Villach to Zadar

[John Armstrong]

Is it easily do-able in a day, and using the coast road down from Rijeka to Zadar?

SWMBO likes to have days of no more than 5 hours on the bike so I'm guessing it'll be too far

 

[dadster]

according to mapsource its about 270, just keep telling her you'll be there soon

 

[John Armstrong]

according to mapsource its about 270, just keep telling her you'll be there soon

Distance is not a problem, just wondering how accurate the speed attributes are from Rijeka to Zadar. That is 138 miles in 4 hours 24 mins or about 30 mph

 

[Scott_Dog]

John

Just back from that area, did the Rijeka to Zadar bit. The road is very good, but in August was absolutely packed. It's not easy to filter (on a GS) and a large amount of the traffic was motorhomes. Your average will be very low, unless the traffic has mitigated some.

 

[John Armstrong]

John

Just back from that area, did the Rijeka to Zadar bit. The road is very good, but in August was absolutely packed. It's not easy to filter (on a GS) and a large amount of the traffic was motorhomes. Your average will be very low, unless the traffic has mitigated some.

Cheers for that info I'm looking at going in June to avoid the school holiday rush. How long did it take you, ie time on the bike not including stops?

 

[Scott_Dog]

We travelled from Slovenia into Croatia and down to the coast just south of Rijeka, and then stayed overnight in Senj. From Senj to Zadar I reckon we rode for 4.5 hours or so, an average of 25 mph.

 

[John Armstrong]

I reckon we rode for 4.5 hours or so, an average of 25 mph.

So Mapsource etc aren't exagerating when they use 30mph as the notional speed

 

[Scott_Dog]

Be great in the winter when the traffic's much less!! Incidentally, from Zadar we rode to Split, much much quicker 'cos the Zagreb - Split motorway takes the traffic away from that part. All over though the views are amazing.

 

[Nigelrojo]

I did Split to Villach 2 weeks ago. We had just come up the coast from Dubrovnik, and the traffic was pretty thick in places. So after Split we went inland via Knin and Karlovac. Definitely the right decison, as the road was virtually empty, reasonably well surfaced and quite twisty in places too. And the inland road goes via the very scenic Plitvicka lakes park, which is a bonus.

That's my first post done!

 

[John Armstrong]

I did Split to Villach 2 weeks ago. We had just come up the coast from Dubrovnik, and the traffic was pretty thick in places. So after Split we went inland via Knin and Karlovac. Definitely the right decison, as the road was virtually empty, reasonably well surfaced and quite twisty in places too. And the inland road goes via the very scenic Plitvicka lakes park, which is a bonus.

That's my first post done!

Hi

What sort of average speed on the cosat road were you making?

Easy step to the 2nd post

 

[Marjorie Proops]

John, I flew back from Zadar on last Saturday (6/9/08) and all roads in central Dalmatia were very quiet. Our only delays were a detour around Drnis due to mine clearance work! 20 km without seeing a single car was not unusual on the interior back roads. On the coast road we were doing 50/60/70 km/hr between villages and the 30/40/50 km/hr speed limits through the villages. Motorway was empty at 130kph limit (one week touring in a hire car)

Steve

 

[John Armstrong]

Cheers Steve, September sounds a nice time to go there, still warm and sunny but the school holiday bunch will be back home

Only downside I can think of is that in June, the higher hills will still have some snow on them which makes them more pictesque

 

[Nigelrojo]

Hi

What sort of average speed on the cosat road were you making?

Easy step to the 2nd post

Hi John
I would say, south of Dubrovnik we were only doing about 45 mph max (ie probably averaging 30 mph). About 20 miles north of Dubrovnik there was a police roadblock diverting all traffic away from the coast. We went off on the detour but I was somehow suspicious about it, so I doubled back after 5 minutes. Back at teh roadblock, I told the cops that I was "only going to the next village up the road", and they let me through. For the next 20 miles or so I had the road to myself, and could average at least 50 mph. There was nothing blocking the road at all!