I’m from Austria from a very touristy place in the middle of the Alps. All in my family either run small hotels or restaurants. Tourists all year around, winter for skiing, summer for hiking and biking, you name it.

I was in Croatia with my wife for 2 weeks, it’s our 3rd time now. From f.e. Pula, Rijeka and Zadar we were in small touristy towns and inudstry cities.

I really don’t get this country, the locals smoke a lot on the bach and just put the cigaretts out on the beach and leave the butts there. The waiters and general the services are incredible unfriendly, slow and a hassle to deal with. Often we wanted to order another drink or coffee but the waiter never came back to our table. Almost every time locals were treated before guests (something unheard of in Austria, guests from out of the village always come first). They get better treatment and a smile. We are very friendly, try to greet in croatian, apologized to speak english, ordered quick and without a fuss but still got treated very unfriendly most of the time.

I watched a croatian couple in Rijeka throw their trash behind on a hill behind the beach.

The houses are crumbling, the streets are crumbling, the parking places are often sometimes in the woods without any markings. Saw a police car twice in 10 days and one time they even cut our car and honked because they missed an exit. The locals don’t use the blinkers at all. For whatever reason in Zadar busses often stop only half way at the bus stop and half of the bus is on the street despite perfectly fitting. Croats seem to park everywhere, Rijeka on the pedestrian walk, disabled parking places are just regular parking places even in underground parking. Seperating trash or recycling is not a thing, everything goes into one bag.

Every-Single-One of the concrete walks had imprints or foodprints on it. It became a running joke, I made like 200 pictures just from this. The sea and the beaches are incredible polluted and don’t get cleaned. Cigarette butts everywhere. I mean everywhere. On the floor, in every hole in every wall, everywhere. “No dogs allowed” signs are just an invitation for people with dogs. Holes so big my car would be totalled if I didn’t drive around. Smashed windows, street lights, for weeks. Dead birds or cats rotting and didn’t get picked up for almost a week. And the amount of sunken or half sunken boats on the coast was staggering. Every Lidl (supermarket) we went there were either half bitten donuts just thrown back into the donut trays or damaged items on the cashiers just staying there. One time this dude was angry in a Lidl because the line at the cash register was too long. So he just let go of his 2 litre ice cream pack, mumbled something in croatian and went out. The ice cream pack landed on the floor and was unusable. Nobody seemed to be bothered by it. I was flabbergasted. Never ever have I seen such a thing.

It’s really interesting. Growing up in Austria I have a lot of Croatian friends all blushing how awesome it is there and how beautiful. I can’t see it. It feels like everything gets half assed. The buildings, repairs on the streets, cleaning, the gardens, the lights, so weird. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of people really nice and all but in general it tends to be a more miserable experience. Don’t know why I’m writing this, maybe because my guess is that I can’t be the only one.

**Edit:**
Some didn’t believe me or think I was exaggerating or demand pictures, here, I scrolled 5 minutes and picked some random pictures: https://imgur.com/a/kQxqIoY

**Edit2:** Y’all think I don’t know that these are random encounters. Of course they are. Croatia has 4 Million+ people. But I had yet to come to a supermarket where all the candy at the cashier is open or with holes poked from a fingers. Not even once in Germany, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Portugal etc.

**Edit3:** At first I didn’t even try and just wrote some lines but now seeing so many of you complaining that this is false I thought about it and remembered some other stories. Want a couple more because you don’t believe me? I waited 45 Minutes in an almost empty bank to change 150 kunas into coins to pay for parking at a local beach. The bank was almost empty but the women there didn’t care.

I was in a Post Office in the middle of the day, only one registry place was open, the woman there didn’t even look at me and did something with some packages. Even after saying dober dan twice. Meanwhile the cashier on the next stand looked me straight in the eyes, she said nothing, opened her checkout, greeted some locals and let them come first despite us being there for a very long time and she clearly saw us.

There were only 2 restaurants were the staff was tight and know how to serve. As mentioned at the beginning, I’m from a hotel and tourist family. Everyone knows basic serving techniques. These 2 restaurants were high class and we paid almost 120 Euros per meal. Compare this to the waiter in one of the best coffee shops in all of Zadar just sitting next to your table chatting almost an hour with a customer in the middle of the day smoking 8 cigarettes one after the other not even looking at the customers once. Dude, come on.

At one of our sailing trips the skipper stopped caring and we went to a Marina to eat “Lunch”. Super pricey but hey, who cares. We were there for 5 hours because some clouds in the sky. Never mind the skipper drinking 2 beers and 3 whiskeys playing cards with his friends. Fun fact, super nice Marina, very clean, very tight but still, the waiters didn’t come a second time to ask if we needed something. They also weren’t present to get attention somehow.

