Croatian Changes in 2023: New Currency, Open Borders

I spent much of 2022 traveling all over Europe, tracking the many changes as I updated our guidebooks. Some of the biggest came in Croatia — in fact, starting today!

Croatia joined the European Union back in 2013. Europe wonks (my people) know that EU membership is a multi-phased proposition…which is why some countries, who’ve been in the EU for nearly 20 years, still don’t use the euro.

A decade after becoming an EU member, Croatia just hit two huge benchmarks at the same time: As of January 1, 2023, Croatia no longer uses its traditional currency, the kuna. And it has joined the Schengen open-borders zone — meaning no more stopping as you drive between Croatia and Slovenia or Hungary.

Goodbye, Kuna…Hello, Euro!

The arrival of the euro is a particularly big deal for the day-to-day lives of the Croatians (and their visitors). Traveling in Croatia just a few weeks ago, I sensed that many Croatians were still in denial about the new currency. For years, they’ve stubbornly stuck with their kuna against a rising tide of international tourism. It’s become a defiant, knee-jerk, almost patriotic sentiment: Euros are, adamantly, not the legal tender. Even in October, I still saw “No Euro, Only Kuna!” signs taped to cash registers.

When I’d ask Croatians about the upcoming change, the answer seemed to be unanimous: “We’re worried.” Over the last few years, they’ve already seen prices rise dramatically — not just for “tourist things,” but also for everyday groceries, fuel, and so on. Some of this has simply a byproduct of greater societal affluence. And maybe just a bit of it is tourist price-gouging that’s gotten out of hand, and blown back on locals.

Not to mention, there’s a huge amount of anxiety about winter heating expenses throughout Europe, where many places are reliant upon Russian fuel. “Standing up to Putin” and his invasion of Ukraine — which most agree is the correct course of action — comes at a very high cost, literally, in the form of very expensive energy prices.

On top of all that, Croatia now also faces the switch to a new currency. And when other countries have adopted to the euro — going all the way back to when it first appeared, in 2002 — it has often come with a big jump in prices.

Italians love to relive the drama of January 1, 2002. I’ve heard this story told perhaps a dozen times in the two decades since, all over Italy: “An espresso used to cost 1,000 lire. That should be about 50 euro cents. But when the euro came, it jumped all the way on one whole euro! Overnight, EVERYTHING COST DOUBLE!” (And it’s at this point that my Italian interlocutor, red-faced, always begins waving their arms.)

The “EVERYTHING COST DOUBLE!” espresso example is, obviously, drastically overstated. But it contains a kernel of truth, which is that if there’s ever a time to goose prices, it’s when you’re switching currencies…so people are less likely to notice. (Or, in some cases, will very much notice, and then still be complaining about it a quarter-century later.)

To combat this fear, there’s been much talk in Croatia about the “ethical transition” to the euro; authorities strongly recommend (but do not enforce) keeping prices equal. At a minimum, for the first year, companies are required to list their prices in both euros and kunas. That will not prevent price hikes, but it will make them more transparent.

One of my Croatian friends uses an informal “ice cream barometer” to track the dual impact of inflation and the euro. She explains that, before the COVID pandemic, most ice cream shops charged 8 kunas (€1.06) per scoop, or maybe 10 kunas (€1.32) for “premium” flavors. By 2022 — post-COVID, and with inflation booming — that 12 kuna price point had become standard even at the most basic places, with fancier shops charging closer to 15 kunas (€1.98). Many Croatians gravely speculate that €2 will simply become the default per-scoop price after the euro transition, with fancier places pushing the €2.50 or even €3 barrier. This may not seem like such a high price, but when compared to 2019, that would represent an 89 percent increase for a standard cone…in less than four years.

Selfishly, all of the unknowns about the euro transition really complicated my guidebook-updating work. I collected my information in Croatia back in October; we’re just about to send those files off to our publisher for printing, a little too late for a comprehensive double-check on the new prices. My only option was to get the updated prices in kunas for 2022…then immediately have to estimate what it should be in euros for 2023. (Legally, businesses were supposed to list the euro price next to the kuna price, using the official exchange rate: one euro equals, and will always equal, 7.53450 kunas. However, this is one of the most-ignored rules in all of Croatia.)

So, when updating my book, let’s say I was quoted the price of 55 kunas for an intercity bus ticket. Officially, that’s exactly €7.29975. So I guess they’ll round that up to €7.30?

Actually…almost certainly not. More likely, it’ll round up to €7.50 next year. Or — who knows? — €8. Or maybe they’ll get greedy and make the jump to €10.

