Adriatic Coastal Road by motorbike- Riding from Karlobag to Maslenica Bridge

The road radar is on for a beautiful portion of Adriatic Coastal Road by motorbike

This is the first post in our Road radar category. This category will deliver you some real motorcycle tourer’s poetry. We will choose a road that has its own riding magic, its unique feeling and character, and we will try to describe to you the feeling of riding a bike across them and all the reasons that make the motorcycle adventure worthwhile. Our motor bike tours cover hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of wonderful roads and each one of them is special in its own way. This time we will give you a quick tour/preview of Croatian/Adriatic coastal road by motorbike from the town of Karlobag to Maslenica Bridge.

Without too much unnecessary details we’ll try to describe the feeling of riding on this road but we will mention some areas and points of interest. The road we’re talking about here is around 80 kilometers long and you can check it on the map at the bottom of this post, going from the yellow pin to the green one. In fact it’s just a portion of Adriatic Coastal Road D8 which is 643.1 kilometers long in total. It’s one of the main Croatian state roads which connects northern Adriatic with southern.

Touring between the mountains and the deep blue sea

As in the video that we’ve posted here, we’re starting our tour in Karlobag. Just to make things clear, the video shown here is not MotoTrip’s, but we think that it’s quality is praiseworthy and a real joy to watch. Although the bikes in this video are not BMW’s, we still love the view and the quality of this video. Karlobag is a small town between the Velebit mountain chain and the sea, located on the important Adriatic Highway connecting Rijeka with Dubrovnik, and leading towards the interior, towards Gospić, the Plitvice Lakes and Zagreb. But the highway is not the way we’re going it’s the extraordinary snaky portion of Adriatic Coastal Road.

So we’re touring from north to south with the beautiful blue Adriatic Sea on our right and striking dominance of the mountain of Velebit on our left side. This is what Adriatic motorcycle tours are all about – a nice curvy road with astonishing views, nice and sunny summer weather with the most interesting stops. I was driving down this road quite a few times now, and every time would feel like first.

The road is excellent and smooth but because of the curviness you have to be careful not to get carried away with the beautiful sights aside of the road. The feeling of steering through the curves is a pure joy for which you won’t even need much speed. Throughout the daytime the traffic is low enough to give you all the freedom of riding and touring with your friends. As you ride away from Karlobag you will go through charming little Mediterranean places such as Mazurani, Rudelici, Lisarica, Tribanj and Starigrad – which is a beautiful place for a stop.

Winding road like you’ve never ridden before

The Paklenica Riviera will impress you with its unique meeting point of the sea and mountains. The Riviera runs along the coast of the Adriatic Sea, beneath the massive Velebit mountain range and its most beautiful part – Paklenica National Park. The crystal clear water, natural small stone beaches, mountain peaks, magnificent canyons, river rapids, maintained trails dating back to ancient times and much more is what this little Adriatic town has to offer to spice your motorcycle vacations.

Moving on south for the last part of this route gets even more curvy and interesting. Numerous bays, small villages and nice beaches will color your path. You can find several natural sources of drinking water on your way to refresh yourself. It’s as clean as air and as cold as ice. Finally when you pass the place called Rovanjska you’ll come to Maslenica Bridge. Make sure you make a stop here, you won’t regret it.

This beautiful red bridge is 315 meters long and 55 meters above the sea. Crossing the bridge and riding your bikes down south for another 20 minutes will take to beautiful Croatian town of Zadar. Maslenica Bridge is also Croatia’s most popular bungee jumping spot so, if besides adventure motorcycle touring you like these more extreme kinds of fun, then you should definitely give it a go. Enjoy the ride and the video and let us know what you think. Ride on!

Prikaži Karlobag – Maslenica Bridge na većoj karti