September/October 2021 - Croatia

Some friends & I had been saving up leave all year hoping that travel restrictions might be eased a little & we've kind of backed ourselves into a corner with not much year left & not many places to go. So the other day we ended up booking return flights to Croatia (Zadar) for a fortnight, & it's been up to me to figure out the route.

This is what I have so far - Komoot.

We'll be bikepacking with road bikes with chunkier tyres (~32mm) so hoping that's sufficient for the road surfaces/minimal gravel sections included. Going to try & wildcamp most of the time (though presence of bears is a bit scary) with the odd proper campsite/hotel if & when we find them.

Anyone toured Croatia before? Any route critique/Croatian experiences welcome!

Castles, visit the castles. I spent a few days riding up and down the Istria region so nowhere near Zadar but if it's anything similar, wild camping should be easy, I even hooked the hammock up at the edges of some towns. But campsites were plentiful, it was easy to find one if you leave a couple of hours of daylight at the end of the day.

I'm trying to save Istria for myself for next year - got a twice-postponed family holiday booked there - couldn't say no to going up Mount Vojak though!

It's great to hear that campsites are plentiful. Giving ourselves a not super exhaustive route, aiming for about 50/60 miles a day so we can go & do some cultural things too - castles are a great shout!

Going to try & wildcamp most of the time (though presence of bears is a bit scary)

My partner's Croatian, and mentioned it's not the bears you need to be worried about. It's more the spiders (most venomous in Europe) and snakes. Where you're going, apparently there's both.

Animals you are not supposed to touch

Cheers for the headsup! I'm not much of a fan of spiders at the best of time anyway, so hopefully my natural keeping-them-at-arms-length will help there.

I've put some really chunky tyres on my road bike for this, am I underestimating the road quality in Croatia? From some sections I've streetviewed it looks quite interesting.

Road quality varies greatly in Croatia (like many countries). The main roads by big cities can be marble smooth and lots have been recently updated due to EU grants. But, overall, it's got a tiny population (4.3m) and where you're going isn't particularly populated. Lots of places are tiny hamlets. So, expect potholes, gravel and dirt tracks, along with everything else.