TR: Tour of Dalmatian Coast, Croatia

[smmokan]

I'll start off with a disclosure: this was a "work" trip, as my new photography business is partners with Experience Plus, who runs a guided bike tour of Croatia. This was my first trip with them, and by virtue of covering a TON of ground in a week, I thought I would share some of the better pictures I took during the course of the journey. Our approximate route was: Split - Skradin- Sibenik- Primosten- Trogir- Kastelas- Split- Postira- Bol- Jelsa- Stari Grad- Hvar Town. I am currently in the Split airport on my way home.... quite the country, I must say.

I landed in Split last week to rain, but it cleared that afternoon when I was in the bell tower in Diocletian's Palace:



Said bell tower peeking over the edge from the Great Hall of the palace:



Split's Riva (waterfront) at sunset later that evening:



Lots of tight spaces in the old city center of Split:



Bell tower at night:



Next day started in Skradin, a tiny town on the Krka river near Krka NP:



Waterfalls of Krka NP:









Skradin from above (during the ride):



View from the cathedral in Sibenik:



Unknown town between Sibenik and Primosten:



In Primosten, we had dinner in a 300-yr old village. Bad ass.






Rocks are everywhere in Croatia, and there are miles and miles of walls and barriers. This guy seemed happy enough.



Town of Trogir upon arrival from Primosten:






I did an extra 15 mile ride to the end of the Trogir Peninsula to an old church built into the cliffs. Sunset was not bad.






The windows and doors of all the old towns are full of character. This was in one of my favorite towns, Postira (on Brac).



It rained for 36 hours straight, and when it stopped this old guy had chores to do.



7km, 450m climb from Postira to Bol:



I was first to the top of the climb with a couple other guys, so we hung out with the local kids for a while.



Town of Bol in-between raindrops. Another one of my favorites.



Stina winery right in town:



We took a ferry from Bol to Jelsa (on Hvar), upon arrival:



Long climb from Stari Grad, up and over to Hvar Town:



Stari Grad from high above, with the mainland in the distance:



The town of Velo Grabjle, at the top of the climb:



Sunset on the last night of the tour, taken from my hotel balcony in Hvar Town:



And finally, I had a few hours in Split between catching the ferry from Hvar and my flight leaving, so I decided to climb Marjan Hill above the city. It's amazing, there are thousands of tourists crawling all over the city, but I was the only one at the top of the hill.

[Mazderati]

Great pics as usual.

[Tye 1on]

wow, sweet-

they weren't kidding about the camera on the new iPhone!

[schwerty]

Cool shots, S!

[plugboots]

Great shots.

[criscam]

Great pics as usual.

x2

[Art Shirk]

Obviously, your pictures suck and Croatia is stupid.

[El Chupacabra]

Nice TR! That looks amazing.

[iceman]

Why do they call it Dalmatia if there's no black spots?

(Nice pics!)

[Fuzz]

Steve, I've been following your blog posts everyday - the pictures are amazing and the trip sounds like a great experience. Well done!

[SB]

purrdy

[Cruiser]

My sister was just there a couple of weeks ago and, while she found it extremely beautiful and interesting, one of the things that surprised her was how touristy it was. Did you find that was the case as well?

BTW, your pics are better than hers.

[Benny Profane]

Great pics.

But, about the biking. What kind of bikes did you ride on? How are the roads?

[smmokan]

Cruiser- I found the "larger" cities (Split, Trogir) to be very touristy, and not somewhere I'd care to visit again. The small coastal towns like Postira and Bol, on the other hand, are beautiful and I would highly recommend them.

Benny- the bikes were titanium road bikes, definitely solid rides. We crossed paths with VBT a couple of times and they were on crappy hybrids, which I couldn't imagine riding further than down the street. The roads overall were in surprisingly good condition. No shoulders to speak of, but most places had little to no traffic.

[BraddA]

Always a treat. Thanks.

[zion zig zag]

Bump. Nice looking trip.

[Jong Lafitte]

Yeah, solid bump; frigging excellent pics, makes me want to go there.

[Buster Highmen]

Where's the dogs?

[Timberridge]

Yeah, not a single one, wtf?

[RootSkier]

Fire trucks?

[smmokan]

Where's the dogs?

Ironically that's what my wife and I said on our recent Newfoundland trip... not a single Newfie and only one Lab.

[hutash]

Next trip to Chihuahua? There's got to be dogs there.

Sweet TR thanks. Our friends from Graz, Austria go there regularly and love it.