Croatia

Croatia, a southeastern European country with more than 1,200 islands lining its Adriatic Coast, calls itself the gateway between the West and the East. Decades after the war that freed it from Yugoslavia, this nation has fully come into its own as a spot for sea and sun worshipers and gourmands alike. A tour of the boomerang-shaped Croatia is a dense undertaking; it’s loaded with all the culture and history one would expect of a land that acted as the frontline between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. But it is also a voyage that combines Old World customs (think winemakers hauling grapes via donkey in Italy or Greece 60 years ago) with European modernity.