Much of my exploration time by myself or with some friends visiting from Asheville was spent hiking hills and mountains or lounging at beaches, two of my favorite activities!
Pasjača Beach, close to the Montenegrin border. Stunning setting, requiring a cliffside hike and a tunnel traversal to reach.
Cavtat, a bustling touristic village close to the Dubrovnik airport, swarming with Americans. It’s surprising how each town has its source nationalities. In the Tisno area, it’s mostly Germans and Austrians.
Europe’s longest stone wall system (5 kilometers, 3 miles), appropriately in a town called Ston. You can hike up and over the mountain to the next town. It’s quite a sight and experience.
Ston, not a throwaway. The walls were built to protect the precious resource, salt, which then was worth more than gold. They extracted the salt from the pools there below the town. Over to the next town, Mali (small) Ston
Gradac, which was clearly out of season, though one hotel had dozens of 60-something Swedish women. While some Croatians might not think it’s warm enough in the low 20s Celsius (70s Fahrenheit) with the sun out, Swedes understandably certainly do!! With the palm trees and rocky mountain backdrop, my father says it looks like Hawaii. I climbed up that mountain, of course.
What a beautiful spot for a seaside drink. One nice thing among many about the Adriatic is that the tides are minimal, so one need not worry about the table and chair washing away suddenly.
On the mountain climb, one can run into these types of animals, and in fact I saw a herd of chamois, a goat-antelope native to this region. Boy, can they climb with ease!
Looking down over Gradac from the mountain
Podvrške, near Tisno
Skradinski Buk waterfall in Krka national park
Some things are definitely worth repeating, such as climbing Croatia’s tallest mountain, Dinara. See this previous blog post about when I first scaled this peak back in April 2022.
Ashevillian hiking buddies and I ascended Croatia’s highest peak, Dinara
Dinara’s paths can be tricky to see on the rocky surface
Dinara pinnacle. The previous time I was here in April 2022, it was wintery, and the Šibenik mountaineering club I was with included lots of schnapps drinkers and cigarette smokers who partook often during the hike, definitely slowing us down, haha.
I also convinced the Asheville couple to descend into the deep, dark war-era bunkers near Tisno that I first explored back in 2021 (see that blog post here for additional details). It was so fun, and we were the only people down there. I love the European laissez-faire attitude to personal responsibility and safety. It’s not so litigious in Croatia, I guess, and if you do something stupid, that’s on you.
Bunker tunnel illuminated with a headlampDo you dare go down?
Gun emplacement overlooking the sea
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3 thoughts on “Croatian Exploration”
This looks so cool!! Miss traveling with you!
It is indeed cool, as is Iceland! Thanks for the great memories we shared there in Iceland. Perhaps you will come to Croatia one day — would you explore those bunker tunnels??
I don’t know if I would be able to do that! But I would love to explore the beaches and everything else!! Haha 🙂
Major Meander 
This looks so cool!! Miss traveling with you!
It is indeed cool, as is Iceland! Thanks for the great memories we shared there in Iceland. Perhaps you will come to Croatia one day — would you explore those bunker tunnels??
I don’t know if I would be able to do that! But I would love to explore the beaches and everything else!! Haha 🙂