Croatia for beginners, part 2 – the finest motorbike holidays in Europe

The second part of introduction to Croatian motorcycle tours for enthusiasts

If you haven’t read the first part of RideTheAdventure’s Croatia for beginners, be sure to check it out. Now we’re going to continue our story and share some more useful information about our beautiful country Croatia. It gained its independence in 1991. and it grew, recovered and received recognition from nations worldwide. But the independence wasn’t claimed in peace. Instead the war with Serbs raged for a few years, until Croatia finally became free.

Since then, things are only getting better every day. In spite of global economic crisis, which came pretty hard on our economy, Croatia still keeps moving forward and it will officially join the European Union in 2013. We won’t go deep into historical and political circumstances that shaped the country and its culture. We just want to outline a few main things so we could show you the specific mixture of characteristics that Croatia has. Throughout its eventful history Croatia was influenced by many different cultures. Croatia is today an interesting Mediterranean country, with a lot of influence from eastern cultures like Turkey. It is also a very modern western country with growing economy.

The beautiful capital of Zagreb

If you land in Zagreb and start you tour from there, you’ll instantly notice how ‘European’ that city is. The Croats love their capital very much and that’s for a reason. The city is located in central continental part of the country and its population is around 780.000. The city offers many beautiful and really unique things to see: from architectural sights, numerous parks, hilly and narrow streets in the old part of town, to some great museums (old and new) such as MSU (Museum of Modern Art).

The main square and the heart of the city is Ban Josip Jelačić Square surrounded with some nice old facades, buildings and statues. You can go to any part of Zagreb with a tram or pretty inexpensive taxi. Northern side of the town is guarded with Medvednica Mountain, with Medvedgrad fortress on top. This place offers stunning sight views on the city below the mountain. Zagreb is a great European city with authentic personality and there is a lot to see and to explore.

Riding south means only more adventure

Continuing your Croatia motorcycle tour down south towards the seaside you’ll have a chance to visit the great Plitvice Lakes National Park, which we’ve talked more about in our recent post. Going west will take you to magic peninsula of Istria, and following the coastline down southeast you’ll want to visit cities such as Zadar, Split or Šibenik. Split is a town with many stunning remains from Roman Empire. The most famous is definitely the 1700 year old palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Oh yeah, when around Split it’s really worth going a few miles further to charming little town called Trogir.

Your sunbathed motorbike holidays will get even more exciting when you ride your bike to historical city of Zadar. Stanley Kubrick thinks that this is where the most beautiful sunset in the world takes place. You must see the “Sea organs” and “Sun worship” installations. These things are pretty hard to describe with words, because there is nothing similar to compare. Imagine blue Adriatic Sea playing music and sun shining in the night.

Croatian coastline has so many different things. Every island is special in its own way: Hvar, Pag, Korčula, Rab, Krk, and others, each offer its own kind of fun and beauty and riding a motorcycle with your friends across this part of the world will be an unforgettable motorcycle vacation.