CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
326 km from Budva to Budva, about 7 h 25 of riding. It goes by way of Lokrum Island, Old City of Dubrovnik, Grebnice and back through Old City of Dubrovnik. The highest point is about 1,100 m. It crosses from Montenegro into Croatia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 2 km this is Adriatic Highway, Jadranska Magistrala, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Budva is one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic, and it carries the claim lightly, between nightclubs. The walled old town sits on a small rocky peninsula, a tight cluster of stone houses, churches and narrow lanes protected by a ring of Venetian walls, and tradition suggests that a settlement has stood here for about two and a half thousand years. In 1979 a strong earthquake damaged much of it, and the rebuilt streets have a slightly too-neat look. The citadel on the seaward side, with its small museum, gives a view along the coast.
Read the complete Budva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Budva is where the day begins. Next is Lokrum Island.
From the walls of Dubrovnik you look straight across a short stretch of sea to a low, dark green island covered in pines and holm oaks. That is Lokrum, and it is the closest thing the city has to a back garden. No cars or motorbikes are allowed on it, and nobody may stay overnight. You leave the bike on the mainland, catch one of the regular boats from the old harbour, and in about a quarter of an hour you step onto a quay with peacocks strutting about as if they owned the place, which they more or less do.
Read the complete Lokrum Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lokrum Island comes up 38 km in. Next is Old City of Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik is the place where the Dalmatian coast reaches its theatrical climax: a walled city of pale limestone thrust out into a sea that refuses to be any colour but deep blue. The walls run for nearly two kilometres around the old town, with towers, bastions and the great Minčeta fortress on the landward side, and inside them the marble-paved Stradun runs straight from the Pile Gate to the old port. For centuries this was the Republic of Ragusa, a small, astute maritime state that survived between Venice and the Ottoman Empire through trade, diplomacy and a famously effective tribute system, until Napoleon ended its independence in the early nineteenth century.
Read the complete Old City of Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
76 km in you reach Old City of Dubrovnik.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Dubrovnik, about halfway. Next is Grebnice.
Grebnice, a name that simply means something like grave-stones, is a field of stećci near Bileća in eastern Herzegovina. These are the massive carved tombstones of medieval Bosnia and its neighbours, cut from local limestone between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, shaped like chests, slabs or little houses with gabled roofs, and sometimes covered with spirals, rosettes, swords, shields and dancing figures. UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites together in 2016, and the necropolis here is one of the eastern Herzegovinian groups. Standing among them on a still afternoon, with the grass grown up around the stones, is a strangely moving experience.
Read the complete Grebnice write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grebnice sits at 153 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old City of Dubrovnik.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old City of Dubrovnik comes up 191 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
229 km in you reach back through Old City of Dubrovnik. Next is back through Lokrum Island.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lokrum Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lokrum Island, late in the day. Next is Budva.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Budva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 326 km.
Budva → Lokrum Island is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old City of Dubrovnik → Grebnice is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grebnice → back through Old City of Dubrovnik is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lokrum Island → Budva is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.