So well Vinjerac…where is that at and why would we spend 3 weeks there?? It’s not like us to transport our bottoms to one destination and stay there for the whole holiday. Nevertheless this year we settled in Vinjerac – a small village on the Croatia coast and it was blissful… amazing family time and a lot of inspiration for watercolors and ink sketches!

How did we discover Vinjerac?

Vinjerac is in Zadar county and there is awful lots of tourist attractions there. In the past I’ve traveled to this part of Croatia a few times, but i never heard of Vinjerac. This time our focus was on visiting Paklenica National Park.

Most of the people who want to explore beautiful Paklenica usually stays in Starigrad. This is where we started our holiday search too. As there were not many vacant apartments, we were slowly moving away from Starigrad until we found Vinjerac. It was simple as that, but we didn’t realise the gem of this discovery until we arrived in Vinjerac.

If you visited New York, you know that Manhattan is a great choice for those who wants to be close to all the attractions, while Brooklyn will offer you absolutely stunning views of NY city. Well Vinjerac is a Brooklyn of Paklenica and the rest of Velebit Mountains on that side. Just WOWZA.

Simple summery days in Vinjerac

Everyday looked like this: walk with our dog Chrupka to the only coffee shop in the village, morning swim and breakfast before kids wake up, morning swim with kids, second breakfast, siesta on the shaded balcony…afternoon climbing in Paklenica or swim, dinner at the local restaurant nr1 or nr2 (there is 3 in total!)…sometimes an evening swim or a schnapps in a local bar …

Vinjerac in my travel sketchbook and diary

Over the years, a holiday sketchbook nearly replaced my need to take good photos (I used to love my camera!). Now taking photos is mostly a ‘middle man’ between beautiful/interesting moments and later drawings in sketchbook. Sketching live sounds great but on holidays it doesn’t happen often. My first priority is to have a great time with my family, while sketchbooking happens in between. It’s usually early morning the next day, when i look through my photos and decide what to draw.

Vinjerac stole our hearts from the first moment. It’s the panoramic walk along the coast overlooking both Mala Paklenica (small) and Velika Paklenica (big). It’s the right amount of locals and tourists. Not too busy, but not sad and forgotten. Herds of cats patrolling the streets, keeping rodents away. Buildings made of stones, some look really old and historic. Dog Buba, who knows everyone in the village and makes new friends everyday.

An absolute gem and a heart of the village is Mornari Cafe. Almost always often (even in January!) meet up point for locals to hang out and share some laughs together, an attraction for tourists to drink a coffee overlooking the cute Vinjerac harbour.

ready, steady, go!

Vinjerac

gossiping on the beach

gossiping in the water

labrador Molly greeting us from her balcony

view from the local cafe

tasty treats

macro view of Vinjerac

‘I will help you cross the road Mr Turtle’

Buba – the local ‘mascott’

Chrupka and Buba

local cafe – best place to hang out in the morning

clilmbing in Paklenica

mountains – the more you look, the more you see

snorkelling with a view

at the end of the day in Starigrad

Vinjerac in watercolour

When it’s nearly 40 degrees celcius outside… it’s precious to have a shaded balcony with a breeze from the sea, a sofa and a big table, where you spend 3-4 hours a day hiding from the strongest sun! It’s very easy to get borred, so even my teenagers started to paint watercolours with me. It’s good I brought a lot of paper with me!

view at Velebit Mountains from our balcony

Chrup is ‘chillin’

dog’s freedom in Vinjerac

mountain layers in Paklenica

view from the beach

another view from the beach

Traveling to Vinjerac from Denmark

Oh and here is a few chosen sketches from our road trip to Croatia and back. There is many versions of road trip from Copenhagen to Vinjerac and lots of wonderful places to see on the way.