Croatia is poised to become one of the hottest short-haul destinations of the year. Lonesome Planet tagged its coast region of Istria as one of its top visits for 2011, and that’s just one of many stops in this cheap, outside-the-eurozone country.

Here’s our list of things to do and see, including traditional toy-making, a sea and sun-powered music and light show, ancient Greek fields, Roman marvels and lighthouse stays on remote islands. Not to mention 1,000 miles of rocky coves and pine-fringed beaches.

1. Inside these walls

One US internet site recently named Dubrovnik the 3rd most romantic place in the world, after Buenos Aires and Bora Bora, but ahead of Paris and Venice. This handsome ‘city of stone and light ‘, between the Adriatic and the Dinaric Alps, was battered in the Balkan war of the Nineties.

Restorers pieced it together virtually to the state of its glory days : the newer orange terracotta tiles are the only real clue as to where the bombs fell. The well saved, mile-long 14th Century ramparts are among the finest in Europe. The pedestrian-only old city inside is totally full of medieval, renaissance and baroque treasures, as well as designer shops, restaurants and galleries.

2. Truffles and bikes

Istria stands apart at the top of Croatia, close to Trieste and Venice. Forsaken Planet describes it as ‘toned down Tuscany’. There are lots of easy beach-holiday options on Istria’s shore ( it’s the same all down Croatia’s long, crinkly coast, and more than 1,000 islands ).

Or you might escape to the region’s green interior, where narrow roads spiral up to remote medieval hill cities and hamlets. Stay in a BB and dine in restaurants under horse-chestnut trees. Cycling vacation firms offer routes over well-signed paths, while they whisk bags to the next stop. This is prime truffle country : try them in omelettes or stirred into wild wild pig croquettes.

3. Light symphony

Sea and the sun combine to give a diva music and light performance on the promenade in Zadar, the pretty and historical town now served by discount flights. The Sea Organ is 35 pipes of different lengths, diameters and angles built into the steps over that the Adriatic washes. The tide pushes air down the tubes to produce a haunting and capricious symphony.

Designer Nikola Basic has added Greeting To The Sun, a glass circle set on the dock at the precise point on the waterfront from where you see what is alleged to be the world’s most beautiful sunset. Photovoltaic plates (a kind of solar panel) absorb energy by day and produce a show of dancing lights by night, and enough power to light the whole harbour.

4. Hand-carved heritage

There’s a heart-warming alternative option to heavily produced, and you’ll be able to find it in the region of Hrvatsko Zagorje, north of Zagreb. They have been making toys by hand here for ages, applying simple abilities that never died out. The men carve 50 kinds of toys from locally raised willow, lime, beech and maple, and the ladies decorate them in eco-friendly red, yellow and blue paint.

Unesco has put this admirable calling on its World Unsubstantial Cultural Heritage List. Best spots to see toymakers in action are Marija Bistrica and surrounding hamlets. Other Croatian cultural conventions are two-part folks singing in the seaside regions, and lacemaking in Pag, Lepoglava and Hvar.

5. Fields of dreams

There’s a new, and extraordinarily old, reason to take the short ferry trip from Split to enchanting Hvar, the longest of the 1,000 Croatian islands. Unesco has just made the island’s Stari Grad Plain a global heritage preservation site, recognising it as the best preserved ancient Greek landscape in the Mediterranean. Greek settlers started farming here 2,400 years ago, and nothing has significantly changed in the quiet routine of cultivating grapes and olives on the same parcels of land marked out by the first Greek surveyors.

You can walk or cycle through this ageless horticultural grid, divided by ancient walls, dotted with beehive-shaped stone shelters. Another thing to do on Croatia’s islands is hire a lighthouse residence (www.lighthouses-croatia.com).

6. Split – the difference

Croatia’s prodigious Roman remains are one of its many attractions. Split, with cheap flights from the UK, is a good short-break location at any point of year. There’s the rare thrill of staying in a boutique hotel or apartment inside the 1,700-year-old walls of Roman Emperor Diocletian’s vast palace.

Dress your best and take a turn on the Riva, the promenade along the Adriatic to the pine-forested cape park. Just twenty miles away is another marvel, the well-preserved city of Trogir, with pretty Venetian buildings on a pre-Roman street plan as reported tagza.com.