Rab Rab

Dear Reader,
We hope, in leafing through this
brochure, that you will also want to visit
Rab, this island which, surrounded by
an emerald sea, lies almost at the heart
of Europe. Beautiful beaches, pleasant
walks, superb cuisine and kind hosts are
the sure guarantee that you will enjoy a
pleasant, relaxing and fun holiday.
FELIX ARBA
120 years of tourism
“For days they played host to me on
Rab, with their kindness, openness
wonderful food from the island’s fields,
fish and crabs from the surrounding sea
and strong and full-bodied wine from
their vineyards, and I remained on this
island much longer than my affairs had
required.” So writes Croatian Renaissance
poet, Juraj Baraković of Zadar, in the
prologue of his book about the Rab
shepherdess Draga. This took place at
the turn of the 16th century, but has
remained true to this day. The sea is just
as bountiful, the fields and vineyards just
as fertile, but first and foremost, there are the people of Rab, who take sincere
delight in every guest and receive him as they would a dear friend.
In 1889, Rab’s municipal council declared Rab a tourist destination and health
resort. This was a logical union of the island’s natural riches, mild climate and
welcoming hosts. Not long after this decision by the council, construction began
on the first boarding-houses and hotels, and boats carrying tourists began to
arrive in Rab Harbour. Thus the prediction of Austrian naturalist Camillo Morgan
came to pass. It was he who, admiring the bays of Rab and the colour of the
sea, which “in places becomes a veritable emerald”, foresaw a place for dazzling,
opulent Rab “among the most brilliant pearls in the Illyrian crown”.
Rab has, since time immemorial, offered even more to tourists than just emeraldgreen
sea, fish, crabs and red wine on the table in a friendly and homely
surrounding. Rab is an island of culture, and has been from Antique times to the
present day. With its beautiful scenery and long, pleasant walks, Rab is an island
which fills the visitor with a kind of quiet, secret happiness. The happy town of
Rab - Felix Arba, the Romans called it, and if anyone knew how to enjoy life
and how to name a town it was they.
Rab does not captivate with glitter, neon lights and grandeur. Rab
seduces, gently whispers its legends to us, sets before us the
contrasts of the sharp stone cliffs on its eastern shore and its gentle,
sandy beaches, its bare hilly massifs and the riches of the woods
of Kalifront. Softly and without great pomp, it reveals its beauties
to us, as though removing from them veil after veil of alienation, hurry,
forgetfulness and stress.
And so it has been for millennia, right up to the present day.
In view of all this, is it not quite natural that Rab constantly receives new tourism
awards, affirming it again and again as one of the best tourist destinations in the
Adriatic The Croatian National Tourist Board awarded Rab the Plavi cvijet - the
Blue Flower - as the highest quality tourist destination. St. Christopher’s Square
was declared, not so long ago, the most beautiful square, and the “rapska torta”,
an exceptionally tasty cake which has been made on Rab for 800 years, was
pronounced the most original souvenir.
The European Association for Flowers and Landscape, supported by the
European Union, awarded Rab the Silver Flower of Europe award, for its welltended
parks and woodlands.
Welcome!
Your hosts, Rab Tourist Board.