Good country, exhausting tourist industry

Croatia is a genuinely beautiful and interesting place. Plitvice Lakes is worth every superlative thrown at it. The fresh grilled fish is legitimately excellent. excellent wines gave the trip real depth.

What I struggled with: the tourist infrastructure around the headline sites in Hvar is relentlessly commercial and Dubrovnik is extremely expensive and crowded is a genuine friction point. You can feel the gap between authentic Croatia and the packaged version sold to tourists. The authentic version wins, but you have to work to find it.