The northern part of Croatia may be lesser known than Dubrovnik, Split and surrounding areas, but no less incredible. I flew with a friend to Pula on an impulse, with no knowledge of the country, and few expectations, if anything one of a fairly standard and cheap beach holiday - but the beauty of what we found left us astounded. We camped for a few days by the beach, and made the long hike with rental bikes to the southernmost part of Istria, Cape Kamenjak, where we jumped off cliffs into the Adriatic sea. 
We used buses to travel around- and our journey led through atmospheric Rijeka, Plitvice Waterfulls and onto Zadar - the home of Maraschino cherry liquor and of the solar powered public art installation by  Nikola Basic ‘Greetings to the Sun’.  From Zadar, we took a small boat to snorkel in the Kornati Archipelago. The whole of the region was, to me, imbued in a beautiful nostalgia diffcult to put into words. The old buses, the remains of the walls surrounding Zadar, the blue of the Adriatic, the soft sunsets and dusty white roads - it remains one of our most memorable trips to this day.