Again, I’m not judging, I observe and I am wondering why this is. I would have get teared a new one at every place I worked in my whole life for a fraction of what it seems is a regular occurence in Croatia.

45 comments

  1. “The waiters and general the services are incredible unfriendly, slow and a hassle to deal with.”

    vrag odnija prišu

  2. Lol, lik se požali na stvari koje su sasvim validne i koje i sam gledan svaki dan, a vi se uzjebali ka da vas je osobno napao. Naš mentalitet je puno različitiji od njegovog, on ne može skužit neke stvari i to je to, doslovno nikoga ne vriđa i ovo su realno stvari o kojima i mi domaći svakodnevno seremo.

  3. What’s up with all these three months old (or a month old) accounts coming here and writing posts and comments like these? Lol

  4. Drei mal warst du da bis es dir eingefallen ist das du es nicht magst? Nicht die hellste Kerze auf dem Kronleuchter, was? Sag’ma, wie ist das gelaufen? Beim ersten mal alles Scheisse, und dann, beim nächsten Urlaubsplannung zuhause – ermmm, ich will wieder da Urlaub machen wo alles Kacke ist, unbedingt! Und dann, lass mich raten, war wieder alles mies, und trotzdem gehst du wieder hin? Haha, spricht eigentlich für sich. Naja, nix für ungut, danke für die Blumen.

  5. We have wastly different mentality than Austrians. We seek short term income without wanting to do any investment. We are basically blessed geographically, and we will milk that to the last moment until the entire system collapses.

  8. this post has to be a troll, and I cant believe its being taken seriously.
    Some parts are valid, but most of the “points” are overexaggerated to the point of them being comical.
    You seem to have smoked too much of that good shit and somehow found yourself in a fallout game.

  9. A couple days ago I drove from Germany to Croatia for my Vacation and you go mostly trough Austria on that route.

    I have to say it was a miserable experience, everything is under construction, roads are in terrible condition. Every restplace is trashed.

    I asked myself a few times am I really in Austria and not in Romania or something.

    Countries like Germany, Slovenia and Croatia are much better in that regard.

  10. My experience as I was working from 14yo-25yo at my parents who are working in one of biggest tourism towns in Istra, and they still offer their services on the beach altough I found myself other job. I would have then probably 1000 guests per day so I can give you some info.

    Well first thing is that 75% of owners of cafe bars, restaurants or anybody who has some service in tourism would like for you to leave them 10-15€ and walk away, never look back.

    I ain’t so sure about Croat people leaving cigarette buts on the beaches because on the beaches are probably 90% of guests who aren’t Croats, but it could be. It’s known that Croats don’t give a f about smoking as I see daily morons throwing them from car into the woods and Croatia is really known for it’s forrest fires. But you cannot change idiots.

    Waiters are just tired, altough that doesn’t excuse them. And 90% of them aren’t waiters that finished school for it, they are just doing it for money. I know a guy that went to my school, he finished school as electrotechnician and now he is waiter. They aren’t educated for that job.

    In Rijeka people throwing trash are trash themself.

    Blinkers enrage me brutally and brother, I know how you feel. Twice today I was raging in 6.15 in morning for assholes not giving blinker. Just imagine what is waiting for me this afternoon when I’m going home from work. I am especially sensitive on it and perhaps once per week happenes to me that I forget to give it. And then I swear and yell to myself for being moron. Parking is in any tourism city a big problem. That’s why anybody who has a bike, uses it to go to town. With car is just horrible, especially if it’s cloudy day or Friday/Saturday. We are especially watching at home to recycle paper/plastic/communal waste but I know that in town there are rarely seen bins that you can separate it.

    Cigarettes are on the floor in towns but also guests are throwing them there. Because when some german guy comes here he knows that he can do anything without concequences. Do that in Germany and you will get what? 50€ of ticket? Here nobody gives a f about it. Saw it 1000 times.

    People who have dogs are usually assholes and perhaps last 2 years have some people started to pick dog’s shit. Neighbour’s dog shat in front of my car and I was looking at that bitch. I told her “tommorow when I go to work, I’ll step on that shit”. Bitch replyed “no you won’t, go arround it”. I wanted to punch her and her dog. She is the only woman that I don’t tell good evening or good day when she passes in front of my house in my village.

    It’s hot and birds don’t have anywhere to drink and they die. That’s normal. And there are not enough people that clean the cities. I think in my city they are hireing 30-40 people for the summer and I think 5-8 people applied.

