Croatian Adriatic — Hotel Hygge, autumn youth trip

An autumn group holiday on the Dalmatian coast for teenagers travelling without their parents. There are no lessons: the week is built from free time in Biograd na Moru and on the beach, a sport and leisure programme run by the team, and full-day coach excursions along the coast and inland. A sample day plan is published by the operator and may shift with the weather or with how the group days are organised.

The price covers five nights at the hotel in a four- to six-bed room, half board, return travel by modern coach from Germany with two night drives, the sport and leisure programme including a beach volleyball tournament, four included excursions with entrance to Krka National Park, trained supervision and travel leadership, and insolvency insurance. Travelling to the departure point and back is the family’s own arrangement; the operator also allows participants to make their own way to the resort instead of taking the coach.

Participants stay at a three-star hotel in a quiet position in Biograd na Moru. The beach, the yacht harbour, the shops, the harbour promenade and the old town are all about five minutes away on foot, and the pebble Bosana Beach is roughly 300 m from the hotel. Rooms are modern four- to six-bed with shower and WC, air conditioning, satellite TV and, for some of them, a balcony. A double room is available for a small supplement. Free WiFi is provided in the hotel lobby.

Half board is included: a generous breakfast buffet and an evening buffet. The operator asks for special dietary requirements at the time of booking and states that vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, fructose-free, sorbitol-free and pork-free catering is possible. The trip is not suitable for participants with a peanut allergy or on a protein-free diet.

The team runs a sport and leisure programme that includes a beach volleyball tournament. Four excursions are part of the price: the harbour city of Split together with the old town of Trogir and their UNESCO World Heritage sites; the harbour city of Zadar with sightseeing and time for shopping; Krka National Park with its seventeen waterfalls, entrance included; and the coastal town of Sibenik. Further excursions and extra services that are not already included can be booked locally; the operator publishes their description roughly four weeks before departure.

Meals are served as buffets in the hotel, which also has a terrace and seating areas outside. Free WiFi is available in the lobby. Small supermarkets, konobas and music bars stand next to the hotel and along the harbour promenade.

Biograd na Moru is a small coastal town with a marina, a harbour promenade and an old town, set on the Dalmatian coast south of Zadar. In autumn the sea is still warm and the beaches are no longer crowded, and the UNESCO sites of Trogir, Split and Sibenik — a mix of antiquity, Romanesque and Renaissance — are easier to walk through than in high season. Krka National Park is the set piece of the trip: waterfalls dropping through autumn colour into green-gold gorges. Evenings are spent along the promenade or in the lanes of the old town. Supervision is kept in the background, at roughly one leader to twenty participants, so that the group organises much of its own day; participants sign in and out with the team when they leave the hotel, above all at night. The operator states that the trip is not suitable for participants with limited mobility.