Mototrip CROATIA 2023 , ENG subtitles , Pag, Primosten, Dubrovnik, Biograd, Plitvice lakes
So, here we have another year and another holiday motorcycle trip. This time only within the framework of our most popular destination, which is Croatia. We are leaving in the second week of September, the weather forecast is good for us, money for the so-called vacation account are saved and ready to use, so get in the saddle. I will summarize what places we are going to and what you can see with us in a short intro, which is starting right now.
Watch the intro So, as always, we set off from our beautiful Banská Bystrica, and it's already boring, but we go again on the same and fastest route, i.e. to the Sahy border crossing, before Budapest we connect to the highway, from which we get off just before reaching the sea past Balaton to We leave Zagreb and the highway just before the exit to the island of Pag. After almost 830 kilometers of driving with about four stops at gas stations and one coffee, we are already looking forward to arriving at the place. Right after the accommodation we will go to the beach for a swim and of course for a cold beer, or maybe even two. So, and we are finally there, we park and go to enjoy 2 days on Pag. This is our apartment building and the lady of the house allowed me to park my motorbike in such a great place, in the front garden, right under the windows of their reception.
This is the small town of Pag where we are staying these 2 days and which I am going to explore in detail. I chose our accommodation so that it was close to the beach, but also to the old city center. We succeeded and we live right behind this beach. I admit, in the past I didn't like this island at all from the pictures and I couldn't imagine vacationing somewhere that looks like the desert or the moon.
The surface of Pag is often compared to a lunar landscape, because the greater part of the island is bare and stony, and only a smaller part of its surface is covered with vegetation. But the fact that it is different from the rest of Croatia has made me like it lately and I can already imagine a longer vacation here. Here we have the first evening sunset over Pag. Today we are quite tired from the journey, so we will just take a short walk, sit somewhere for a while and go to bed early so that we can go to the beach as early as possible tomorrow morning. So this is the complete end of the day and the tavern is 100 m from the apartment. So Cheers! And for a nice and safe motorcycle trip this year, which starts today.
It's morning, about 8 o'clock, and we're already going to the beach. The sun is a bit jagged, the morning is not quite warm yet, but that is normal for the second week of September. The main city beach in Pag is one of the best in Croatia. It is covered with fine pebbles and has several beach bars and restaurants. We don't bypass these beach establishments either. Here we have good coffee in the morning and something to quench our thirst during the day.
In addition to the main large beach, almost the entire right side of the bay is lined with not very wide beaches, where you can find a quieter place than on the main beach. It's afternoon and after a short nap I decide whether to go to the beach or go for a ride on Pag's roads. What do you think won? So I start the journey from the apartment in Pag and the first part of the journey I go towards Novalja, where I turn to the village of Metajna. There I take a break and launch the drone to look at that part of the island from above. We have already been to Pag, in the year of Covid 2020, but then directly in the town of Novalja, and we also traveled almost the entire island by motorbike. Of course, you can find an older video from a previous visit to the island of Pag on my YouTube channel.
Most of the main roads here have a high-quality surface, the roads have enough turns and there are very nice views. Just really high-quality driving. Did I say quality road surface? Whoops. Everything is true, except for the road directly in Metajna , here it was quite terrible, my motorcycle sometimes danced on the gravel and along the beach, where the road has no guardrail, I preferred to drive at 20, so as not to end up on someone's blanket. The beach and the town are not much, but the surroundings are nice.
There is a trekking path around the rocks, suitable for both walking and cycling, and I found out that further on you can also find an interesting via ferrata called Life of Mars. I leave Metajna and go part of the same way back and then take my favorite and most interesting part of the Pag roads, and that part is the last 5 kilometers before the ferry port, but more on that later. When we were there for the first time, I said that some parts of the road seem to be in the Nevada desert and it certainly does not look like Croatia. Anyway, no need to talk, here is the comparison. So this is my favorite part of the trip on the island of Pag that I mentioned earlier.