    It is well known that you don’t go in Lidl in summer because Germans and Austrians (no offence) just charge thru it like Napoleon in Austerlitz. I have Lidl here and I try to evade it maximally because there are enormus crowds inside it. And that gelatto guy. Also human trash and that’s it.

    Altough I don’t like summer because of that just huge rush, tourism, scamy gipsies in my town that sell those battery barking dogs or assholes who cut from piece of paper your carricature and scam people for 10€ or you take a photo with a snake for 10€. Just assholes. Restaurant owners who overprice their food (Lidl calamari 20€), 0,2l Coke for 3.50€, 0,5l beer for 5€. 0.03 gin 5€. Assholes like that put a bad word and rest of the people (England, Austria, Germany, Italia) just hate whole Croatia because of it.

    So in the name of those assholes, I apologize. I was working in tourism and as I said, I live 5km near tourism city, I know how you feel.

    Rijeka, Zadar, Pula, Split, Dubrovnik are huge cash grab cities. Next time when you come here in Istra try Umag, Novigrad, Poreč… Here is also cash grab but bit less. Rush is enormous but you can at least “breathe” easier. Towns are not so big so beaches are nice, clean, good shades near the beaches and so on. Food in town is shitty, low quality pizzas, calamari from supermarkets, fish from Norway, but if you just go 5km away from town in rural Istra for 50-100€ you’ll eat like God.

    In conclusion that’s about it. Sry for the long reply mate..

  13. Well, I ll give you a different perspective. We dont like you because you act like assholes that own the place most of the time. I am sure you are a normal polite person, but I ll tell you an anecdote from 2 hours ago. German plates.on the car, parks in the middle of my street and starts cleaning the car. No awareness what so ever that we actually live here and need to go to work, be somewhere on time. Hes just standing there, all doors open, i cant get passed him and hes smiling at me like chill bro. We fucking hate you cause you make our lives miserable for 2-3 months. We don’t have “tourist” villages, we have living cities that you make unbearable to live in. You are also pricing us out of our own lives in every way imaginable. So to put it plainly, we hate your guts and you are just, what out country made, necessary crap we have to deal with. There, i am really sorry if this comes out too rude or hostile, but its no gloves response to your comment. I have nothing against you personally, but you make my life miserable for 2 months of the year.

  16. I’m in Croatia on holiday at the moment and you’re really not wrong about the fag ends being all over the floor at the beach. Some of the service is dreadful but no more than in other places, sometimes it’s been lovely. Swings and roundabouts really

  19. locals on the beach… lol is that even a thing in a tourist place?

    and that croatian couple is 100% croatian or you didnt test their blood?

    lidl with bitten donuts… that is a german store and 1000000% a false story, you were a nice troll but pls go to austria and dont come back here to post anything

    ice cream landed on the floor… what a horror for you, pls go and never shitpost again

  22. U Hrvatskoj preko ljeta na obali vrlo vjerovatno ima više stranaca nego Hrvata tako da su smeće po plažama i ulicama i polupojedene stvari na policama lidla više odraz tih kulturnih zapadnjaka nego samih Hrvata.

  23. with some things, I do agree, however, most of your notes are just one big pile of shit with “that happened” moments.

    Don’t like it here? Fine. There is more than just one country to visit. Goodbye.

  24. U cijelom zivotu nisam dozivjela toliko negativnih stvari koje je lik dozivio u par tjedana kao turist. Odgrizeni donati u SVAKOM lidlu, ono bas svakom? Crknutne ptice i macke danima? Potopljeni brodovi? I ne znam di je mogao naic na toliko neljubaznih konobara. Ili je najveci pehist ili totalni serator

  26. > Often we wanted to order another drink or coffee but the waiter never came back to our table.

    It’s exactly the same in Austria, though… If you want more you give a little wave.

  27. You just can’t please everyone. As someone who has been visiting Croatia for the last two months, my experience has been completely the opposite.

  28. Gdje je ovaj bio? Mislim, moram priznat da za uslugu malo ima pravo, i ja sam puno puta dozivjela neugodne konobare po Dalmaciji i Istri. Za opuske ima pravo isto. Al ovaj lik mi ostavlja dojam da je zapravo u Hrvatskoj bio samo da bi biljezio negativne stvari. Takvima nikad ugodit a niti moramo.
    U Austriji sam cesto u prolazu, i nikad nisam naletila na nekoga tko je ljubazan, ni na benzinskoj ni u restoranu. Bila sam i u Beču pa se ne sjećam neke gostoljubivosti. Zapravo su hladni k’o led.

