About Jeanne Oliver

In 1998, she returned to Croatia to write the first edition of Lonely Planet's popular Croatia guidebook which was the first guidebook in English to Croatia.

Over the course of the next four editions in 10 years, Jeanne watched Croatia emerge from the Balkan wars to become a massively popular tourist destination.

Recently, Jeanne gave an interview to the newsletter of the Croatian Embassy in Washington DC recounting her experiences covering Croatia. Here's an excerpt :

• What were your first impressions of the country?

Good and bad. On the one hand, there were still visible reminders of the war. The Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb had peacekeepers and officials coming and going. Zadar still had sandbags around the buildings and Dubrovnik had yet to repair all its roofs. Worse, from Istria all down the coast, people were morose and demoralized. The disruptions provoked by the war were still fresh in people's minds. On the other hand, the sheer physical beauty of the country was staggering. And there were no other visitors! Well, one. In Zadar, the chess player Gary Kasparov showed his support by organizing and playing in a local chess tournament. It was clear that a lot of work needed to be done to repair the tourism infrastructure, especially the hotels, but it was equally clear that once it was repaired, Croatia was going to be a massive destination.

You can read the entire interview (in pdf) here and download the entire newsletter here.

Jeanne wrote all Croatia editions for Lonely Planet up to Croatia 4 as well as the Croatia chapters for Mediterranean Europe, Eastern Europe, and Europe on a Shoestring. Jeanne also wrote the Croatia and Slovenia chapters for the first edition of Western Balkans. Her most recent book is Insight Guides Step-by-Step Croatia which has 15 personally-crafted itineraries with maps and specific walking, driving or public transport directions. See Jeanne's author page at Amazon.

Jeanne currently devotes herself full-time to Croatia Traveller, returning to the country each year to update.

Media

Radio

NPR (National Public Radio) interviewed Jeanne about Croatia travel. Listen to Jeanne's interview with hosts Alison Stewart and Luke Burbank here.

Newspapers

The Guardian interviewed Jeanne about starting a successful website. Read it here.

Jutarnji list (a Croatian daily) spoke to Jeanne about her impressions of Croatia. Read it here (in Croatian)

Online

Budget Travel hosted on online web chat with Jeanne about Croatia. Read it here.

Inc.Plan named Jeanne "Entrepreneur of the Week" and interviewed her about starting Croatia Traveller. Read the article here.

Jeanne's Other Books

For Lonely Planet, Jeanne was also the sole author of Normandy 1, Crete 1 and Crete Condensed 1. She contributed sections to Germany 4, France 5, Brittany and Normandy 1 and Greece 6.

For Frommers, Jeanne wrote Paris on $80 a day, Memorable Walks in Paris and contributed sections to Europe on $60 a day.

Her articles have appeared in the Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, St Petersburg Times, the Denver Post, National Geographic Traveler and the New York Post.

Jeanne also publishes:

• FrenchRivieraTraveller.com, an online guide to travel on the French Riviera; and
• Riviera-Beaches.com, a practical guide to the beaches of the French Riviera

Follow Jeanne on Twitter  

                         
Jeanne's work on this website is completely independent of her work for Lonely Planet and Insight Publications which have no connection whatsoever with the content of this site.

     Croatia Traveller is a product of:

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