Croatia by car ? Tips for places to see

villej

villej

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Finland
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'03 and '06 Renault Megane
We (me and my to be wife) are flying to Zagreb, renting a car, and travelling around Croatia for 8 days in August.

Do our Croatian members have any tips for what to see, or where to visit? Do you know some intresting places that are not usually mentioned in travel guides? Main itenaries will be Zagreb, Pula and ?ibenik. So suggestions for the places to visit should preferably be near those cities, or near the route between them.

We are mostry intrested in nature, nice sceneries and historical sites. Already on our list are Krka and Plitvice national parks, and also the Pula amphitheatre. Unfortunately we are travelling during the busiest tourist season. Is Plitvice as crowded as Krka? Scenic route suggestions are also welcome. The coastal road between Zadar and Rijeka would probably be a nice road to drive?

Also, we are renting the car from Oryx. They had the best price with no excess insurance. I have understood it is a local company with good reputation, isn't it?

Thanks!
 
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Hopefully those wounds have healed by August. The other half likes to wear green. :p
 
villej said:
We are mostry intrested in nature, nice sceneries and historical sites.
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It's probably too much of a detour, but Lubenice does hit that spot. Ko?ljun does as well and is much closer - no need to get on a ferry, for a start.
 
Thanks, great suggestions. We'll consider both.
 
villej said:
We (me and my to be wife) are flying to Zagreb, renting a car, and travelling around Croatia for 8 days in August.

Do our Croatian members have any tips for what to see, or where to visit? Do you know some intresting places that are not usually mentioned in travel guides? Main itenaries will be Zagreb, Pula and ?ibenik. So suggestions for the places to visit should preferably be near those cities, or near the route between them.

We are mostry intrested in nature, nice sceneries and historical sites. Already on our list are Krka and Plitvice national parks, and also the Pula amphitheatre. Unfortunately we are travelling during the busiest tourist season. Is Plitvice as crowded as Krka? Scenic route suggestions are also welcome. The coastal road between Zadar and Rijeka would probably be a nice road to drive?

Also, we are renting the car from Oryx. They had the best price with no excess insurance. I have understood it is a local company with good reputation, isn't it?

Thanks!
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First of all, glad you picked our little country, I'm always so glad when people do, don't know why :D

I'll try and help with some of those questions.
Oryx is to my knowledge a relatively new company, owned by the Zubak group, country's main VW dealer, so should be good.
Get a good car, prefferably a good handling one cause there are some nice roads.

Speaking of roads, Rijeka to Zadar is amazing, especially Karlobag to Paklenica cause it follows the coastline and it's corner after corner, and in most right handers there are coves beneath you, it's really nice.
Now, my experiences are with the motorcycle, so traffic was never an issue, but that section doesn't get much traffic anyway, even in the summer.

Of things to see, Plitvice is probably always crowded, but also an amazingly beautiful place. Krka park is smaller, maybe less crowded but also nice.
Also, I'd add Zadar to the list of city's. To me, much more interesting then ?ibenik. If you go, be sure to get to the Riva at sunset, you get 3 'events'.
One of the best sunsets in the world, the Sea Organ and The Greeting to the Sun. Awesome stuff. Also, the whole old peninsula is great. if you can, climb the tower of St Donat's church, the view is great.

In any case, you can't go wrong with most bigger coastal city's (Split, Trogir, ?ibenik) they all have nice architecture and sights.
Other sites could include the Tesla museum in Gospi?. (Smiljan to be precise, his home town) Just check that it's open, I think it doesn't work only on Mondays.

The road inland, through Lika, is also nice. Traffic could be a bit heavier cause some people like to avoid the highway, but it moves at a good pace. I don't suppose you'd be speeding anyway :)

If you need anything, ask, I'll help if I can.

Also, when are you going? The roadtrip crew will be in Croatia too, on the 11th and 12th :)
 
Thanks a lot! The info you posted is really valuable. We'll be looking at your suggestions. ?ibenik and Pula were selected mostly because we were able to find hotels for decent price there and because they are spread out, so we'll be able to see more of the country.

