Detour #123: Adriatic Highway, Croatia
Photo Taneli Lahtinen / Unsplash
Avoid the European coastal clichés and head to Croatia for a seashore drive to savour, reckons Simon Heptinstall.
Oh, that classic Mediterranean coastal drive. Probably in an Alfa Spider or Mercedes SL, winding round parched white cliffs, through olives, figs and almonds, always with a sparkling turquoise sea below. It’s such an iconic and enduring motoring fantasy – but is so hard to find in practice.
There are short corniche stretches in the south of France but often punctuated with ghastly holiday villages and clogged with coaches and delivery vans. I’ve always found them disappointing.
The Amalfi Coast is great, yes, but you drive for an hour, dodging dawdling tourists, then it’s over. Elsewhere, authorities in France, Spain and Italy have built new glorious ‘coastal’ roads, far inland.
So I went in search of a Mediterranean seaside drive, chasing a mental vision combining the best James Bond car chases with Audrey Hepburn wind-in-the hair glamour. This is what I found: a single seaside stretch that’s probably as good as it gets.
It’s part of the ‘E65’ – a route that some European tourism committee has decided to christen ‘The Adriatic Highway’. The AH runs down the eastern side of the Adriatic. That’s from Trieste in Italy to Albania, whose roads are not recommended for cars with normal suspension.
The most scenic bit and the best quality road is the stretch through Croatia. There’s barely a boring bit in the whole length. The Highway here is still a long day’s worth – about 330 miles. Unless you are a driving addict like me it’s probably better to split the drive into shorter segments and make a holiday out of it.
Whatever, the important thing is there’s a maximum amount of road offering uninterrupted sea views. You’ll have to be slightly map-clever though: the proudly trumpeted Adriatic Highway actually skirts inland out of sight of the sea in several places. I found it easy enough to choose smaller roads that cling to the shore instead though.
I started at the top of the map, at the Croatian resort of Opatija. Then I just cruised southeast with the sea on my right. I was in a nice borrowed BMW 5 Series but this route works in any car. Convertible would be best. Be ultra cool in a hat and shades.
Then simply sit back and enjoy that fantasy we all know – twisting round sea cliffs with a panorama of islands stretching to the horizon and skirting pine forests hanging above glittering sandy beaches. Expect to cross mountains where you’ll rise high for distant views and then drop down to drive along the water’s edge. It twists and turns along the whole length of Croatia’s coast, including the short stretch interrupted by Bosnia.
Photo Shutterstock
This small weird bit is only 12 miles long. Border checks are minimal if they happen at all. I thought the Bosnian road wasn’t as smooth but that could’ve been my imagination.
I was by myself but surprisingly, in someone else’s car, I didn’t hammer it. I let the Adriatic scenery of rocky gorges and lush valleys wash over me. I switched into a leisurely cruising mode, driving with an annoying fixed smug grin through the sequence of sunny villages and towns.
Generally the Adriatic Highway is good quality road although be prepared for lots of wiggling in and out of the wobbly coastline. The Croats call their stretch of the coastal route Jadranska Magistrala or, more pronounceably, the D8.
You can get stuck behind a truck full of chickens or a moped carrying an entire family because it’s mostly two lane, with only occasional stretches of dual carriageway. Take it easy though, on most of the bends I reckon the flimsy safety barriers alongside vertical drops wouldn’t even stop a bicycle plunging through.
The compensation for those rare hold ups is that almost every building you pass is an old stone house topped with terracotta or an ancient church with a half crumbled tower. You’ll see farmers selling fresh oranges on the roadside and seafood restaurants serving whatever has been caught that day from colourful wooden fishing boats pulled up the beach alongside.
Heading downwards like I did you get to end up at the world-class city of Dubrovnik. It’s a perfect Bond/Hepburn finale and one of the great sights of Europe. Find somewhere to stay right in the labyrinth of atmospheric stone alleys inside the intact walled city. The airport is just ten miles away so it’s easy to fly home the next day… or turn round drive all the way back to the start again.
