The first Nordic walking festival will take place in Varaždinska county on March 23rd, organized by the Nordic Walking Association Drava Varaždin, with their partners the County, the County’s Tourist Board and Croatian Nordic Walking Association.
Nordic walking is one of the terms used for fitness walking using specially designed poles – and that’s why sometimes it’s also called pole walking. The main advantage of the discipline is the fact that Nordic walkers use more of their entire body, thus receiving fitness stimulation not present in normal walking in their upper bodies.
The idea of the festival is to bring together the promotion of the Nordic walking in Croatia and the promotion of the natural beauty and tradition and heritage of the most interesting sites in the Varaždin County. One of the reasons the first festival will be held in Trakošćan is to also commemorate World Water Day, a day when international community should think about the goal of making fresh water available to everyone on Earth by 2030.
Natalija Martinčević, head of Varaždin County Tourist Board says that the County is always ready for new ideas to expand what they have to offer to tourists and that it’s important to bring together the tourism, natural beauty and heritage of the County, and combining all of that with health through Nordic walking is an excellent approach. Just about everyone can participate in Nordic walking, members of all generations and entire families together, so the Festival is a great opportunity for families to spend time outdoors, at the beginning of the spring – in wonderful Trakošćan.
The event will start at 9 am, with the registration of the walkers, a welcome drink, and warm-up and stretching exercises for all. After that, the walks will start, and there will be 4 routes to pick from, based on your level of fitness: you can either join the group doing two laps around the Trakošćan lake (10 km), one lap (5 km), half a lap (2.5 km) or beginner’s walk around the castle. All participants and their families can purchase tickets to the castle at a 50% discount, and after all walkers are finished, a guided tour of the castle will take place. If you register for the event until March 18th, you will also be getting lunch at Trakošćan (included in your entry fee). To enter the event, send an email to [email protected]
And while you’re there for the Nordic walking festival, you can’t pass up the opportunity to get to know Hrvatsko Zagorje better!
