Croatian Adriatic Highway: Zadar to Split

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Sibenik.

2. 2. Sibenik

   Šibenik is one of the few Croatian Adriatic towns not founded by the Greeks or Romans but by Croats, first mentioned in the eleventh century, and it still has the feel of a place that grew from the hillside rather than from a plan. It climbs steeply from a natural harbour, protected by the long channel of St Anthony, with stone houses, steps and lanes arranged like a staircase up to the fortress of St Michael. At the foot of the slope stands the Cathedral of St James, a UNESCO-listed building constructed entirely of stone, without any binding material, between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its dome is a vaulted shell of carefully fitted slabs, and a frieze of seventy-one carved faces runs around the apses, said to be portraits of ordinary townspeople.

   Read the complete Sibenik write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Sibenik comes up about 89 km into the recorded legs. Next is Split.

3. 3. Split

   Split began as a retirement home. The Roman emperor Diocletian, born nearby, built a vast fortified palace on this peninsula around the year 300 and retired here after abdicating, to grow cabbages, so the story goes. After the Roman world fell apart, refugees from the nearby city of Salona sheltered inside its walls, and over the centuries the palace turned into a town. Today you walk through the Golden Gate, the Peristyle and the old cellars, and find cafés, shops, apartments and washing lines inside what is, effectively, a Roman building, with the emperor's mausoleum converted into a cathedral. UNESCO lists the palace and the historic centre.

   Read the complete Split write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 171 km.