Cycling the Croatian Coast 🇭🇷

After spending five nights in Bari, our time in Italy was up and it was time to cross the Adriatic by way of an eight hour ferry ride. No more gas station cafe cremas, mafia bros with popped collars, or post-apocalyptic afternoon riposos. Seeing Sicily and Southern Italy by bike was incredible, but we were on a mission to get to Sarajevo and the Balkans were waiting across the sea.

Our ferry arrived at the Port of Dubrovnik along the Croatian coast just before sunset. Dubrovnik is famous for its Old City and apparently has links to Game of Thrones, which explains the large numbers of tourists saw there. Since we arrived late in the day, we did not get to see the old town, but spent some time chatting with our B&B host about life in Dubrovnik and our plans to ride to Sarajevo. One thing I found interesting is that she mentioned that she has lived in Dubrovnik her entire life, but does not eat out or even buy a bottle of water because of how expensive this small city of about 50,000 people has become. Even in the very short time we were there, we encountered hectic traffic and tiny streets, unfit to host all the vehicles and pedestrians.

The next morning, we set out along the coast for our first leg of the Balkan tour. After six rest days, we were quickly reminded of what climbing hills felt like, but also had amazing views the entire way. Since we were traveling along the only coastal road between Dubrovnik and Split, traffic was a bit wild, but we managed. We decided to shorten our distance for the day and chill at a beach-side campsite in the small resort town of Slano.

On Day 2 we made a bigger push to get to Metković, which sits on the border with Bosnia. This was also the first time we crossed a land border on our bikes. It was surprisingly chill as we were only passing through the small sliver of coastal Bosnian territory called the Neum Corridor. Even though this is only 10 km of coast, there is still a border check on both sides, especially since Croatia joined the EU. If you’re a geography nerd and curious about why Bosnia only has 10km of coast, while Croatia has over 6,000km you can read about it here.

After the border crossings, we spent the rest of the day riding in Croatia, and eventually turned away from the coast, where it felt like the weather and landscape changed almost immediately. It was significantly hotter and after we barreled downhill for a bit, we coasted along a river and some plains all the way to Metković. One nice moment was stopping off at a roadside stand selling fresh juices and killing an entire liter of pomegranate juice, before we finished our ride in the mid-day sun.

Overall, we were only in Croatia for two days, but it was nice to see a new country on the other side of the Adriatic. Croatia was great, but Bosnia was up next and we couldn’t wait to return.

Stay tuned!