Mediterranean Europe may be the best spot for sampling some culture while basking in the subtropical sun, but it can be cripplingly expensive to visit, not to mention the surging crowds. No trip to Italy will be exactly stress-free or cheap, Spain is the last place you want to be if you’re adverse to jam-packed …

From an overlooked cultural gem to a world-famous summer destination in only a small number of years, Dubrovnik is the city that best represents Croatia internationally right now: It’s become synonymous with ‘King’s Landing’ among Game of Thrones fans, and it seems to be on every Europe-bound traveler’s bucket list lately… result? The biggest crowds …

Very few countries have had such a successful trajectory in recent decades as Croatia has. Previously a part of Yugoslavia, a communist-leaning federation that also comprised Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a number of other South Slavic states in Southeastern Europe, it re-emerged from this dark era a more open, incredibly Westernized state. Year …