  29. Lol, well okay then, an apocalypse must have hit the coast in the week that I’ve been back from vacation.

  30. I’m in Croatia right now and have experienced the exact opposite. Friendly staff, clean streets, locals are nice and scenery is good. Now granted I am In a tourist area bit I have be outside of that into the locals bits and have seen clean streets and nice people

    Edit: and a fuckload of cats

  33. You are right about damaged infrastructure, buildings, bad sidewalks, parking lots, and cigarette buds…But the things like eaten donut in store is just random observation that can happen literally everywhere if some drunk guy comes in before you, or the waiter experience depends on which places you go. This post has some valid points but others are just your bad intentions. Our country had a very different history from yours, and you have to respect and understand that.

  37. Beauty is in the eye of beholder. So is the ugliness. If you opted to focus on bad things, and by the photos in that album shows that’s just what you did, that’s what you get. Being tourist is sad thing. People go on vacation to sunbath, swim, dine and rest all day. Maybe a short walk in the city if there’s anything to see. People don’t go on vacation to review and comment on state of old buildings, quality of roads and infrastructure, state of old marine vessels.

    And regarding half eaten donuts in Lidl and poked candies – tourists did it. They also throw trash on beaches, and take dump in bushes. Sometimes in the city too.

    Beauty of mass tourism.

  38. So this post is just OP taking every negative experience they’ve had visiting Croatia and generalizing from it and their own confirmation bias.

    Mate, if you haven’t seen all of the things you mentioned in “Germany, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Portugal etc.” or indeed in your home country, then you have a very selective eyesight, probably quite heavily influenced by bigotry.

    I’ve moved to the UK from Croatia, have visited many places in UK and Europe, including Austria. I’ve seen everything you mentioned in the “Western”, “more civilized” countries as well. Vienna and Brussels are easily the two dirtiest and ugliest capitals in the EU. Vienna in particular looks extremely depressing, at least Brussels has waffle vans on every corner so you can buy something sweet to forget the misery. And yet here’s an Austrian complaining about potholes and donuts. At least you can feel safe walking at night pretty much everywhere in Croatia, something you can’t say about Vienna even during daytime.

    In fact, the more I travel, the more I realised how wrong I was about my own country. I used to think of it as a backwards shithole while living here, but having seen most of the Europe and beyond now, and having lived long enough in the UK, I realised that every single country, hell, every single city has beautiful and ugly parts (in terms of architecture, culture, politics, and everything else). It’s just that us Croats have this inferiority complex and like to bash our own country more than any people in EU.

    That’s not to say that everything’s peachy in Croatia. Some of the things most EU countries do better is keeping graffiti off the walls of buildings at least in the city centres, having a reliable train transport network, having (often more than one) local airline which is actually competent, securing higher wages for their citizens. But still, all, and I do mean ALL, of the things you’ve mentioned I’ve seen in a day in pretty much every city I visited.

    Anyhow, if you don’t like it, don’t come back and good riddance. Someone more appreciative will take your place.

  39. > Again, I’m not judging, I observe and I am wondering why this is. I would have get teared a new one at every place I worked in my whole life for a fraction of what it seems is a regular occurence in Croatia.

    That’s because you have stolen all our _good_ waiters. Just kidding. But the fact is, most Croatians would rather go and work in Austria or Germany, where they get paid better money and their labor rights are respected. What’s left is people that can’t or don’t want to move, foreigners from god knows where (you should be happy they even speak English!) and _maybe_ the inexperienced local kids.

    I suggest you vote with your wallet because that’s the only way these things will change – hopefully.

  40. As a tourist, sounds like good riddance, if you’ve been here 3 times and all you do is complain instead of trying to explore new areas or such

  41. I believed everything you said excerpt “locals were served before you”. Sorry but that must be some other universe. Locals are treated like dirt because we don’t have EUROs to spend in their fancy ass establishments.

    This country runs on tourism. So much so that companies working in tourist sector do not pay taxes like the rest of us (as if that makes fucking sense).

    In the mean time, IT professionals are fined for owning a business that does work with a foreign client.

    You are lucky, you were born in a better world than us. Just turn your back and all will be well. The rest of us, we have no chance.

  42. It’s funny cause most of the austrian tourists say from 18-30 years old I’ve met in croatia are some of the rudest and dirtiest people. Total disrespect for our country and probably any other country they visit. The half eaten donut is probably from one of your compatriots.

  44. “The waiters and general the services are incredible unfriendly, slow and a hassle to deal with.”

    By far the most annoying service I have ever received is and was in Vienna. Fuck Viennese waiters, bars and restaurants.
    You mountain fuckers charge 10 euros for a frankfurter and a semmel and 6 euros for stale beer in the hut.

    I wont even mention charging for emergency situations with helicopters and mountain rescue.

    other things may be shit. Sincerely Vienna based expat

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