Only time will tell what this change does to Croatian prices. For my part, I’m rounding up fairly aggressively as a “best guess” for our 2023 edition. I’ve already started double-checking some key prices for 2023 in euros (where they’re available), and sure enough, most places are not doing a one-to-one conversion; things are going up 10, 15, even 20 percent.

While this is stressful, I find that older Croatians — who have lived through more change in their lives than we Americans could possibly imagine — are taking it all in stride. “Meh, it’s hardly the first time I changed currencies,” one local said to me, referring to the Yugoslav dinar, then the Croatian dinar.

One thing I won’t miss about the demise of the kuna: the whacko exchange rate. After two decades of dividing every price by seven in my head, I’ll be relieved for my next visit to Croatia to require less arithmetic.

Rating Croatia’s Euro Coins

Another consequence of this change is that Croatia will be minting a fresh new batch of euro coins, with proudly Croatian designs on one side. This is big news for coin collectors, or for anyone who enjoys checking their change anytime they’re in Europe to see if any Estonias, Greeces, or Slovakias have slipped in among the Italys and Germanys.

Here’s my critique (as a “Croatia insider”) of where they landed with those new coin designs, which are rolling out today. Keep in mind that in Croatia, things tend to get complicated…and there’s often more to the story than what’s on the surface.

Two-Euro Coin: Croatia

The two-euro coin is sharp and logical: It’s simply a map of the country, with its checkerboard flag and the name in the local language: HRVATSKA. It’s a bit rare to have a map on a euro coin (Estonia is the only one I can think of), but I imagine the Croatians see this as an opportunity to do a little educating within the European community. Also, it’s hard to deny that Croatia’s swooping, angular boomerang, with all those little islands scattered offshore, is one of the most bitchin’ European shapes.

One-Euro Coin: The Kuna

I was hoping we wouldn’t entirely lose the “kuna” theme with this change. So I was relieved to see that the one-euro coin features the kuna prominently.

Croatia has one of the most interesting “origin stories” for its former national currency, which is both cute…and a bit sinister. A kuna is a marten — a foxlike animal whose pelts were a valuable trade commodity in olden times. (It also honors Croatia’s respect for the natural world.) And the stylized kuna design they’ve chosen for their euros is particularly adorable.

But there’s a dark underbelly to the kuna: During World War II, Croatia was a Nazi puppet state ruled by a local fascist movement called the Ustaše. This was the first time since about the 11th century that Croatia was ostensibly “independent” — and it was the Ustaše who first designed the kuna as their currency. A half-century later, when Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, they harkened back to some of those earlier symbols of “independence” (read: Ustaše times)…including the kuna. This was a provocative act to the many Serbs living in breakaway Croatia, whose ancestors were victims of the Ustaše.

My sense is that most of this is water under the bridge. Over the last three decades, the kuna has been rehabilitated as a symbol of present-day, truly independent, democratic, (mostly) non-fascist Croatia. It’s understandable that they would want to preserve that symbol of their modern nation. Still, for those who know its full history, it’s just a smidge problematic. (Ah, but who can resist that cutie-pie kuna?)

10, 20, and 50 Cents: Nikola Tesla

It’s with these coins that Croatia’s choice is far more provocative than the casual tourist might realize.

There’s no argument whether the great scientist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a brilliant mind. There is, however, some disagreement as to whether he was “Croatian.”

Tesla was born in the village of Simljan, which at the time was part of the Austrian Empire, and today is part of Croatia. And, in fact, Tesla was a Serb. A “Croatian Serb”…but a Serb. His parents were ethnic Serbs. His father was an Orthodox priest. His Wikipedia page describes him as a “Serbian-American inventor.” And if you go to Belgrade, you’ll see that the Serbs are very proud of, ahem, their great inventor.

You could make a case that Austria has as much right to put Tesla on their coins as Croatia does — since when he was born, his birthplace was part of Austria. But that would be a little preposterous, right?

I appreciate the impulse to honor Tesla. But make no mistake: by choosing to “honor” Tesla on its euros, Croatia is also trying to stake claim to his legacy…at the expense of the Serbs. And what better propaganda for convincing Europe Tesla is “Croatian” than putting his image, with the word HRVATSKA, on coins that will be jangling in hundreds of millions of pockets from Tallinn to Lisbon, and from Palermo to Dublin?

Hmmm…

1, 2, and 5 Cents: Glagolitic Alphabet

Finally we come to the little “coppers.” Here Croatia has opted for characters from the Glagolitic alphabet — specifically H and R, for “Hrvatska.” I love this choice, because it’s exactly what a wonky Croatia geek would go with.

