Mali Lošinj, KVARNER
Today, Lošinj is a much sought-after tourist destination where you can tune into yourself. Lošinj’s tourist beginnings are linked to health tourism, as the benefits of climate and vegetation of the island were first discovered by the wise Austro-Hungarian aristocracy. Along with proclaiming Lošinj a health resort, they built numerous villas and summer residences, which have been restored, and today enrich the landscape. Along with them, there are numerous newly built hotels, which are continually being upgraded with new facilities. Some of them already boast four stars, offering Wellness Centre programs and swimming pools with heated sea water, while others are transformed into smaller family hotels and guest houses.
In private accommodation you will have the opportunity to meet the friendly locals – their customs and traditions. You’ll experience a symphony of colours, fragrances and tastes, revelling in the island’s traditional cuisine based on wild, aromatic plants and olive oil. Once again, you’ll be delighted by the taste of spring lamb and Kvarner Bay scampi, the aroma of homemade brandy with pot herbs and the bouquet of our local wine from Susak. Lošinj provides campsites scattered over the entire island, along the sea, with beautiful beaches protected from the sun by pine trees, thus providing visitors with natural aromatherapy. The fragrance programs are revived throughout the whole year, bearing the name of the month in accordance with the wild and autochthonous flora, and offering a profusion of healthy and unique fragrances and tastes.
Active holiday seekers, all year round, are able to use the 220 km long laid-out pathways, which stretch over no less than five islands. The pathways and promenades wend their way through diverse and sweet-smelling tracts of nature and can lead you to hidden hamlets and picturesque places: Belej, Ustrine, Punta Križa, Nerezine, Sv. Jakov, Ćunski or Artatore. The more adventurous explorers will go diving into the depths full of caves and reefs, while those who prefer the sea surface can indulge in sailing, surfing, skiing and recreational fishing.
Following a fully active day, you are eager no doubt to relax and be entertained. Set off into the Lošinj night! Visit the taverns with live music, nightclubs, listen to a jazz-festival and fine “klapa” songs (close-harmony singing), and enjoy Lošinj folk dancing groups with their traditional folk costumes.
Don’t forget to watch the sky, as it has remained the starriest sky back from the time of Spiridon Gopčević (Leo Brenner) who chose Lošinj for his astronomical observatory Manora.
From here, I, Apoxyomenos, was taken and displayed at home and abroad, but nowhere did I encounter a climate or people such as these. I am certain it was no coincidence that my bronze statue was left here amidst the Lošinj islands.
Somehow this is the place for me, a place to which I would surely return.