Croatia and Montenegro, May 2014

Whilst in Croatia I stayed in a place called Cavtat, which is a lovely small town near Dubrovnik. Croatia has quickly grown in popularity within the past few years and it's easy to see why – The sea is crystal clear and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. The country has a lovely relaxed feel to it and I really did fall in love with the place when I went there. My holiday in Croatia was just before my passion for photography began to develop but despite that, I still like some of the photos themselves, which is a testament to how photogenic the country is!

The main attraction in the area near Cavtat is the old town of Dubrovnik which is a lovely historic town, and now known as the setting for a few scenes in the TV series Game of Thrones. If you're just looking to visit Dubrovnik for a day trip, it is do-able, but there is a lot to try and fit in and you might find yourself having to try and fit another visit in later on in the holiday. A quick word of warning to keep in mind too is that it was pretty busy even when I went in May, and that was out of peak season.

Another great aspect of visiting Croatia is the close proximity of other interesting countries nearby, and there are loads of different tour options that you can book onto while you're actually on holiday to visit some of the neighbouring countries. Nothing better than ticking off two countries in one holiday! I did a day trip to Kotor in Montenegro (below) which was awesome and it included lots of history and beautiful viewpoints, but you could also look at visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina.

One of the main reasons that I would love to go back is to be able to visit the Plitvice Lakes National Park, nearer Zagreb, which looks absolutely stunning. Some other popular areas of Croatia are Split and Pula which both look equally as good as Dubrovnik, and I often end up doing research for them both at work when all that I can see from the office window in Leeds is rain...