Split, Dubrovnik & the Dalmatian Coast by Bike - Premium Adventure

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Extraordinary Stays

Nature First Adventures

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7 Days from

AUD 5,949

Cycling

Ways to Travel :

Guided Group, Private Group Adventures

Activity :

Cycling, Premium Adventures

Activity Levels :

2 out of 7 - Leisurely / Moderate

Group Size :

4 - 16

Ages :

16+

Trip Code :

MVQ

Take to two wheels to discover a land of endless wonders

The Dalmatian Coast is the best of Europe: elite gastronomy, ancient sites, beautiful islands, Unesco-listed attractions. Join us on this Premium Adventure to discover the highlights. We start and end in two landmark-packed cities, Split and Dubrovnik, and discover the Adriatic islands of Hvar and Korčula in between. Along the way, we sample excellent regional food, wine and olive oil on a handpicked selection of experiences (including a sailboat tour around Ston bay). The cycling itself is relatively easy and we stay in Premium hotels, leaving you the energy to fully immerse yourself in this beautiful part of the world.

Did you know you can travel by train to this trip? Find out more here

Highlights

Discover the wonders of Split, including Diocletian’s Palace and Marjan Hill
Stay in a carefully curated selection of Premium hotels
Cycle through the Stari Grad Plain, a Unesco-listed olive oil-producing region of Hvar island
Explore regional gastronomy with an exciting selection of food, wine and olive oil tastings
Enjoy an unforgettable culinary experience during a tour of Ston bay by sailing boat

Key Information

Five days of cycling with full vehicle support
90 percent paved roads, 10 percent gravel roads
Quiet roads with a good mix of flat and rolling terrain
Group normally 4 to 16 plus leader. Minimum age: 16
Six nights in hotels
E-bikes available for an additional cost
Option to travel by train to your adventure

Countries visited: Croatia

What's Included

All breakfasts, three lunches and one dinner
All accommodation
All transport and listed activities
Tour leader throughout
Local bike hire
Free group arrival and departure transfers available

What's Not Included

Travel insurance
Single accommodation (available on request)
Visas or vaccinations
E-bike hire

5 Days of Premium Adventures

Pace:

Leisurely/Moderate: 8mph-10mph (13kph-16kph)

Terrain:

Low altitude; 90 percent quiet paved roads, 10 percent gravel roads

Day 2

16 km / 9.9 miles

Day 3

30 km / 18.6 miles

Day 4

15 km / 9.3 miles

Day 5

20 km / 12.4 miles

Day 6

15 km / 9.3 miles

People, Places & Planet

We work hard to create trips that improve life for the people and places we visit, and look after the planet we explore. Find out more about our sustainable travel ethos and practice here, and find out about the work of the Exodus Travels Foundation here.

Some sustainable travel highlights of this trip include:

People

How this trip helps improve life for local communities.

The use of a local guide means our customers will be well informed about local traditions, and cultural and social sensitivities.

This trip brings income and opportunity to the destination community through the inclusion of locally owned hotels and restaurants, the emphasis on eating locally produced food and support of other local enterprise.
As a cycling trip, it allows easier access to the local communities and hence, facilitates interaction with locals from visits to local cafes and restaurants as well as markets to purchase traditional gifts and craft and get a real impression of the country. Entrance fees to the historical sites and attractions also goes to the upkeep of the structures.

Places

How this trip helps protect and conserve local landscapes and nature.

Read about our commitment to nature protection and restoration here, including our rewilding commitment for every customer who travels.
By travelling in a small group, led by a local guide, we ‘tread lightly’ to minimise our impact on local resources and the environment.
Our trips adhere to ABTA’s industry-leading animal welfare guidelines to ensure the best possible practices with regard to working animals and wildlife viewing. Our animal welfare policy can be found here.
We work with our partners on the ground to proactively eliminate or reduce waste, for example eliminating all single-use plastic water bottles and instead providing refills for re-usable bottles.

Planet

How we seek to keep the carbon footprint of this trip low.

Read about our climate action here, including our carbon reduction and compensation commitments.
Wherever possible, we use smaller, locally run accommodation and ecohotels versus big hotel chains which have a bigger impact on the surrounding environments.

Tips for sustainable travel on this trip

Leave no trace: We do all we can to ensure we leave no rubbish behind in the wild and beautiful places we visit; we ask that you do the same. If there are no recycling facilities in-country, we’d ask you to consider bringing recyclable materials home with you.
Plastic waste reduction: Please bring your own reusable water bottle on this trip; filtered water will be provided where tap water is not drinkable.

Itinerary

We start in Split, a beautiful city where a tumble of red-roof buildings edges the Adriatic Sea. We’ll have a welcome dinner at the hotel, during which the Tour Leader will host a welcome briefing – a great chance to ask any questions you may have about this cycling adventure.

