Croatian Adriatic — Hotel Marin, 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 Pakostane 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 the old town of Pakostane, about 200 m from the seafront promenade and within walking distance of a supermarket, a bakery, konobas, pizzerias and shops. Rooms are four- to six-bed with shower and WC, air conditioning and, for most of them, a balcony. A double room is available for a supplement. Free WiFi is provided in the hotel lobby.

Half board is included: a breakfast buffet and an evening buffet, both served in the hotel’s own dining room. The operator asks for special dietary requirements at the time of booking and states that vegetarian, lactose-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, weather permitting, and snorkelling and beach equipment is provided. 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. A boat trip to the Kornati archipelago can be booked locally. The operator publishes the description of locally bookable excursions roughly four weeks before departure.

The hotel has its own dining room where the buffets are served and a small club room used for table tennis, SingStar and darts. Free WiFi is available in the lobby. The pebble and sand beaches of Pakostane are about 200 m away.

Pakostane sits on the Dalmatian coast between Zadar and Split, in a stretch of quiet bays and small coastal towns. 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 in the lanes of the town or on the waterfront promenade. 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.