About Life & Ventures
How It All Started
2015
Returning back to roots
The idea of Life and Ventures was born many years ago, just after I was done with a season in Raftrek, one of the largest adventure agencies in Croatia. I was guiding adventure tours the whole summer without a day of rest. And I liked it. I liked it so much that I started to think about the concept of adventure tours but applied it to the place where I come from – the city of Ploče and its wider area.
After we spent almost 10 years in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, we decided it was time to return home and change our surroundings with more nature and less noise. Don’t get us wrong, we loved our years spent in Zagreb and we explored a lot of natural beauties of that part of Croatia while we were living there. But we felt that we needed a ‘slower’ life, one that is usually tied to southern Croatia. And so our new home became the city of Ploče, our old home.
Ploče is not a tourist place, it’s a small industrial town on the Dalmatian coast and the second-largest seaport in Croatia. But its surrounding is something you’ll rarely find in Croatia. In just 20 kilometers radius you’ll find lakes, rivers, the sea, and the mountains. A perfect place to start an adventure agency in Croatia. At that time there was just one agency doing something similar in a place where a dozen of them could easily organize adventure tours of their own. That was it. All of the savings made during the summer in Raftrek were spent on kayaks. A year later we started with our adventure project. And we loved it!
We organized adventure tours in nearby places – Baćina Lakes, Makarska Riviera, Neretva River Delta…
Pretty side of L&VE. She started her adventure life with scuba diving and continued with other activities. She loves to travel and she can’t wait to go on a next journey in some foreign country. She like to spend her free time playing with our two adopted kittens – Šćućur and Čičak.
Restless side of L&VE. Addicted to spending time in nature, discovering and exploring new places and new ways of moving. Rarely goes anywhere without photography equipment. Love landscape photography, especially ambient and atmospheric, fog, sunrises, sunsets, expanses… Always thinking about the ways to improve tours and design new ones.
2016
Guided Adventure Tours in southern Croatia
Back in 2016, after returning from Zagreb to southern Croatia, we opened our adventure agency, driven by a passion for discovering and exploring the stunning natural beauty of Croatia. From day one, we dedicated ourselves to guided adventure tours, constantly exploring and designing new experiences or making the existing ones even better. Even when the tourist season would end, we rarely rested—always venturing off the beaten path, uncovering hidden places, exploring and documenting them, and preparing for the next season. You can find a lot more material if you check our social media.
Our Croatia travel blog became a virtual home for these adventures, where we shared stories and photographs from our explorations, both in Croatia and beyond. We did our best when it came to promoting adventure tourism in the Ploče area, working closely with the local Tourist Boards of Ploče and Gradac. Along the way, we wrote adventure articles for Croatia’s largest outdoor magazine and collaborated with the Balkanvibe portal on topics about active travel across the Balkans.
Some of the tours we organized during this period were – Baćina Lakes kayaking tour, Makarska Riviera sunset kayaking, Norin River Kayaking, Gradac Rock climbing tour, Jezero Valley cycling and wine tasting, and much more.
Adventure is more than just tours for us—it’s a lifestyle. When we weren’t organizing adventure tours in Croatia, we focused on our photography, videography, and design business, trying to blend our creative work with our love for the Great outdoors. This passion even extended to outdoor elopements and intimate weddings in Croatia, which led us to create Love and Ventures – Croatia elopements and weddings.
Our journey so far has been one of constant exploration and growth. The tourist season may have its limits, but our urge to discover and share the wonders of Croatia never does. Through our stories, photos, and videos, we invite you to join us and uncover some great places this world offers. Just remember—respect nature, know your limits, and let the adventure begin!
2020.
Starting With The YouTube Channel
During the coronavirus pandemic, when the world slowed down, so did our work. With fewer adventure tours and a pause in our photography business, we suddenly found ourselves with extra time on our hands. But sitting still was never our thing! We took this opportunity to spend even more time outdoors, doing some great things while waiting for the world to get back to normal.
At this period, we decided to start a YouTube channel and share our adventures in the form of short documentary movies. It began as a way to stay connected with nature and creativity during uncertain times of pandemic but through the years it has grown into a new passion. We try to work on our YouTube as much as the time allows, with many new episodes on our mind, but not as much time to cover them all.
Slowly, step by step. Join us in this walk.
2020.
Love and Ventures
We always had a certain passion for photography and it has taken us on some nice adventures along the way. As we look backward now, we feel like we started with photography a long time ago. With years of experience behind the camera, we made Love and Ventures and started documenting intimate elopements across Croatia, which we believe is the perfect country for these kinds of weddings.
Soon enough, our love for adventure photography took us beyond the borders of Croatia—we found ourselves shooting beautiful elopements in stunning locations across Europe, from the mountains of Switzerland and the lakes of Slovenia to the coastlines of Italy, the landscapes of Ireland, and the charm of Malta. And that’s how we ended up with stories from this countries that we’ll share on our blog.
Every year, we continue to travel to some very stunning places in order to document love stories of couples from all around the world. Each of the destinations we visit offers something unique—a mountain peak, a serene coastline, or a hidden forest path.
And again, when we are not shooting for our Love and Ventures project, we explore the country we’re in. A perfect blend, we would say. Bit of traveling and, a bit of working. Check our website if you are interested in getting married in Croatia, we might help you organize and document the whole event. We even have some great advice for couples traveling to Croatia as well as a dedicated blog with a lot of content about elopements, proposals, and weddings in Croatia.
2024.
Shifting Focus
After years of guiding adventure tours, we felt it was time for something new. Our interests are numerous, but our time and energy are limited. That’s why we decided to pause our guided adventure tours in Croatia and shift our focus toward something that could reach even more people who share our love for nature: creating the dedicated Life and Ventures Croatia travel portal.
The main goal of this virtual landscape is to share the best places, experiences, and hidden things Croatia has to offer. We want to inspire you to explore Croatia’s incredible outdoors, from its stunning coastlines, mountains, and national parks to its serene forests, lakes, and rivers. This portal is our way of expression—offering tips, stories, and recommendations so you too can experience the best of Croatia.
Follow our social media
That's All About Us
Let's Focus on Your Experience
Latest Blog Stories
