Walking in Croatia

Walks and multi-day treks through the best of Croatia’s mountains including the Dinaric Alps (Gorski Kotar and Velebit), Istria, Croatia’s islands and around Zagreb. Ranging from easy to hard, the routes introduce this outstandingly rugged walking destination. Full background, history, cultural, accommodation and planning information.

Croatia, or Hrvatska, is experiencing something of a renaissance at present, as far as tourism is concerned. Long popular as a summer destination with German and Italian visitors, but largely overlooked by the vast majority of western travellers since its independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the past few years have seen the Croatian coast flooded with western, and in particular English and French, visitors. This is not to say that the Croatian coastline is any busier than other attractive and sunny part of Europe during the summer months – indeed, it remains less crowded than most places, and much less spoilt. And while most visitors head straight for the coast – the lovely Dalmatian towns and villages, and the glittering isles of the Croatian archipelago – the rest of the country remains largely untouched.

Visitors to the country cannot fail to notice the rugged mountains, which rise up suddenly, often spectacularly, beyond the narrow ribbon of coastal cities and rocky beaches. It is these mountains – the limestone massifs of Velebit, Gorski kotar, Mosor and Biokovo, extending in furrowed ranges from Slovenia in the north to Montenegro in the south – which so dramatically divide the Adriatic from the continental interior, contributing as much to the particular character of the country as the more celebrated coastline. More significantly from the point of view of this guide, they provide a superb, and as yet remarkably unspoilt, arena for the mountain walker or alpinist.

Often only a few hours from the coast by way of steep and rocky trails, these mountains have much to commend them as a walking destination. Ranging from gently sloping, forested hills to rugged tops and limestone crags, they form a landscape of quite considerable beauty; at their most spectacular they are a karst labyrinth of domed peaks and cavernous sinkholes, sun-bleached ridges and rocky dells. They are not a wilderness experience in the traditional sense (then again, little in Europe is): trails are for the most part well established and clearly marked; mountain huts are plentiful; local walkers abound. But the scenery is as lovely as it is varied, the terrain rewarding, and the views often breathtaking. And despite their modest elevation – Velebit rises to less than 1800m – there is still plenty to be found that is challenging. Furthermore, in contrast to many of the mountain areas in neighbouring Slovenia, Velebit and Gorski kotar remain well within the capabilities of the moderately well-equipped walker during the winter months, despite heavy snowfall.

Finally, the very proximity of these areas to the coastal scenery and islands, and to historic cities such as Dubrovnik, Split and Korcula, is a considerable attraction in itself. These cities boast some quite stunning Roman and medieval architecture – Dubrovnik often being touted, with considerable justification, as the best-preserved medieval city on the Mediterranean.

To complement these better-known features of the country, the walks in this guide provide a more intimate view of Croatia and its people, and a counterbalance to the bustle of its coastline during the summer months (after which the coast largely reverts to its sleepy Dalmatian self). While the walls of Dubrovnik throng with sightseers, and the rocky beaches steadily swell with the returning tide of western tourism, the walker will be able to sit comfortably on a high pass below Zavizan – perhaps with a fine selection of dried meats and cheeses and other local delicacies spread on a convenient rock, flask in hand – and survey the splendour of a dazzling sunset across the Croatian archipelago.

Geography and Geology

Croatia, my Croatian friends told me long before I first visited their country, is like a bird in flight. Look at a map and you’ll see this quite clearly: the great wings spread back across Slavonia, poised between beats; the head hanging low in Istria, and protruding out into the Adriatic; the body and tail stretching down through Lika and Dalmatia; the belly splintering into the myriad isles of the Croatian archipelago. It is an attractive image, and one which has stuck (certainly it is more poetic than the comparison between Croatia’s rather peculiar shape and a boomerang).

From a walking or a mountaineering point of view, the most interesting areas are the successive ranges of mountains running parallel to the Adriatic coast – the belly and tail of the bird, to take the analogy further. Collectively known as the Dinaric Alps, and including the massifs of Gorski kotar, Velebit, Mosor and Biokovo, these rise steeply from the narrow band of settlements and cultivation along the coast, frequently to 1500m and in some cases to over 1700m, forming a formidable natural barrier between the rocky coastline and the continental interior.

The dominant characteristic of these mountains is their stunning karst formations. These include saucer-shaped or cone-shaped dells and depressions (dolina and uvala), known locally as vrtaca, or in the case of larger examples as dabar or duliba; bare tops and crags, known locally as either stijene or kukovi; rivers which disappear underground only to re-emerge as karst springs, either in the foothills of the mountains or as submarine springs, vrulja; and numerous caves and sinkholes, spilja and jama respectively, which in many cases reach astonishing depths (Lukina jama on Velebit is among the 10 deepest sinkholes in the world).