Why we do this?
There is a spot on the northern Dalmatian coast where the Velebit mountains and the Adriatic Sea meet in a way that happens nowhere else. The mountains are enormous and ancient and slightly wild. The sea below them is calm and clear and impossibly blue. Between the two sits Starigrad Paklenica.
If there was a place where fairy lore lived, where the landscape felt like it was keeping a secret it might just share with you if you stayed long enough, this would be it. Beyond Travel Guides grew out of that feeling: the conviction that this particular corner of Croatia deserved more than a passing glance, and that the right way to experience it was slowly, with the people who actually live here.
About Martina
I’m Croatian by origin, Edinburgh by home, and Starigrad Paklenica by heart.
I’ve spent years coming back to this part of Dalmatia, not to the resorts, not to the tourist trail, but to the mountains and the farms and the harbour in the early morning. I know the fishermen. I know which family makes the best olive oil in the valley. I know what the canyon looks like when the light hits it at seven in the morning in late September, and I know that very few visitors ever see it.
Building Beyond Travel Guides was a way of sharing all of that — not as a guide who walks ahead with a flag, but as someone who has fallen for this place completely and wants to show you why.
I lead every tour personally. I answer every enquiry myself. If you write to us, you will hear from me.
About Anis
Anis feels like he was born by the sea and this is the reason he has never been quite able to leave it. He knows the Adriatic the way some people know their own faces, by feel, instinctively, without having to think about it.
Give him a clear night and he will name every constellation above Velebit without pausing. Give him a boat and he is home.
He has spent his working life in Croatian tourism and knows the people, the places and the rhythms of this coast better than anyone we’ve encountered. He handles the driving, the boat trips and the logistics of our tours, but more than that, he is the reason doors open that would otherwise stay closed. Locals trust him. That trust extends to our guests.
Between Martina’s love of this landscape and Anis’s belonging to it, our guests are in good hands.
What we believe about travel
We believe the best experiences are specific rather than general. That a morning on a fishing boat beats a day on a tour bus. That the family who has been making the same flatbread for a hundred and fifty years has something to teach you that no museum can. That eight people is the right number, small enough to feel like friends by day three, large enough to share the joy of it.
We don’t offer the Croatia you already know. We offer the one that’s been here all along, waiting for someone to slow down enough to notice it.
A practical note
Beyond Travel Guides is a small, owner-operated business. We run a maximum of eight guests per tour, not because we can’t accommodate more, but because we don’t want to. This is not a package holiday. It is a considered, personal experience led by people who care deeply about this place and about the week you spend in it.
If you have questions before you enquire, about fitness levels, about travelling solo, about anything at all, please just ask. We reply to every message personally, usually within 24 hours.