If you ever found yourself wanting to go out in the nature in Croatia but were unsure where to go, a new book has been published with numerous walking trails in Croatia.
There are around sixty such trails all over Croatia listed and described in the book, from Slavonia to Istria and Dalmatia, put together by the authors Lara Černicki and Stašo Forenbaher. The book is titled “Kratke šetnje u prošlost” and unfortunately, for now, it can only be found in Croatian. However, some additional materials have also been published which will allow even those who don’t really read Croatian to enjoy walking in Croatia.
The walks in the book usually start from an urban setting or a more important place, and in an hour, two or three of walking will take you to some type of a fort, an old church, or similar remnants of objects which used to be essential for the area. Lara Černicki used to write a column in the Jutarnji list where she suggested where the readers might go for a weekend trip, which is what lead to the idea of this book.
The original plan was to write a historical guide of the region close to the Croatian-Slovenian border, on both sides. Still, recent history and erection of more significant barriers stopped that idea. But, the new one appeared as they walked on the Northern part of the Velebit mountain and reached a location that was almost entirely unknown to them but was a big part of the life of people living in the area in the past. They chose the trails subjectively, the ones they liked the most are in the book. The walking trails from this book are not located in any high tourist places, but some of them are close to those. Some locations are entirely unknown, but the most popular sites in Croatia, such as Dubrovnik or Plitvička jezera can’t be found in the book.
The walks are diverse, giving you a broad overview of the landscape and history of Croatia. Each chapter in the book starts with a short story of the history of the proposed route, and then the walk itself is described. The book explains how long the trail is, and where it’s supposed to take you (along with a detailed map). In addition to the maps in the book, the publisher Libricon has created (and this is the part which is very useful to people who can’t really read Croatian) a database of GPS trails for the walks in .gpx format, which is something just about anybody who enjoys the walks in nature will have the means of opening and using (including the most basic method, Google Maps). Some of the walking trails are marked clearly, but for some of them, there are no markers or signs.
You can find the database of GPS trails here.
Read more about life in Croatia in our Lifestyle category.
