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Recommended route to Croatia

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12K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  Glasandra  
L
#1 ·
Looking at Croatia for next year.What route would you recommend.
We are planning to be away for 2/3 months ,so a leisurely drive would suit us.

Thanks Les
 
#2 ·
We went Calais- Metz-Augsberg-Villach-Karawanken Tunnel-Bled- Llubljana-Postojna-Ankaran-Croatia.

Don't miss out on Slovenia; it's a gorgeous country with really friendly people and so much of interest to see. You'll feel so welcome.

We came back via Slovenia-Kobarid-Venice-Padua- Milan- Lucerne- Basel- Mulhouse-Nancy and to Calais.

If either of these routes attracts then I have a campsite and aires list of places we stayed.

G
 
#3 ·
Grizzly said:
We went Calais- Metz-Augsberg-Villach-Karawanken Tunnel-Bled- Llubljana-Postojna-Ankaran-Croatia.

Don't miss out on Slovenia; it's a gorgeous country with really friendly people and so much of interest to see. You'll feel so welcome.

We came back via Slovenia-Kobarid-Venice-Padua- Milan- Lucerne- Basel- Mulhouse-Nancy and to Calais.

If either of these routes attracts then I have a campsite and aires list of places we stayed.

G
Click to expand...
We pretty much did that route. I agree Slovenia is lovely and soooooooo cheap. If you visit our blog, I list the places that we stopped at, many of them free or cheap aires incljding a lovely one at Altenmarkt - 15 euros, toilet and great views
 
#4 ·
Grizzly said:
We went Calais- Metz-Augsberg-Villach-Karawanken Tunnel-Bled- Llubljana-Postojna-Ankaran-Croatia.

Don't miss out on Slovenia; it's a gorgeous country with really friendly people and so much of interest to see. You'll feel so welcome.

We came back via Slovenia-Kobarid-Venice-Padua- Milan- Lucerne- Basel- Mulhouse-Nancy and to Calais.

If either of these routes attracts then I have a campsite and aires list of places we stayed.

G
Click to expand...
We pretty much did that route. I agree Slovenia is lovely and soooooooo cheap. If you visit our blog, I list the places that we stopped at, many of them free or cheap aires incljding a lovely one at Altenmarkt - 15 euros, toilet and great views
 
L
#5 ·
Thanks to you both.
Are there any concerns i should be aware of.
I have driven in France,Spain,Portugal,Germany and found no problems,just a little apprehensive covering new ground.

Les
 
#7 ·
Before you go to Croatia take the best map you can find. Don't rely on buying one there. Check that your sat nav, if you use it, has the relevant maps on it as well. Ours did not though we managed but finding our way round in Croatia was not the easiest. People were very helpful but it was clear that many did not know much about places well away from where they lived. This was 2007 though so things might have changed. Shopping was very easy; plenty of good supermarkets and markets. I can't think of any other issues though I believe you now need a vignette for Slovenia.

My Slovenian must-see list would include the Skocjan caves, the WW1 battlefields and museum in Kobarid, all of Llubjana ( a very laid back, civilised little city), Lake Bled and Portoruz and Piran - a real little gem of a place on the coast

In Croatia don't miss Pula and the Roman amphitheatre and remains. We didn't go much for the ex-Soviet style campsites on the coast but, as we only stopped and looked, perhaps that wasn't a fair assessment.

G
 
P
#9 ·
Croatia and Slovenia both superb, we've been for the past two years. The first time we came from Venice, through the tiny coastal bit of Slovenia and then down into Istria, returning through Slovenia into Northern Italy, into the Dolomites and back from there.

Last year we spent several weeks in Italy, driving down as far as Bari where we caught the overnight ferry to Dubrovnik, returning up the Adriatic coast, via a bit of island hopping and back essentially the same way through Slovenia.

You'll have no problems, both countries are extremely well organised, roads generally good, fuel dirt cheap, supermarkets and local shops plentiful, and best of all stupendous scenery.

I agree with Grizzly that the huge ex-Soviet campsites are soul-destroying, but they are easily identified by their sheer size and there are plenty of others.

Roger
 
#10 ·
lifestyle said:
Hi Paul
I would appreciate your list of campsites and aires.

Nice blog by the way

Les
Click to expand...
Thanks

The route is here:
http://paulandalisons2012tour.wordpress.com/2013-route/
but it doesn't list the sites and stopovers - I'll need to refer to my 'little book' so give me a couple of days and I'll add those details onto the site. In 2012 we listed every stopover via the 'campsite' link page here but alas that's gone now so I had to be brief on the 2013 trip ;)
 
L
#11 ·
Can i just ask about the vignette.
Am i right in saying i need one to travel through Austria and Slovenia and will one vignette cover both countries.

Les
 
#12 ·
lifestyle said:
Can i just ask about the vignette.
Am i right in saying i need one to travel through Austria and Slovenia and will one vignette cover both countries.

Les
Click to expand...
Alas no, two vignettes are needed.

All about Austrian ones

Austrian Vignettes

and Slovenian:

Slovenian tolls

Edit: If your van weighs more than 3500kg then note that each country has a slightly different system.

G
 
#14 ·
lifestyle said:
Grizzly thanks

Is it best to get them before i leave ?
Sorry for so many questions

Les
Click to expand...
We've not had to buy a Slovenian one, Les, ( as we went in 2007) but we found no problems buying Austrian ones. They are available at service stations. You don't actually have to have one if you plan a route that does not use motorways but motorways do make life easier in places and even one short trip on one means a vignette is needed.

If you have plenty of time before your trip then I'd be tempted to buy them before you go and save yourself the bother of buying them when you get there.

G
 
#17 ·
One other thing Les, if you plan to go via Germany, then you might need or want to buy, one of these:

Umwelt Plakett

They are mainly necessary if you visit cities but some aires are in cities and the number of towns and cities that require you to have one is increasing.

Once you've stuck one on your van then it is there for the life of the van and doesn't need renewing. We bought our last one in Cologne, it cost about 5 euros, and was very quick and straightforward to do once we'd found the correct place to buy it. When next we go, with our current van, we will buy one online beforehand via the people mentioned in the webpage. It's a bit Catch22: you should not drive into the city without one but you can't always buy one until you have parked in the city...

G
 
#19 ·
For various reasons we travelled to Croatia via France, Italy and Slovenia earlier this year.

The traffic on the cross Italy autostarda was horrendous with long lines of lorries nearly all the way. When we go again we'll stick to our normal route through France, Germany, Austria and Slovenia.

We bought our Slovenian vignettes from a small newsagent type shop at the border both going out and coming back with no problem at all. We bought 2 weekly vignettes as we were only staying for 3 weeks and they worked out cheaper than the monthly one.
 
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