Croatian Adriatic Highway

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, about halfway. Next is Sibenik.

5. 5. 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 sits at 559 km, about halfway. Next is Split.

6. 6. 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

   Split comes up about 392 km into the recorded legs. Next is Makarska.

7. 7. Makarska

   Makarska sits under a wall of grey limestone, with the Biokovo mountains rising almost straight out of the sea behind the town. The highest peak, Sveti Jure, stands at about 1,762 metres, and the ridge runs for thirty kilometres along the coast, so the town and its neighbours, Tučepi and Baška Voda, are squeezed into a narrow strip between mountain and water. This is the Makarska Riviera, one of the most scenic stretches of the Dalmatian coast, and the old Adriatic Highway runs right along it, with views over the sea to the islands of Brač and Hvar.

   Read the complete Makarska write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 478 km into the recorded legs you reach Makarska. Next is Dubrovnik.

8. 8. Dubrovnik

   Dubrovnik was once an independent republic, called Ragusa, and it lasted for centuries by being clever. It was a small city-state that paid tribute to bigger powers, traded with everyone, banned slavery early, and kept a splendid ring of walls that still surrounds the old town. Walking the walls, about two kilometres of stone with towers and bastions, takes an hour or two, and offers views over terracotta roofs and a glittering sea. In 1991 and 1992 the city was shelled during the Yugoslav war, and the damage has been repaired, though a few signs remain. UNESCO added it to its list in 1979.

   Read the complete Dubrovnik write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Finish at Dubrovnik. That is the ride.