We are there from 5th to 13th of August. For the last 4 days we'll be located in Pula area though.

Speaking of the car, our budget doesn't allow renting anything too fancy, but the Seat Ibiza we have reserved should be fun enough to drive. :)
 
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Oryx is a good company as far i know, my friend rented a car from them and has an interesting story. He needed the car for the weekend, so he ordered to pick it up friday at 6pm as i remember, at the end of working hours. But because he had to wait for other people to get their cars, he waited for and hour to get his car, and the guy working gave him a deal, since he waited, missed his plans and usually people dont rent the cars saturday/sunday anymore, so the cars that are left will be just sitting there for the weekend he gave him the option to pick any car left he wants for the price of his order, which was originally a Polo i think. But he chickened out, and didn't get something big, took the new Golf, still a good deal.

Regarding Plitvice, as 47 said, they are always crowded. Was passing through there last week and there were lots of buses and people. I was in Split for 4 days and I highly suggest you visit (my pics from Split and the whole trip if youre interested : link). Sibenik isnt so interesting to me, when i was there it didnt catch my interests very well (truth be told, I was a teen when i was there, so who knows now :D). Split and Zadar are much nicer in my opinion, was in Zadar last year for the summer and i had a good time there.

Inland road, D1 from Plitvice to Split is amazing personally, like i said I went to Split for the weekend and didnt go on the highway but took the local roads and i was amazed by the scenery, places and the roads themselves. Lika is very beautifull, its not so "rocky and dry" as the coast and coastal cities which i dont personally like so much.

Also when in Zagreb, if you have the time, drive up to Sljeme in the afternoon, the road is good and you have some good views on the city (Gmaps view is crap, but belive me its nice :D link) and surrounding areas. And Sljeme holds some secrets, and abandoned places too, has some interesting places for urban exploration, but not sure if youre into that :D
 
Thanks, really useful information again. I guess we will likely add a day trip to Split to our schedule then.

?ibenik is mostly on the list because we found an ok hotel there (well, Hotel Miramare in Vodice to be exact) for few days. It's a bit cheaper than staying in Zadar or Split. Most probably it will be only a place for sleep and relax, and we'll probably visit Split, Zadar and Krka while we are there.
 
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My gf and I did this last august/september, we started in Munich and drove to Plitvice first, then we went to Split for a few days, while there we went to Hvar for a day (I strongly recommend going there, particularly the town of Jelsa), from Split we took the coastal road/highway most of the way to Pula and stopped at a beach or two a long the way (the coastal road was beautiful and was definitely a highlight for us). We were in Pula for 5 days and loved it (we were there for a music festival) we stayed at an awesome B&B ( Link ) in Valbandon a small town a few km. north of Pula. In Pula, aside from the Roman amphitheater, I recommend checking out Punta Christo and maybe the Brijuni islands (I say maybe because the islands are generally frowned upon by Croatians since they were formerly the summer estate of Tito).
 
Thank you, Punta Christo looks like an interesting place! We'll also consider Brijuni islands, for the boat ride alone it would be a nice trip. Thanks also for the B&B suggestion. That looks like a great place. We have already arranged our Pula accommodation though. We'll be stayng in Medulin, 10 km southeast from Pula.
 
Now that is quite close... lets see if we bump into your convoy accidentally. :p
 
Thanks for the tips again for everyone. Trip went well, although almost every place except Zagreb was a bit crowded. You could certainly sense that it was a tourist season. Would love to visit your country again!

Speaking about our rental car. The company, Oryx, was fine. They were really friendly. Would have been the best car rental experience ever, if there had not been a gigantic queue to the rental desk when I was returning the car. Everyone was getting their cars, when I was the only one returning. I felt really bad asking people if I could get to the desk before them, because I needed to catch my flight.

We also got a big upgrade. At least in size. Ibiza we reserved was upgraded to Volkswagen Sharan. A large enough car for two people.
 
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