Croatian tourism with a difference, as The Guardian embarks on a tour from Istria to Split on August 13, 2016 – on foot.
It is a stunningly beautiful coastline, complete with picturesque hilltop villages and idyllic islands, so if you have the time, why not experience Croatia in the most intimate way possible – on foot?
In the first of a five-part series starting in Mortovun and ending in the Dalmatian capital of Split, via the islands of Cres, Krk, Raba and Kornati, The Guardian’s Kevin Rushby takes the slow approach down Croatia’s fabled Adriatic Coast.
“The farmer stands looking at his vines. This is not like a French vineyard, cloaking the entire hillside in monoculture. This is Istria in northern Croatia. There’s a lush forest, an olive grove, tomatoes running amok and a farmhouse that might be taken for a ruin, were it not for the curtains in one intact window.
“It’s been a strange year,” I say. “Brexit, Donald Trump, Iceland and Wales at the Euros.”
“A strange year?” He looks at me, a bit puzzled. “But the black truffles have been good.”
I feel at that moment that my summer trip to Europe has properly begun. Three days earlier, we’d crossed by car ferry into France. Would there be queues at border posts? Grim-faced officials scrutinising our newly devalued UK passports? Not a bit of it. We were stopped, with regularity, but only for motorway tolls – France and Italy sting you for those. Cheaper to head through Germany and Austria.”
