Croatia – Part 1

Tourism in Croatia is growing fast and was up 9% in 2023 on the previous year, with over 20 million tourist arrivals. This has led to rising prices and some seriously overcrowded places. Fortunately for us, May is before the real summer onslaught starts and we found that most places were fairly quiet, with some exceptions.

Our first stop in Croatia was not far from the Slovenian border in the lovely Adriatic town of Rovinj. Rovinj is the biggest tourist attraction of Coastal Istria and the old town, which was originally an island, is only connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The water surrounding the “island” is stunning and so clear.

We spent some time wandering the narrow streets of the old town and of course stopped for a cold beer at one of the many waterfront bars with their fabulous views. The difficulty here is choosing which one.

We stayed overnight in a large gravel car park just outside town (for which you practically needed a PhD to operate the pay machine – and before you think it, this was before we’d had the beers), which was made far more pleasant by meeting a lovely Polish/South African couple, Magda and Adrian (@adma_adventures on instagram) who just happened to be parked up next to us and on a pretty amazing trip themselves. So what better excuse than to spend the evening sitting outside, drinking a bit too much wine and comparing travel stories.

A little further along the coast from Rovinj is the busy commercial port town of Pula, with its two main attractions; the well-preserved Roman amphitheatre from the 1^st century, which was able to hold up to 20,000 people for gladiatorial contests,

and the Venetian fortress built in 1630, which is atop a hill in the middle of town.

By this point we felt a little rest and relaxation was in order, so we decided to head to a waterside campsite on the island of Krk (connected to the mainland by a bridge). We had been recommended a great campsite just next to the tiny town of Silo.

Tiha Camp becomes expensive In the summer and the cheaper plots are all on a slope and set back from the sea. However in May you can get a pitch right on the sea with stunning views at a bargain price with an ACSI card.

We kicked back and thoroughly relaxed here, simply enjoying swimming, snorkelling and kayaking in the incredibly clear, although very cold water. The weather was perfect while we were on Krk so we also managed to have our first BBQ of the season.

Feeling refreshed after our break we left Krk and drove into the hills, having heard of a bear sanctuary in Kuterevo village where you can overnight. We saw our fair share of bears on our travels through Canada and the US (mostly in the wild and occasionally a little close for comfort) but this was our first time seeing European bears.

The bears at the sanctuary were all rescued and couldn’t be released back into the wild but they now have large pens on the hillside in which they can roam.

It was great to be able to see the bears as they interacted with each other and roamed around. They were surprisingly active. It is also possible to volunteer there if you were able to stay a little longer.

Something not to be missed and one of the jewels in the crown of Croatian tourism is Plitvice Lakes National Park. This is a series of interconnected lakes with a huge number of waterfalls between them. Fortunately we had been forewarned by Adrian and Magda that it gets incredibly busy, so we made sure that we arrived for opening time and got into the park before the tourist buses arrived and overwhelmed it.

In the summer months it costs a hefty €40 per person to visit (June to September) but luckily for us, in the shoulder months of April, May and October it is a more reasonable, but by no means cheap, €23 per person.

This is a large site and a visit here involves a lot of walking. I ended up walking around 20km to see everything, although you can reduce this as there are boats and a land train which are free with your entry ticket to help you get around. The queues for these however can get quite long and I ended up walking faster than the boat along the lakeshore as it goes very slowly!

We had parked near Entrance 2 which is nearest to the Upper Lakes, so this is the area we tackled first and I think, the best bit of the park. There weren’t too many people on the boardwalks and it was very peaceful. This area of the park has the most waterfalls and they are stunning, as they drop from lake to lake and are covered with vegetation.

The biggest waterfall in the park, Veliki Slap, which is 78m high is in near to Entrance 1 in the lower lakes and by the time we made it down here it was getting very busy and the boardwalks along the lakes were packed with people, making progress very difficult.

It is definitely a beautiful place and well worth visiting but to make the most out of it you definitely want to go out of season and/or get there for opening time as the mass of tourists jostling for position on the boardwalks can really take some of the fun out of it.

After leaving Plitivce we drove back to the coast to the town of Zadar, the capital of Dalmatia. It’s a sizeable town with a population of 75,000.

From 1921 until 1947 Zadar was actually part of Italy but it became part of Yugoslavia under the Treaty of Rapallo and most of the Italian residents were expelled. It was also heavily shelled by Serbian forces in the 90’s so is a bit of a mish-mash of old and new.

The central focus of the old town is original Roman marketplace, although not much of this remains. Churches have been built on the Roman remains using the old Roman stone.

The 12^th century cathedral has a 56m high bell tower or Campanile as it is known, which you can climb for sweeping views over the town and surrounding islands.

At the other end of town is the famous Land Gate which is a triumphal arch, featuring a row of eight cattle skulls along the top and, lying just outside the gate, a very pretty tiny harbour that I couldn’t resist photographing.

And with that, it was time to hit the road again but not before for a sneaky ice-cream – difficult to resist in Croatia when practically every other shop is an ice-cream parlour (OK I’m exaggerating but only slightly) and it is so delicious!