Croatia is beautiful. Yesterday I have returned to Warsaw from a week-long vacation in Croatia.

There is this one thing I can't seem to grasp: Croatia and Poland have almost the same GDP per capita, but why are the prices in Croatia roughly 2x compared to Poland while the infrastructure and quality of life are visibly way lower than those in Poland? What is the proposition? Like, just the sea and the weather?

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izacus 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Because Croatia is a tourist destination that became wildly popular lately, especially after Game of Thrones hype and COVID flight bans. There's literally millions of Europeans going there every year and prices have been skyrocketing as a consequence.

No one really goes to Poland for it's summer weather or the coast.

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techcode 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Can you share more specific place(s) in Poland and Croatia for your "infrastructure and quality of life" being 2x different? And what infra and what are you looking at for QOL?

And the weather - well personally I haven't been in Croatia around New Years.

But last few weeks (it's same every year) it was 37-40°C - too hot. While in May you still need to turn on heating (or light a fire).

And from the rest of family that grew up in the Croatian coast (Dalmatia) - winters sound pretty crappy due to winds. Also because it's mostly still above 0°C snow is rare.

My wife said that as kid, they had to drive her to other part of then Yugoslavia for her to finally see real snow.

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egorfine 2 days ago | parent [-]

In Poland - basically almost every large city, from Warsaw to Torun. In Croatia I have been in Split and in Dubrovnik.

I'm looking at things like pavement construction, overnight leftover trash on the streets, quality of business signs, cleanliness of buildings, bike parking spots and infrastructure on them, % of restaurants trying to scam you, etc. That sort of things.

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techcode 2 days ago | parent [-]

IMHO it's not really good comparison?

What would be ultra touristic places in Poland? Both Split and Dubrovnik are ultra touristic, and say Amsterdam is similar. Also the part of really old streets/buildings that are UNESCO and such protected and not supposed to be renovated.

And to me - Krakow seemed very similar to Belgrade (Serbia) and Zagreb (Croatia).

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egorfine 2 days ago | parent [-]

Yeah it's not a really good comparison due exactly due to factors you have mentioned.

But I have been in ultra touristic places in Poland restaurants genuinely don't want to scam you, which is the case in almost all of the restaurants in Croatia I have visited.

	▲	techcode 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't get the scam feeling in restaurants in Croatia. Might be due to us (wife born in Croatia, myself in Serbia) being "effectively local". The only unusual (though turns out it's the new norm) thing was brown skinned (probably from Southeast Asia) fastfood employee pronouncing our order number and telling me "Dobar tek!" (Enjoy your meal). For me peak tourist scams are things like: - hop on hop off busses/boats (that cost more, and are usually worse for getting around than normal public transport) - all the hustlers like stereotypical Amsterdam RedLight or Barcelona Rambla "drugs" dealers, or random people (not waiting staff) trying to get you to enter way overpriced clubs/restaurant/etc. - restaurant selling €3-€5 frozen pizza as a "Real Wood Fired Italian Pizza Oven" Otherwise - same as back home (used to be Belgrade Serbia, now Amsterdam NL) and when traveling. I try to go into restaurants or fast food where locals go. Often recognized by police/ambulance/firefighters/taxi cars and uniformed clients, bunch of school age kids or student going there during scheduled breaks.