Cycling around Croatia

I admit, when my parents first invited me to join them on a sail and cycle tour of the Croatian islands I had to do some googling to figure out where in the world that was. But as soon as I solved that mystery (hint: across the Adriatic from Italy) it didn’t take long to become completely enamoured with photos of sparkling blue water and lush mountains. Despite my busy home life, the answer was a pretty obvious and enthusiastic “YAAASSSS”

My parents and aunt and uncle had already booked the trip way in advance. But when my cousin who lives in Belgium expressed interest in joining, I became the obvious plus one for her cabin on the boat. Travelling with my parents doesn’t happen all that often and there’s no guarantee how many years we have to do this.

Life is short. Do it now. Do it now. Do it now.

So we did.

Croatia is a pretty small country but boasts about 1200 island-ish rock things, with 48 of them inhabited and waiting to be explored. The quiet, meandering paved roads on the bigger islands are absolutely perfect for cycling, making a sail and cycle tour a beautiful way to see the country.

The boat we stayed on was a family owned, refurbished ferry, with a dozen rooms and a top deck for sunning yourself on. We were pretty early in the season so temperatures weren’t quite swim and sun-tan friendly, but apparently summer gets really hot, and given that I left, and returned home in a snow storm, I was happy with any temperature above freezing.

Every morning we would sail for at least an hour to a new island, then hop on our bikes for a couple hours of riding. Most people on the cruise were on e-bikes, and only about 6 of us were on ‘classic’ bikes. I sometimes hear people complain about how e-bikes make biking too easy or won’t keep people fit enough, I would argue that providing an e-bike option on a trip like this creates opportunities for a whole new range of people to get out and explore. My parents are the perfect example. Biking together was a favourite family past time when I was a kid, but over the years it became too hard for them to keep up with their kids and grandkids. They had essentially given up biking for good.

That is… until they got e-bikes. It totally changed the way they get around. It keeps them active, outdoors, having fun and seeing the world in ways they couldn’t if they only had regular bikes. They would never have considered a trip like this, yet now my mom is smoothly cruising past me on the uphills while I sweat and work hard for those same climbs. We get to enjoy the same thing, just in different ways.

I flew into the coastal city of Split, an adorable town made up of cobblestone streets sprawled at haphazard angles around a 3rd century Roman palace. Even though I was there for a bike trip, it was important to me to still get some decent running done, so I started my first morning with a beautiful run around a peninsula before we boarded the boat and headed to our first island of Solta. It quickly became apparent that Croatia was much hillier than expected. Not that I’ve ever been afraid of hills… but it was still a surprise.

And every hill was worth the work to gain those beautiful views of lush hillsides, olive groves, villages made of stone and terracotta, and that deep blue water.

Our group stuck together, and included plenty of stops to enjoy the scenery or get a cappuccino when we passed through a village, making the whole experience a perfect mix of movement, nature and people. The holy trinity of happiness. As my cousin Kendrah put it, “I think the happiest moments of my life include a bike or Ice cream”

We raised our gelato cones with a contented ‘zevjeli’ before they started to melt on a warm afternoon in Hvar. Yep. This is one of those happy moments.

Solta, Brac, Hvar, Vis, Korcula, Mjlet, Sipan. Each island promising both a blur of the same routine (sail, bike, coffee, wander, eat) and a fresh sense of adventure and view I will never get sick of. The countryside was covered with patches of farms with olive groves, vineyards and the occasional citrus trees. There is also a lot of Lavender but unfortunately we were slightly too early in the season to see it in bloom. However we hit poppy season and the ditches were filled with vibrant red.

No trip would be complete without plenty of exploring through running, so I tried my best to get out most days. Kendrah runs a bit when she is at home in Belgium, so was happy join for a few adventures, including a proper trail run over rocky hills with a stunning blue lake peaking through the trees below.

When we arrived back to the mainland after six days of island hopping, I set out alone, hoping to get a solid final tempo run before my upcoming marathon, but thanks to crowds and narrow roads it was nearly impossible to maintain a decent pace so I settled in to enjoy the views instead. Running past mid day diners as they enjoyed a glass of wine overlooking the sea, I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to experience this incredible corner of the world.

A final day wandering around Dubrovnik, touring castles, petting city cats, a circumnavigation of the old city on top of a narrow wall, and brief stop to walk the edge of the sea to pick up sea glass was the perfect end to a quick trip.

Oh. And although we didn’t have our bikes anymore on our last day, we made up for it with not one, but two rounds of ice cream, just to make sure we were living our absolute best life.