by How far would you go – and how long would you take – to avoid flying and fully embrace the idea of slow travel? In my case, it was 3,167 miles over three weeks. For almost ten years I wanted to take a road trip to Croatia, and get as much out of the journey as the destination itself. Instead of bombing the motorway for marathon stretches, the idea was to slow down and see new things.
It seemed that we had barely made it to Le Shuttle (the Eurotunnel name until last spring) before my husband and I were off France and bouncing along the bumpy motorways of Belgium. After a six-hour drive, Germany’s oldest city, Trier, made for a pleasant overnight stop, and the reconstructed gothic Hauptmarkt square was bathed in late afternoon sunlight. The summer pop-up taught me that the Mosel wine region makes some very drinkable rosés.
Germany was one of those places where I couldn’t stop making mental notes of things to come back and explore; and the night we spent in Munich made me wonder why I had never visited before. It wasn’t just a handsome Marienplatz with its neo-gothic town hall; the food shops and stalls on Viktualienmarkt made me very hungry.
Rather than staying in the old town, we chose a hotel in Werksviertel, a few S-Bahn stops away. This former industrial area is now full of container bars, neat hotels (including ours, the Adina, which has a great roof terrace), concert venues and a big wheel of gear.
Another beautiful surprise – the first of many the next day – was Chiemsee, whose waters we saw from the autobahn to Austria. The largest lake in Bavaria raised my “How on earth have I never heard of this place and can I please come back?” list.
In Udine, we watched the Renaissance town emerge from its evening twilight and come alive with the evening passeggiata
Our entry into the Italian region known as Friuli-Venezia-Giulia happened quickly at lunchtime. Determined to avoid a bad motorway meal, we found a restaurant in tiny Tarvisio that served pizza with local San Daniele ham. Later, in Udine, we watched a beautiful Renaissance town wake up from its afternoon slumber and come alive in the evening paseggiata. Aperitivo in Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, a tour under the porticos of Piazza della Libertà, and dinner spaghetti alle vongole It’s what you need after a five hour drive. The next day, when we caught our first glimpse of the Adriatic on our way to Trieste and stopped for lunch surrounded by Habsburg stateliness, I was making more plans to return.
Our Italian interlude was so delightful that I was almost sad to pass through Slovenia and finally into Croatia. My goal was my parents’ region, Lika, in the west of the country, above Zadar, but for a while I was not visiting the inland area where my family came from. When I was writing my travels from Croatia, My Family and Other Enemies, in 2022, I lamented how – with the exception of the Plitvice Lakes national park and its surroundings – much of this beautiful region is being neglected. west in Croatia’s tourism boom. My intention this time was to explore the western half of Lika, where tourism is more similar.
It’s easy to find a bucolic bolthole in Lika’s karst mountain landscape of forests, rivers and lakes. A trawl line came up with a wooden cottage outside the village of Perušić. Named IV-AN after its generous owner from nearby Gospić, the cottage was backed by forests and faced with farmland. The only sounds were birdsong, crickets and, this evening, meat sizzling on the barbecue. My new obsession, the Merlin Bird ID app, attracted the calls of nuthatches, nightingales, owls and shrikes.
The lane behind led to the Grabovača cave park, whose Samograd cave was on my must-see list. Unfortunately, I was recovering from a knee injury and was unable to tackle the slippery steps. The same has happened to other activities that are making Lika a huge adventure playground – rafting and kayaking on the Gacka and Lika Rivers and Lake Krušćica, mountain biking, quad biking and even plain old hiking. But Lika has other tricks up her sleeve.
One of the most impressive is in the village of Kuterevo, about 45 minutes away from our cottage. Since 2002, Bear Sanctuary has been caring for orphaned brown bears whose mothers were killed, or rescued from illegal zoos, all kept in large enclosures. Entry is free, but volunteer rangers are happy to accept donations. When it’s hot, the bears lie in the shade, but on this rainy morning they were all walking under it. The heaviest was Bruno, who arrived in 2019 from an illegal zoo, and still hasn’t lost his captive habit of walking around.
Apart from Plitvice, Lika’s other claim to fame is the birthplace of Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla, whose village of Smiljan has a small industry. At the Nikola Tesla Memorial Center you don’t have to be a science geek to enjoy the display of Tesla’s cup, the film about the inventor’s life, or the exhibits in the house where he was born – next to the 1765 church where his father Tesla was a parish priest.
Smiljan is only three miles from the county seat of Lika, Gospić, and its Lika Museum, housed in an attractive 18th-century building. Among the medieval artefacts and Habsburg furniture is a really good art gallery with an exhibition of early 20th century photographs. Those photos fascinated me: my paternal grandfather was a railway station master at Gospić briefly, until his untimely death in 1933, and this gave me an insight into his life.
When it’s warm, the bears at the sanctuary lie in the shade, but on this rainy morning they were all walking around
Western Lika’s other major town is Otočac, in the Gacka valley, the focus of many of the area’s outdoor activities. Most of the Gacka River is underground, but what can be seen in this wide valley is extremely beautiful, shaded by trees and full of brown trout. If I couldn’t go kayaking, I could at least find a riverside restaurant – Bistro Ribić and Bumerang were particularly good – and we feasted on two whole grilled trout for €12.
Two of the three main sources that feed the Gacka are only a few miles apart, both amazing little aquatic life. At Majerovo Vrilo, old restored mill houses (one still milling flour) form a bridge across the small rapids; behind them the water was still clear and blue, with reeds and lily pads adding touches of green to match the wooded hills behind. A handful of wooden houses overlook this lovely spot, and I envied their occupants on their waterside terraces. It was a similar scene at Tonkovićevo Vrilo, where more of this sparkling water poured under wooden bridges.
In a region where the scars of war are still visible and which continues to lose its young people to emigration, it was a great pleasure for visitors, cyclists, anglers and kayakers to enjoy this vast landscape. And there was one young man to keep Lika’s spirit flowing, literally. Ivan Vlainić, 31, is resisting the urge to leave the countryside, having moved from Zagreb to the fifth generation to run the family brand business, Stilanova Lika.
“More young people like me have realized that we can make a living here,” he told me as he tasted his fine brands in the restored family home outside Peru.
Soon, however, we were leaving Lika to meander along the Istrian coast back towards Italy and decided at the last minute to visit Venice. That night, our simple one-star hotel on Italy’s Lake Iseo surprised us with its five-star view of the sunset on Monte Isola. A few days in the French Alps and a final night in Burgundy rounded off our road trip. My brain was in a jumble of languages, my phone overflowing with photos. It was slow travel at least joyous, and worth waiting.
• Le Shuttle provided travel from Folkestone to Calais (crosses from £87 each). Seven nights self-catering at IV-AN cost £600. Apartment Adina Hotel in Munich there are self-catering apartments from €152 night. Hotel Allegria in Udine there is a doubling from €139 B&B. My family and another enemy Mary Novakovich free,s: Life and Travel in the Croatian Hinterland (Bradt’s Travel Guides, £9.99) available from guardianbookshop.com
Related: ‘Time for the dream’: five writers on the joy of slow travel that brings them peace
