From there, using Google Maps as a rough guide I followed the river until I came to a park near the town of Muskovci, the grass leading right up to the water’s edge. Children from families who had set up tents along the river swung from a rope, doing back flips into the cold lake. A set of small waterfalls set a steady soundtrack. It was among the best swims I’ve ever had.

Of course, tourism isn’t only — or even primarily — about the tourists. Crowds like the ones I saw in Zadar can change a place and its people. Mr. Orovic, who sees the bonanza that happens on the mainland every summer, was worried about what it means for the future of young Croatians.

“You have this whole generation of people whose muscles are atrophying to do anything else besides work in tourism for a couple of months a year,” he said. “And with that it’s harder to find what’s authentic, because to find authenticity you have to go to a place that doesn’t care that you’re there as a tourist.”

Those places are getting harder and harder to find in Dalmatia, but they are still there.

There’s a dilemma that faces all of us who write about travel: by writing about something, can you ruin it? Aren’t the things that are “off the beaten path” better if they are kept that way? I grapple with it constantly, but, while some of the onus is on the travel industry and tourism boards, taking the initiative as a traveler to cover ground less trodden can also go a long way in saving a place from itself.

The world is big; there’s so much to see and so much to do. Why then should we all see and do the same things?