Croatia

[Alanjarvis]

Thinking of maybe doing a 3 week trip down thru France, Italy, Triste to Croatian coast. Anyone done this? Is is feasibile ?

Alan

 

[BigTim]

Hi Alan

I know that you asked about a different route but thought our recent/current experiences might be of value.

My Cary, my wife, and I are currently on a 5 week trip to Slovenia and Croatia. This our first visit to these countries and we are presently staying at Camping Bled, Nr Bled in Slovenia.

You can read of our experiences thus far in my post in this forum entitled "Our trip so far - VERY RAINY WEEK on the Continent".

We travelled down through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria. In the first 4 countries we were able to take advantage of toll-free autoroutes but had to buy vignettes for motorways in Austria and Slovenia. We, also, had to pay tolls for an Austrian tunnel and the Karawanken tunnel.

There are just the 2 of us travelling nowadays and we take turns to drive. We aim alternate to do roughly 100 mile "shifts" at the wheel and find 350 miles in a day is our maximum. Our outfit is a Kia Sorento towing a Bailey Senator Arizona. Including an hour for a picnic lunch we find overall mph average is about 45mph on motorways. Most of the countries we have driven through impose a 50mph (80KPH) speed limit on towed outfits.

We have towed to Italy before via Switzerland and Austria and must admit that we do find these journeys a long way - it doesn't look so bad on the map when planning!! As you'll see from my post we did have consistently poor towing weather for most of our journey, particularly so for the last leg through Austria when the rain was torrential. Then we are not getting any younger - mid/late 50's.

We are hoping to travel on to the Croatian coast after a few more days here. Slovenia is such a small country that we are basing ourselves here and going out on day trips to "see the sights" rather than touring around.

We did not pre-book any of the sites for this trip. We used CC's Caravan Europe, ACSI and Alan Roger's Italy (includes Croatia and Slovenia) guides to help us with finding sites. When we are near enough to give an ETA we just phone ahead and book on the day. We, also, make very full use of a Tom Tom Sat Nave with Alan Rogers and Archies campsite POIs

I'll be posting more as we progress.

Best wishes.

Tim

 

[John_374564913]

We have just returned from that part of the world our first trip with a caravan< however have done the same trip fifty or more times not towing and always go France Belgium Germany Austria Slovenia Croatia then Bosnia. the best route especially now it is all motorway I am fifty seven now the first time I did it was when I was twenty three not a lot of motorways then in Slovenia Croatia and Bosnia have done the France Italy route but prefer Germany Austria regardless of the vignette

see below details of our recent caravan trip

Collected new caravan on the 3rd of July 2010 and made first ever trip.

From Warrington in Cheshire to Bosnia Hertzogovina

Car Mercedes Benz C Class 220D Sport AMG Model

Maximum Towing weight 1800 Maximum nose weight 75 Kilo's

fitted with the following

1. Thule roof box

2. Active trailer Control

Caravan Bailey GT60 620-6

fitted with ATC System Motor Mover for twin axle Satellite dish semitropical

Towing speed 60mph however in Germany went to 70mph over taking lorries but only for short periods no problems at all

only time we had a problem was in Slovenia very windy and got caught by passing high sided wagon ATC activated in caravan which activated trailer control in car which shut-down engine pulled over switched off and switched on and off we went ( security unbelievable).

Day One Warrington to Rudheim in Germany

648 miles

driving time 13 hours and 45 mins

average speed 47 miles per hour

average consumption 25.1 MPG

Day Two Rudheim in Germany to Ossiach in Austria

miles 491

Driving Time 10hrs 45 mins

Average speed 46 mph

average fuel consumption 21 mpg

Day Three Ossiach Austria to Bihac in Bosnia

Miles 241

Driving time 6hrs and 4 mins

average speeed 40mph

average consumption 22.1 mpg

total mileage 1,380 miles total driving time 29.89 hrs

total round trip mileage 2,760 miles total round trip driving 59.87 hours

all figures verified by two Mercedes on board computers

arrived back in Warrington today and looking forward to our next trip .

 

[BigTim]

We have just returned from that part of the world our first trip with a caravan< however have done the same trip fifty or more times not towing and always go France Belgium Germany Austria Slovenia Croatia then Bosnia. the best route especially now it is all motorway I am fifty seven now the first time I did it was when I was twenty three not a lot of motorways then in Slovenia Croatia and Bosnia have done the France Italy route but prefer Germany Austria regardless of the vignette

see below details of our recent caravan trip

Collected new caravan on the 3rd of July 2010 and made first ever trip.

From Warrington in Cheshire to Bosnia Hertzogovina

Car Mercedes Benz C Class 220D Sport AMG Model

Maximum Towing weight 1800 Maximum nose weight 75 Kilo's

fitted with the following

1. Thule roof box

2. Active trailer Control

Caravan Bailey GT60 620-6

fitted with ATC System Motor Mover for twin axle Satellite dish semitropical

Towing speed 60mph however in Germany went to 70mph over taking lorries but only for short periods no problems at all

only time we had a problem was in Slovenia very windy and got caught by passing high sided wagon ATC activated in caravan which activated trailer control in car which shut-down engine pulled over switched off and switched on and off we went ( security unbelievable).

Day One Warrington to Rudheim in Germany

648 miles

driving time 13 hours and 45 mins

average speed 47 miles per hour

average consumption 25.1 MPG

Day Two Rudheim in Germany to Ossiach in Austria

miles 491

Driving Time 10hrs 45 mins

Average speed 46 mph

average fuel consumption 21 mpg

Day Three Ossiach Austria to Bihac in Bosnia

Miles 241

Driving time 6hrs and 4 mins

average speeed 40mph

average consumption 22.1 mpg

total mileage 1,380 miles total driving time 29.89 hrs

total round trip mileage 2,760 miles total round trip driving 59.87 hours

all figures verified by two Mercedes on board computers

arrived back in Warrington today and looking forward to our next trip .

Hi John

Wow you havc more driving stamina than us. Do you share the driving or is it just you? It was interesting to read your very detailed stats for your journey very impressive.

Did you find any good campsites in Croatia. We are currently at Lake Bled in Slovenia but planning to move onto a site in Croatia soon. We are looking for a quieter site on the beach. We've done some research but there are SO many!! Personal recommendations very helpful!!

Regards

Tim

 

[John_374564913]

It is only me that does the driving but it is something I have been doing fro many years so I am used to it however this was the first time with a caravan.

i cannot give any advice with regards to camp-sites in Croatia as we do not stop in Croatia and drive straight to Bosnia.
We have family that live in Virkasic which is about one kilometre outside of Bihac and we park the caravan in the back garden which is facing the river UNA.
It is one of the best views in the World and its free what more could you ask for we can connect to the electric in the house and the mains water.
If I could upload photos I would but I do not know how too.