It is the last 4 to 5 kilometers before the ferry port that connects this island to the mainland. nhospitable, stony, but for me it's a breathtaking landscape. But when the view of the sea also appears, the combination of yellow rocks and blue color is fascinating. Oh my, I would do that trip again right now. Let's talk a little more about the island of Pag. It is the fifth largest island in the Adriatic and currently has approximately 8,500 inhabitants.
Locals who live and work on this island are mainly engaged in extracting salt from sea water, which is what the island is best known for. Salt production on the island of Pag represents 2/3 of the total Croatian salt production (annual production of 1,000 tons). The locals are also engaged in growing grapes and producing mainly white wine - Žutica, and raising sheep, while the well-known Pag cheese is made from their milk. This is the right tip of the town of Pag, which is a quieter place than we used to, it's nice to walk or go mountain biking here, because the road leads to its very edge. The island is narrow but up to 60 km long, belongs to the islands with the least population density and has the most indented coast of all the Adriatic islands.
The sun is setting and we take another walk through the old town. It's a shame that we were here for such a short time, this is our second and at the same time our last evening in Pag. It would take at least 2 more days, but we will definitely come back here for longer. So we have a new morning, it's about 9 o'clock. Before eight o'clock, after packing our things, we went for a good coffee in the center of the town and after saying goodbye to our hostess, we leave Pag, which was our first visited place on this year's motorcycle trip.
We have time, because now we are moving only about 150 kilometers further south, but I wrote to the owner of the accommodation whether we can come earlier than 2 pm, specifically 12 pm, she wrote back that the apartment is free and we can come even earlier. So great, we won't have to wait somewhere in biker clothes, because it's September, but the temperatures during the day are still around 30 degrees. I probably haven't mentioned where we're going yet. So we go to ...surprise...
to Primošten. We prefer to stay on the historic island, where the apartments are older, smaller and mostly without a balcony or terrace, but the atmosphere that emanates from this place is worth it. And this time too we managed to stay here. Tourists are prohibited from parking their cars on the peninsula, only homeowners are allowed to do so, and even then only those who have a parking space next to their house.
The owner allowed us to park our motorbike directly under the windows of the apartment, so even our "owl" enjoyed the unique atmosphere of this place. Someone would probably wonder why we call our motorcycle an owl, but I think it will be clear from this photo as well. ... and here the comparison The apartment was in an old house, had 2 rooms, was clean and quite decently equipped. For someone who is at the beach all day, it was just right. But even so, this place was the best thing about him. I don't want to repeat myself, but cheers once more.
I decided to include our accommodation from last year in this video, as I did not document the stay that was part of the Mototrip to Montenegro anywhere. This was by far the best accommodation in Primošten that we have ever had. The apartment was modernly furnished, the location right by the beach and the view of the old town was brilliant. This time it didn't bother us at all that we don't live in the Old Town, which we love so much. Beaches in Primošten.
That's a chapter in itself. And in my opinion, it is the best that Croatia has to offer. I can say that because I've been to so many places and these beaches are absolutely TOP. And not only the size and equipment of the beaches, but also their cleanliness and the cleanliness of the sea, which is always perfect.
But I hope I'm not advertising this place too much, because more and more people are coming here anyway. However, our June or September dates are still OK for many tourists. I have been saying for a long time that there is no Croatian town that has so many beaches for its size and number of accommodation units, while in some places they are quite wide, with several rows of umbrellas. There isn't a day or time that you don't find a place on the beach, and there is an unusually large number of sunbeds and umbrellas. It's another beautiful morning here, and after morning coffee we're off on a short trip to one of the most exceptional and beautiful places in the area.
It is the statue of Our Lady of Loreto, which is located on a hill between the town of Primosten and Marina Kremik. After a few hundred meters from the Primnosten exit sign in the direction of Split, there is a turn to the right that will take you to a large parking lot, from where you have to walk up to the statue for about 200-300 meters along a road with a steeper slope. However, the view and the power of this place are worth it. The statue is 17 meters high and is the largest statue of Our Lady of Loreto in the world.
