Croatia

Croatia is shaped like a pair of tongs, and almost everything a traveller comes for sits along the upper jaw — the Adriatic coast, more than a thousand islands, and a string of walled stone cities that the Romans, Venetians and Habsburgs each left their hand on.

Dubrovnik is the headline and pays for it in cruise-ship crowds; the more rewarding coast is the one between. Split is built inside a Roman emperor's retirement palace and still uses it as a living quarter. Hvar and the lesser islands — Vis, Korčula, the Kornati archipelago — are where the coast slows down. Inland, the terraced waterfalls of the Plitvice Lakes and the truffle country of the Istrian peninsula are the arguments for leaving the shoreline at all.

May, June, September and October are the country at its most considered: swimmable sea, working ferry timetables, and the coastal towns before or after the July-August squeeze. The peak summer is best planned around rather than into.