audio tours and printed guides.

The project was first recognised by a support-program for impact entrepreneurs called Pokreni nešto svoje (Start your own thing), where we’ve gone through a complex mentoring program for impact entrepreneurs over the course of this year. Only 10 companies were selected to participate in the program, among almost 300 applications. This recognition alone has been superrewarding. We didn’t even know what we signed up for – and we signed up for months of intense quality support that shook us to the core, restructured our plans and business model, and helped us on our path to develop selfguided tours.

Thanks to their support, several months ago we were selected to join another pre-accelerator programme, and next week, we compete to enter the accelerator phase with dozens of Croatian innovative companies. This entire journey has been incredibly inspiring and helped us make a break-through into the world of selfguided tours.

The competition that might help us realise our plans in time for your next trip to Croatia is on Tuesday! Wish us luck!

Makeover

Thanks to the incredible designer & artist Nela Dunato, Croatia Underrated has a new logo. It’s best that you hop over to Nela’s website, as she explained her creative process there. Plus, you will get a better insight into her portfolio and work.

We’re huge fans of Nela, and she contributed to our sister projects, too. She created the visual branding for our B2B gamified experiences Playful Croatia, and she designed and illustrated a self-guided game Zagreb Ghosts & Dragons Quest. Don’t forget to try that one out when in Zagreb.

Croatia Underrated – why so quiet?

It is hard to explain why do podcast sometimes go quiet. I am sorry that I wasn’t able to record a full episode for a while now. All this time, I keep thinking I will find the time next week. Good news is, I have finally been seriously working on many new episodes, and I will start releasing them very soon. I was also pretty creative and started developing some new ideas related to audio – such as Secret Zagreb App that is coming up this summer! I have also been working pretty hard, trying to find ways to finance some side-products, such as audio tours through Croatia, and Croatia Underrated guide books. Haven’t been succesful yet, but I am not letting it go:)

I started this podcast in Covid times, and it is still my favourite project, but I just haven’t been able to pursue it after the tourism business with Secret Zagreb and other project rose from the dead. On the other hand, I’ve been a collaborator on so many interesting projects all over Croatia, and got to know many places that I hadn’t known before – I can’t wait to share the curiosities with you.

But – first things first. The first upcoming episode will enter the realm of myths and legends, and I will introduce you to the creatures of vile – Croatian fairies. Stay tuned.

Best creative podcast recognition

International organisation Creative Tourism Network continues to support tourism initiatives from all over the world by awarding the most exquisit ones with a recognition. This year, they started a contest for Best Creative Tourism Media, and one of the categories was – Best creative podcast. I just couldn’t believe it when I found out they awarded Croatia Underrated!

And then, it turns out that the podcast received another recognitionb in Croatia, too. Yearly award for tourism Simply the Best awarded Croatia Underrated as the best new project in tourism.

I am so delighted by these news. On the other hand, it’s a huge pressure since a lot of new collaborations are coming up, and it’s going to be hard to keep the podcast running as regularly as in the first years.

Best of Croatia Underrated

In this season’s last episode, and the very last episode in this first year of Croatia Underrated, I’m bringing you an end-of-the-year special. An overview: the best of this podcast.

This podcast covers a variety of topics. I’m hoping this episode will help you understand better what to expect, in case you haven’t listened to it carefully yet. Maybe you bumped into just some of the episodes that weren’t really your thing. For those of you who enjoy listening to it regularly, I’m hoping to bring back some fun moments. 

Listen to the entire episode, or scroll down to read about it:

Continue reading “Best of Croatia Underrated”