In addition to visiting the statue, from the top of the hill you will have a wonderful panoramic view of the peninsula and in good weather, much further, so definitely do not miss this place. It was a beautiful morning in this place. But we are already going back to enjoy the remaining days in Primošten. Primošten is a city and a place where we have been returning for at least a few days every year for the last few years. We, as well as many other visitors, consider it to be the most beautiful place on the Croatian coast.
If you ever want to come here, this small town is located 28 km south of the famous city of Šibenik and 60 km north of the city of Split. It also has a rich history and a beautiful historic center. It is neither big nor small, but for its size it has enough cafes and restaurants open until the night, so no one will be bored here. We definitely recommend it, it's beautiful here Evenings in Primošten are one of the most beautiful on the Croatian coast. Even before sunset, the streets begin to fill with vacationers, and the restaurants facing the west are also filled, so that visitors can enjoy a good meal or a glass of wine with a beautiful sunset.
We have the night here, we are slowly going to sleep, because tomorrow we have a long journey ahead of us and we would like to arrive at the place also at a time when we can still enjoy most of the afternoon. However, I don't like the weather forecast for the trip, but I hope it won't be so bad and especially that the next few days will be nice. We say goodbye to Primošten with beautiful night shots from a drone and tomorrow we continue our motorcycle trip. So we checked in and said goodbye to the landlady, it was great here as always. I've been looking at satellite images of rain cloud movement in the weather app and we'll see if it passes us by or not. The rain did not bypass us.
However, it's only a light rain, so we drive slower than usual on the highway, but actually finally at the prescribed speed. I almost forgot to say where we are actually moving. We go south and go to... to Dubrovnik. Otherwise, I always look at the daily forecast before the start of the motorcycle trip, and if there is a threat of rain in the next few days, I prefer to postpone the departure date. But unfortunately, I can't do anything with it during the transfers on the trip. And we are in front of the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina and our first ride on the Pag bridge, which was opened only last year.
However, we will talk about this bridge later when we return and take a video from the drone. We are not stopping now because we are in a hurry to Dubrovnik. And here we are, Dubrovnik, which we are very much looking forward to. We will pass through the edge of the city and I hope we will find our apartment quickly.
Finding private accommodation in Dubrovnik so that you are both close to the center and close to a beach is not easy. As always, I used the satellite map to see where the big beaches were and the density of buildings and then looked for an apartment for 3 days so that we wouldn't go broke. Because let's face it, Dubrovnik is not only the most popular and well-known tourist destination, but also the most expensive. He was lucky that just for the given number of days a nice apartment appeared near the largest beach in the recreational part of Dubrovnik - on the Lapad peninsula. When comparing the prices of nearby apartments and the quality of this accommodation, I immediately booked the APP.
Of course, one of the conditions is always safe parking near the APP, and this APP fulfilled it above and beyond. The motorcycle was parked in an underground garage behind a remote-controlled gate, which suited me perfectly. As usual, I did not inform my wife in advance where we would live, and she was even more surprised when we entered the house with the landlord. We have never had such high-quality, nice and modern accommodation, and it was also equipped with a washing machine, which we used after a week on the road. After all, see for yourself how it looked in it.
Access to the beach was relatively easy, I estimate the distance to be about 100 meters. This beach is also called the same as the peninsula itself - Lapad. It is located in a nice bay and offers sunbeds, umbrellas, restaurants, cafes, bars and various sports areas and playgrounds. However, the most beautiful part of the peninsula is on the right when looking at the sea from the beach. A beautifully landscaped beach promenade with benches, beautiful small beaches and places for swimming, which is later lined with more luxurious hotels. We didn't even feel like we were in busy Dubrovnik, but a much smaller and quieter place, a really great place.