What is the Glagolitic alphabet? OK, this is pretty dense stuff, so before your eyes glaze over, I’ll just give a quick, oversimplified recap: Way back in the ninth century (no, seriously! stick with me!), the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Method came to the realm of the Slavs to convert the people to Christianity. They invented an alphabet, Glagolitic, to translate the Bible into the local Slavic language. Glagolitic eventually mingled with the Roman (our) and Greek alphabets to become the Cyrillic alphabet, which is still used throughout Eastern Europe — Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, and so on.

The original Glagolitic alphabet gradually disappeared, except in some corners of Croatia. And when Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, they reached back to this chapter of their history and revived interest in Glagolitic as, in a sense, Croatia’s “own” alphabet. (In those heady days, there was even a very short-lived movement to adopt Glagolitic as the official alphabet of modern Croatian. Fortunately for all but the most ardent historians, this never went anywhere.)

So, while — like virtually all of their other coins — the use of Glagolitic characters evokes (to those who know the full history) Croatia’s separation from Serbia in the 1990s, I think it’s a fitting, and undeniably educational, choice for the little euro coins.

Looking back at all of these choices, I’m impressed by how much complex symbolism has gone into these selections. Some of them are a tinge nationalistic for my tastes. Of course, many countries have opted for national symbols on their coins, from Dante and Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man for Italy; to Germany’s stoic, angular eagle; to Slovenia’s beloved Mount Triglav. Most are not quite so packed with provocative subtext…or maybe they are, and I just don’t realize it. But in the end, this is Croatia’s choice, and this is what they’ve chosen.

What do you think of Croatia’s euros?

Open Borders and a New Bridge

The other big news as of January 1, 2023, is Croatia’s membership in the Schengen open-borders zone. For travelers, this means you won’t need to stop when crossing a border between Croatia and its fellow Schengen countries, such as Slovenia and Hungary. (And, for those who spend a LOT of time in Europe — like some of my colleagues — it also means that you can’t take a little vacation in Croatia to “reset” your clock of 90 days out of every 180 that you’re allowed visa-free in the Schengen zone.)

However, you’ll still have to stop and show your passport at borders with non-Schengen countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro (which are both popular side-trips from the Dalmatian Coast). There was already a potential for long lines at some of these borders, as people day-tripping from Dubrovnik to Mostar or the Bay of Kotor all tend to show up there around the same time each morning…and then again each afternoon, on the way home.

This will, potentially, be even more of an issue in 2023, especially early on, as those borders are also now the outer borders of Schengen.

When I asked locals about this, I got a variety of answers. Some pointed out that Croatia has already been essentially Schengen-compliant for years now, to earn the right to join — so this may not be such a big change. (Not to mention, there’s a lot of money flowing over those borders, which neither country wants to hamper.) Others say that, given how bureaucratic Croatia tends to be, they’re not so convinced it will be seamless. On average, the answer to the question of “How will Croatia joining Schengen affect its border crossings?” is the favorite Croatian response to any and every question: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There is one piece of optimistic news, for those who don’t like waiting at borders. In July of 2022, Croatia circumvented a centuries-long loophole that gave neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina control over a short five-and-a-half-mile stretch of coastline just north of Dubrovnik. For years, traffic on the main intercity highway through Dalmatia would get clogged up as each vehicle had to enter, then exit, the Bosnian town of Neum.

After decades of lofty promises, deliberations, and false starts, in 2019 the European Union provided funding to build a new bridge connecting the base of the Pelješac Peninsula to the coastline north of Neum — allowing the main road to entirely bypass Bosnia. The 1.5-mile-long Pelješac Bridge cost $500 million, 85 percent of which came from the EU. It was built mostly during the COVID-19 pandemic by a Chinese construction company, which imported workers from China to complete the project on budget and ahead of schedule.

When the first cars rolled across the Pelješac Bridge in July of 2022, it was seen as a victory for Croatian unity. But questions linger. The Bosnians who eke out a living around Neum are understandably less enthusiastic about the bridge, which turned their little resort into a veritable ghost town. Environmentalists worry about the impact the bridge may have on the delicate ecosystem of the Bay of Mali Ston, where lucrative shellfish farms depend upon just-right conditions to thrive. Ston, Mali Ston, and wineries in the Ponikve area — once off the beaten path — are seeing a surge of new visitors. But the main change is something you’ll notice only if you traveled here in pre-bridge days: It’s simply much faster now to get from Dubrovnik and Pelješac to anywhere else in Croatia.

That’s a lot of changes for one day, in one little country. But if you’re headed to Croatia in 2023, these are all great to know about.