Suggestions for holiday destination in Croatia or Italy for recrational freediving?

About croatia
I freedive in croatia without fins at 10-15meters. No permition needed, only thing you dont want to do is;
1) Dive at shipwreck sites that are relatively old (you may get incarcerated for suspicion of stealing national heretige).
2) Dive around fish farming nets (you may get incarcerated for suspicion on spearfishing tuna, sabotage and so on.)
3) Dive at areas with ship traffic (Alot of idiot tourists like to drive around diving markers, and you dont want to get hit by a speedboat going 70km/h)
4)Drop the national park diving. Its alot of boats, and you get the same expirience under the sea 10km away.
If you get aressted however its only to check if youre doing illegal things or not, so you´re not going to spend months in jail, but [some hours/a night] on a police station isnt funn.

The best tips i can give you about housing may be;
1) Dont rent in the big cities (Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik). Its expensive, contains alot of turists and isnt a place that suits your needs. The area around the cities is the same. Go some miles from the city and it will be perfect.

2) Take your time to surf the internett and look for rental apartments in smal sea villages at islands and at the coastline. The croatian locals are realy cool! You get alot more at remote sites and they know how to prepare fish. The clue to finding an amazing apartment is to call the owner. A nice thumb rule is; A) Seniors citizens are the best, B) The remoter the better, C) Close to the sea.
Seniors are best because they dont think pure cash and own boats, vine orchards and know the area/ have friends that know the area.
Youngsters are a bit capitalistic and arent that likely to invite you to their boat/ranch for free.

3)The northern parts are 1/2 price of the southern parts of the country. Pula is cheap, Dubrovnik is monacco.

Some tips about vehicle renting is;
1) Rent a boat. It may seem expensive if you visit rental services and its because they want to rip you off. So if you got a tight pocket and limited funds you may look at the other options. However if you dont want a 27footer that goes 30knots then i may suggest a thing to you. Go to a remote fishing village, sit at the coffeshop and be there in the early parts of the day (9-12). The old folks like to talk at the coffeshops and one of them probably got a old wooden boat. Talk with some old menn, be nice and dont bombard them with questions. Ask if someone has a boat that they want to rent for 45-70kuna a day. They probably got one, or know someone that needs some "bread" money. (Note: if they try a "150kuna+ a day for a wooden boat" its a rip off, just leave).
The boat is nice if you want to go camping at one of croatias many uninhabitet islands or be exploring areas.

2) Rent a car. Its expensive in the summer seasons but realy cheap at the spring and autum. Be shure to strike a deal TODAY if you want a car/scooter or so on in the season.
The car is nice if you want to go around the coastline/large islands.

Now some things you may need to notice is:
You need to report to the nearest croatian tourist office. Bring your passport and 100-200kuna maximum. The goverment needs to know where you are and who you are (Statistical reasons).
The money you pay is for the communal service such as trashtrucks, cleaning of towns/nature and so on.

DONT FISH WITHOUT A LISCENCE! Every foreginer needs one. Just ask a local or city offical where to obtain one.

If you got some more questions feel fre to ask!

A wee bit moist said:

Thank you very much, IllyrianYoungster! That was a very extensive reply that will really help me a lot with planning for my holiday! I really appreciate your advice.

I'd just like clarification regarding one of the topics you stressed:

Is the registration for the accomodation, for driving the boat, for freediving and/or for fishing?

Click to expand...

Im going to be honest with you, i dont know the newest laws.
The laws are changing all the time and its mainly due to the fact that croatia joined EU in 2013.
Im on the other side pretty sure that the registration is aimed on the accomodation and fishing (spearfishing is last time I checked an own type of fishing and I think you need a separate liscence to do it. It can be aquired at the tourist office aswell).

Im going to bet that there is no need to registrate the plans to freedive, but it dosent hurt to ask the tourist office just to be sure.

But dont focus to much on the registration, it takes around 10-20min. The real focus should be directed at buying planetickets asap (if you plan to go with aeroplane).
Its cheaper if you buy them some time before you go on the holiday, rather than buying them expensive 2weeks before.

Good Diving!

If you want good diving in Croatia you have to visit islands...
There are lot of islands here and in general you cant miss with that.
Sea is really beautiful and crystal clear :-D
My recommend is Vis island
The best island overall :-D

The southern part of the Adriatic is better for diving, especially for fishing. On the islands you will not go wrong no matter which part of the Adriatic.

Pelješac is beautiful and my favorite choice. Visit Zuljana, a small village with about 200 residents. If you are planning to go there in July or August, make sure to reserve accommodation on the time. There is not much appartments, so it is all reserved in spring.

If you scuba dive there are organized excursions to shipwrecks… For spearfishing, if you manage to get the boat, from Zuljana to the south you can make a good catch. (There are no roads in this area, so is less available.)