A walk along this part of the peninsula will reveal other larger beaches of various types, stony with concrete surfaces, gravel, or pure sand. And we are already returning to the main beach and discovering new beautiful places along the promenade and below it by the sea. We have another morning here and today we will go to see the place for which we mainly came here, which is the old historical center of Dubrovnik. Due to the problem with parking near the old center, we choose bus transportation, while this line no. 6 runs in 15-minute intervals, so there is no need to plan the transfer in advance. We get off at the end and go on a tour of this interesting place.
Even in front of the castle gate, a group of tourists watches the events by the sea from the raised terrace, so we also look at people who get into canoes and go to see the walls of Dubrovnik directly from the sea. Good idea. So put him in line and let's see the city behind the walls. Although it is already the second half of September, there are still a huge number of tourists in this small place. It would probably be best to come here even earlier in the morning.
We hear a mixture of different languages and also visually confirm that people from all over the world want to see this city. I buy tickets to enter the city walls, and one cost 35 EUR, which doesn't seem too excessive for this place. So a tour of the walls and the whole circuit will take us a lot of time, so let's talk a little about this city. Dubrovnik is one of the most important tourist centers of the Adriatic coast.
It has been a popular tourist destination for decades, and not just because the entire city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When visiting one of Europe's most famous fortified cities, you must definitely climb the stairs and walk the Dubrovnik city wall, just like we did. It took us about an hour to walk the entire circuit of the walls, and I have to admit that despite the sun not being as strong as it usually is in the middle of summer, it took us a while. So we go down at the same place where we started and go on a tour of the streets under the walls. And we're down. After a tour of the walls, we enter the streets of the Old Town.
You will find an enormous amount of historical monuments here, but as you can see there are also tourists. Since the 13th century, when the walls were built, they have been preserved in almost identical form and have never been breached by enemy armies That's enough for today, I have to say that this tour was quite tiring and around twelve we return to the apartment, while we will stay on the beach for the whole afternoon. We will board bus number six again, which will take us back, enjoy the last views of Dubrovnik, and tomorrow morning we will hit the road again. Another morning again. We checked in and handed over the keys and the trip continues to other places. However, we will stay in Dubrovnik for a while longer, because while walking along the city walls, we saw a cable car that took people to the mountain above the city.
And from where there is certainly a wonderful view. I found out that this mountain to which this cable car goes is called Srd and precisely because of the view from it, it was an ideal place to build a fortress during the period of French occupation. In addition to the cable car, it is possible to reach the top on foot along a rather steep hiking trail with an elevation of 400 m.
There is also an asphalt road, and we also go to the top along that road. At the end of the road and at the top of the mountain there is a fortress, a military museum, a massive cross, a panoramic restaurant, and of course a breathtaking view. The view is wonderful, but we have to go on our way, as we want to find another accommodation as soon as possible.
I will tell you that some parts of this narrow road with extra sharp turns were not fun for a fully loaded motorcycle with 2 people to ride. After all, I didn't even manage one turn... So we are definitely leaving Dubrovnik, but of course we would love to come back sometime. At the end of the city, we again pass the famous Dubrovnik bridge of Franj Tudžman, whose construction was planned for the beginning of the nineties, but due to the war in Yugoslavia, its construction was delayed and it was only opened to the public in 2002.
A very nice bridge, while right next to it is a harbor for mooring large ocean-going tourist ships. So where do we go now? For a longer time, I chose a place for the next few days so that it was not too close to Dubrovnik and at the same time it was about the same distance from the next planned destination, which is Slovenia. The area of Northern Dalmatia met these criteria, and I chose the city of Biograd na moru.
