Croatian Adriatic Highway: Rijeka to Zadar

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Rijeka

   Rijeka is a port city that does not try to be pretty, and that is its charm. It lies at the head of the Kvarner Gulf, where the mountains come down steeply to a deep harbour, and it has been a trading city since Roman times. Under the Habsburgs it was Fiume, Hungary's sea gate, and between the wars it was Italian, briefly the plaything of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who occupied it in 1919 and ruled it as a self-styled commandant for fifteen months. Today it is Croatian, and it is the third largest city in the country.

   Read the complete Rijeka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rijeka is where the day begins. Next is Senj.

2. 2. Senj

   Senj is the town of the bura, and you should know about the bura before you get there. This cold, dry wind falls off the Velebit mountains onto the Adriatic coast in sudden gusts that can exceed a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour, and Senj sits in the worst of it, in a gap where the wind funnels straight down to the sea. Lorries get blown over on the coast road, the authorities close it to motorcycles and high-sided vehicles, and local houses have stones on the roof tiles. If the sea looks white and the flags are flat out, wait it out in a cafe. The bura usually blows from autumn to spring, and in summer it is much calmer.

   Read the complete Senj write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Senj comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Karlobag.

3. 3. Karlobag

   Karlobag is a small port squeezed between the mountain and the sea. Behind it, the grey wall of the Velebit range rises almost straight from the water, and in front, across a channel that is often hammered by wind, lies the long, bare, moon-coloured island of Pag. There is little flat land at all, so the houses of the town hug the shoreline in a thin strip, and the old harbour, with its boats, cafes and a baroque church, is a cheerful gathering place after the emptiness of the coast road.

   Read the complete Karlobag write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Karlobag. Next is Zadar.

4. 4. Zadar

   Alfred Hitchcock is supposed to have said that Zadar has the most beautiful sunset in the world, and the people of the town have taken him at his word. The city sits on a narrow peninsula on the Dalmatian coast, with the sea on three sides and the island of Ugljan across the channel, and the sun drops into the water in a long fire of orange and pink. The best place to watch is the waterfront promenade at the end of the old town, where a pair of modern works of art, the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun, turn the shoreline into an instrument and a light show.

   Read the complete Zadar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Zadar closes the day.