Souvenir shops.
Love them or hate them, they are everywhere in tourist destinations, usually plying tacky plastic souvenirs that nobody wants or needs.
Having lived in a tourist destination for 13 years on Hvar, I was well acquainted with the offers, but never tempted to buy.
Occasionally, over the years, there have been some very innovative attempts to present to the best of Croatian produce and artists, most notably the first shop of its kind in Split back in 2012, the wonderful Get. Get. Get.
But nothing quite came close to one of my Split discoveries last summer – a primely located spacious new souvenir store on Nardoni Trg, called Discover Split.
Rather than trying to cram everything into as small a space as possible, DIscover Croatia invites you in to browse and marvel at perhaps the best collection of Croatian souvenirs I have seen in my 20 years here. This did not feel like a tourism hustle at all, more part of the cultural tourism experience.
And with such a delightful space, some 160m2 in total, the store was arguably more interesting than some of the tourist attractions which one could find in the vicinity.
The Split store not only agreed to stock our recent book, Croatia, a Survival Kit for Foreigners, but also invited us to hold a well-attended book launch evening there.
And I can personally confirm that business is brisk, as it was not too long before I was back, delivering more copies of the book – the second order larger than the first.
Discover Croatia opened its doors at its newest address yesterday, on fashionable Stradun in Dubrovnik. The space is smaller, but equally elegant and inviting. So if you are tired of being offered cheap plastic souvenirs and Game of Thrones merch, check it out on Pjaca 5, Stradun, or contact them via the Facebook page.
You can get a feeling of the Split store from the video by 45 Degrees Sailing of the book launch back in December.
