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The contrast between the and maquis of Dalmatia's stony interior and the fertile seaboard is reflected in the region's dual personality: the towns on the coast and islands have long enjoyed a thriving Mediterranean civilization, while their unsettled hinterland has been much more prone to the political uncertainties and population movements of the Balkan interior. People on the coast have traditionally been able to make a living through fishing, olive-growing, wine-making or trade, whereas life in the interior – the more and parts of which are often called kamenjar ("stone-field") in Croatian – has always been much harsher.

Dalmatia's long history of Roman, Venetian and Italian cultural penetration has left its mark on a region where children still call adult males barba ("beard" – Italian slang for "uncle") and respected gents go under the name of šjor (the local version of signore), but modern Dalmatia's identity is difficult to pin down. People from northern Croatia will tell you that life is lived at a much slower pace in Dalmatia, whose inhabitants are joshingly referred to as tovari ("donkeys") by their compatriots, though the briefest of visits to bustling regional centres like Zadar will be enough to persuade you that these cliches are somewhat wide of the mark. What is true is that Dalmatia is slightly poorer than the north: local industries took a battering in the war and recession of the 1990s, and tourism – the mainstay of the local economy – is yet to reattain its pre-1991 levels.

Although Dalmatia is culturally and historically a unified region, we've divided the following account into two halves, recognition in part of the regional roles played by the province's two great cities, Zadar and Split. Almost everything in northern Dalmatia revolves around Zadar, whose busy port sends ferries out to the myriad islands of the Zadar Archipelago, many of which are blissfully unspoiled. Zadar's bus station funnels passengers south to the cathedral city of Sibenik, a useful gateway to the natural splendours of the Kornati Islands and Krka National Park. Life in southern Dalmatia is largely dominated by Split, a teeming, chaotic but ultimately addictive city which controls ferryaccess to the tourist-deluged islands of Hvar, Brac and Korcula — as well as relatively off-the-beaten-track places like Vis and Lastovo. Road traffic pours out of Split and onwards along the coast, passing trought the pebbly.beached resort of the Makarska Riviera before arriving in Dubrovnik. Getting arround Dalmatia is quite straightforword. There's one main road, the Jadranska Magistrala, or Adriatic Highway; frequent busses run ap and down it every day of the week, connecting all major centres – you can travel from Zadar to Dubrovnik in around seven hours – through be aware that picking up buses in smaller centres often involves waiting by the side of the Magistrala until something turns up. There are also a number of ferries, most run by Jadrolinija, although an increasing number of seasonal hydrofoils and catamarans are being run by smaller operators. Just about every inhabited island is connected by some kind of regular local ferry, and there's also a coastal service which cruises up and down from Rijeka to Dubrovnik daily throughout the summer (twice a week in winter), calling at most of the major ports and islands en route and continuing to Bari in Italy and Igoumenitsa in Greece at least once a week in summer. Ferries also ply the Zadar–Ancona route in summer.