So we have about 330 kilometers ahead of us, mostly on the highway, and we're going to Biograd. The fantastic news, which we also used for the first time this year, is undoubtedly the completion of the almost 2.5 km long Pelješac bridge, which connected two separate parts of the mainland of Croatia. This time, however, we will stop at one of the large parking lots on both sides of the bridge and go see this beautiful work in detail with a drone. Finally, it is no longer necessary to cross the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and wait at two borders, but you will be transported smoothly to Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik was ceremoniously connected by this bridge to the rest of the country in July 2022, and for us this is a premiere. The entire work cost over 400 million euros and was largely financed by the European Union. A beautiful work and I applaud its practicality in the form of speeding up the journey to the south of Croatia, or further to the Montenegro. On the Croatian highway itself, which we have driven many times, there are several of my favorite places where we always like to stop. This parking lot is called Krka, or Odmorište Krka, and in addition to an excellent cafe and restaurant, there is a wonderful view of the strait and the town of Skradin, from where trips to the famous waterfalls on the Krka river usually start. We have already been to them twice and there is also a video from one visit, which you can also find on my channel.
Well, we are in Biograd and of course we immediately went to check in. The apartment is large and nice, and because I have never been to this place and did not know what beaches await us, I ordered accommodation with a private pool This town in northern Dalmatia has a relatively long history dating back to the 10th century, and during the season the town is a lively and popular resort with many shops, restaurants, bars, discotheques and a long promenade. I confess, I was not very charmed by this city and its beaches, I did not feel the real holiday atmosphere.
It was certainly influenced by the fact that this resort was already relatively empty, since we were here almost at the end of September and the weather was not even ideal. When someone comes here after staying in Dubrovnik and Primošten, it will seem to almost everyone that any other place in Croatia is weaker and duller. But to be fair, it was mine, or our feeling, someone can love this place and, on the contrary, consider it the most beautiful and best place for vacation in Croatia. Well, and the beach. We didn't like the beach very much, but when we sat down for a beer in the only open establishment on our beach, our view of this place improved a bit. In order to improve this not-so-attractive part of the video, I will additionally add 1 more interesting vacation spot that I discovered near Dubrovnik, and that is this stone archipelago with a residential lighthouse called Grebeni.
It was about 1 kilometer from the coast and staying here must be a real experience. I would be very interested in how much it would cost to rent for 2-3 days, but it certainly won't be cheap. I hope that we will be able to come here at least once, because it could be quite an experience. It's another morning, and we're leaving Biograd, having changed our plans yesterday.
Due to the unfavorable weather forecast, we decided to shorten our trip and go to the Plitvice Lakes for just 1 night and then go home. The shortest route from Biograd would be very simple and short, and we decided to drive along the most beautiful part of the Adriatic highway E65, which is without a doubt the route from Starigrad to the town of Senj along the island of Pag A beautiful journey, isn't it? For a motorcyclist, it is a complete beauty, as it is a road with a high-quality surface with many different turns and great views. In Senj, we already turned from this road towards the highway, which we didn't follow for a long time and followed the roads of the 1st class, but later also the 2nd and 3rd class, but especially the roads in the Plitvice National Park, they were very nice. So here we are, arriving at our accommodation, which I chose so that we were only a few minutes from one of the entrances to the National Park.
So we paid the entrance fee and we start the tour of Plitvice with a boat trip to the main tourist part of the part with a name you wouldn't guess, which is ... Plitvice Lakes. I must admit, I was a little disappointed with Plitvice Lakes, because even though we walked almost all of them on foot, the interesting places and waterfalls are only on a small part of them. The last time we were here was when our son was 5 years old and the continuous highway had not yet been built and it took about 20 hours to drive to Makarska from Banská Bystrica, which was once as long as it is now.
Now, after more than two decades, I have never been as enthusiastic about Plitvice as I was then, and I have to state that, apart from this kind of waterfalls, there are an awful lot of similarly beautiful natural places in Slovakia, which, however, are much less promoted, so that such heaps of tourists come to us as here. But you should definitely visit this place at least once. And it's the last day of our motorcycle trip, and the only thing waiting for us is the journey home. Just cross the bridge in Komarno and we are in Slovakia, which means that this is all from this year's holiday motorcycle trip. We are already looking forward to the next one, which, if everything goes well, will finally be outside the Balkan peninsula.
If you liked the video, I'm glad and ... don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the next video. Hi.
2023-12-15 13:03
