Croats are a sport-loving, perhaps even sport-crazy people, but this passion ends when it comes to cycling. "In large parts of Croatia, cycling is still seen as a sign of poverty," explains Sascha Wiese, whose mother is Croatian and who works in Croatia as a cycling guide for the Islandhopping agency. People think: "If you get on a bike in the heat, you can only lack the money for a car." Wiese gave us lots of tips for the route, which shouldn't be a straight line from Split to Dubrovnik - it would only be a little over 200 kilometres on the main route. Our route via the islands of the Croatian Adriatic takes quite a diversion.
There is hardly any traffic on the islands, even on the main roads. At most, when a ferry is setting off, you may encounter a small convoy or be overtaken by a few cars. With a few exceptions, even the minor roads were in good condition. There is plenty of traffic on the main road on the mainland (around 40 kilometres), but the situation should ease when the motorway to Dubrovnik is completed. On the daily stages of 80 to 115 kilometres, you gain up to 1,800 metres in altitude. With two exceptions - steep ramps of over 20 per cent - the climbs are moderate.
You can download the entire travel article and the GPS data for these tours below:
- Tour 1: To the Golden Horn (97 km, 1,760 m elevation gain, max. 10 per cent gradient)
- Tour 2: Madeira of the Adriatic (77 km, 900 m elevation gain, max. 9 per cent gradient)
- Tour 3: In Marco Polo's footsteps (87 km, 1,580 m elevation gain, max. 23 per cent gradient)
- Tour 4: To the pearl of the Adriatic (112 km, 1,700 m elevation gain, max. 16 per cent gradient)
GPS DATA: TOUR offers the tour data for free download. You can download the tracks in GPX format directly onto a GPS device or view them on your computer in Google Earth or Google Maps.
Downloads:
PDF: Dalmatia-Croatia
GPS data: Croatia: Dalmatia
