A Road Trip Along Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, Home to Vineyards, Oyster Farms, and Sleepy Island Detours

The mere mention of Croatia conjures up illustrations or photos of crystalline blue waters, orange-roofed historic cities, and languid days spent island hopping. But traversing the country’s shoreline by auto, especially for the duration of shoulder period, can be just as amazing. A drive alongside the southern Dalmatian Coast will convey you to delights generally overlooked by the masses: spouse and children-operate wineries on spectacular sloping hills, oyster farms nestled in tranquil turquoise bays, generations-previous villages, and shielded lakes and rivers that are excellent for paddleboarding, windsurfing, and kayaking.

Now, with a new bridge uniting northern and southern Croatia, it can be possible to see these highlights in 1 seamless highway vacation from Dubrovnik to Break up. The Pelješac Bridge, which opened in July 2022 as a single of the major European Union-funded jobs in heritage, permits drivers to eventually bypass a narrow strip of Bosnian coastline that earlier demanded inconvenient (and in some cases prolonged) border checks. For Croatians, the opening of this new composition marks a historic milestone. And for vacationers, it implies easier road accessibility to Croatia’s unsung—and normally less crowded—rural highlights.

“It’s opening up areas that were being earlier mysterious and variety of concealed from the map,” says Zrinka Marinovic, community relations supervisor for Adriatic Luxury Resorts, a assortment of independent luxurious hotels in and near Dubrovnik, where by she grew up. “In the earlier, Neretva Valley was not incredibly accessible due to the fact we did not have the bridge. You had to cross the Bosnian border to get to it and the relaxation of Croatia.”