Premium accommodation: Hotel President (four-star)

Meals Included: Dinner

We start our cycling adventure with a circular route around Split. It’ll take us past the Green Market, where traders sell fruit, vegetables and flowers, to Split promenade. Here we learn about Diocletian’s Palace, a magnificent fourth-century complex built for Roman emperor Diocletian. The second part of the tour takes us up Marjan Hill, through pine forest, to the viewpoints known as Telegrin and Vidilica, without doubt the best place to see the old town of Split. The final section takes us through the old neighbourhood of Varos, once the settlement of poor fisherman and farmers, who lived in tiny stone houses separated by narrow streets. We end the cycling back in the busy town centre. In the afternoon, we take a ferry/catamaran to Hvar island.

Premium accommodation: Hotel Adriana (four-star)

Meals Included: Breakfast

After breakfast, we transfer to Stari Grad – which literally means the old town in Croatian – where our cycling begins. We’ll ride through the Stari Grad Plain, a Unesco-listed landscape where celebrated olive oil is produced, en route to Vrboska, a town known locally as Little Venice for its many small bridges crossing a network of waterways.

After cycling along the coast to the neighbouring town of Jelsa, we pause for a wine and olive oil tasting at a local winery. We then start our return, stopping at a family estate for a traditional lunch of organic food and locally produced wine. We then continue cycling back to Stari Grad, where we catch our transfer back to the hotel.

Premium accommodation: Hotel Adriana (four-star)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

We catch the morning catamaran to Korčula, another beautiful Croatian island, after breakfast. After settling into our hotel, we take to the saddle for an afternoon ride to the coastal village of Lumbarda. Our route takes us on a combination of asphalt, gravel and gravel roads, passing through fields and villages, which open up to views of Mount Saint Elijah and magical vineyards.

Lumbarda has a tradition of wine production since the Illyrian era in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Our first stop is at a local family winery, where we have a wine and food tasting, which includes a selection of three wines, plus homemade cheese, prosciutto and bread. After, you can refresh at the beach. Our tour ends with a return to Korčula town.

Premium accommodation: Hotel Moro Inn (four-star)

Meals Included: Breakfast

From Korčula town, we cycle to Žrnovo, one of the oldest settlements on the island and home to a rich tradition in wine and olive oil-making, agriculture and stonemasonry. After a short break, we continue on a gravel road to Kočje, a protected nature park where we can see a labyrinth of strangely shaped dolomite rocks dressed in moss, overgrown with ivy, and surrounded by holm oak and fern. On the way back, we return to Žrnovo, we visit an old stone house to sample local olive oil and other organic products from the area. We then return to Korčula by different route to take in more of this beautiful Adriatic island.

Premium accommodation: Hotel Moro Inn (four-star)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

We start with transfer to Dubrovnik, visiting Ston, small fisherman town, en route. Historically, Ston was an important salt producing town, strategically positioned on the Adriatic shore along important trade routes. Now it’s a popular destination for foodies thanks to the local mussel and oyster population.

Our lunch in Ston is the culinary highlight of the tour for many: a unique gastronomic experience in which we take to a sailing boat and explore the natural beauty of bay while learning about the process of cultivating oysters.

After arriving in Dubrovnik and settling into our hotel, we’ll ride to city centre and then continue to the coast of Lapad, passing the enchanting gothic renaissance Sorkočević Castle, built in 1521 as an aristocrat’s summer residence. Our tour continues along the coast, all around the Lapad peninsula its long stretches of pebbled beaches, of which the most famous is named Copacabana.

We climb to Petka, the only fully green hill in Dubrovnik, before visiting Gorica, a hill topped by the baroque Church of Saint Blaise. From there, we’ll proceed to Boninovo, a neighbourhood where sea views stretch uninterrupted to Italy. Here we’ll have a photo stop and then ride back.

Premium accommodation: Hotel Adria (four-star)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Enjoy your final breakfast of the trip this morning; an excellent chance to reminisce about the many adventures you’ve just enjoyed. If you’ve still got a little appetite for adventure, speak to your sales representative about extending your stay in Dubrovnik. Or if you’re ready to put up your feet, now’s the time to start your journey home.

Meals Included: Breakfast

Essential Info

Visa

Croatia

Travellers from the UK, US and EU normally do not need a visa to enter Croatia. Please note, visa requirements often change and it is your responsibility to obtain any required visas for this trip. Therefore, we recommend that you check with the nearest embassy or consulate of your chosen destination(s), including any countries you may be transiting or transferring through.

Some local governments provide guidance on what visas their citizens need. To help, we’ve gathered a selection of useful links below.

• Australia: www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/europe/croatia
• Canada: www.travel.gc.ca/destinations/croatia
• United Kingdom: www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/croatia/entry-requirements
• USA:  www.travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Croatia.html

Vaccination

Croatia

There are no required vaccinations. However, you may want to consider vaccinations for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, rabies and tick-borne encephalitis. Please confirm with your doctor or travel clinic.

Eating and Drinking

All breakfasts, three lunches and one dinner are included on this trip. For breakfast, you can expect a continental buffet serving a wide selection of food from cold meats, cheeses, bread, and eggs to pastries, yoghurts, jams, and fruit as well as tea and coffee.

Croatian cuisine is a mixture of fine seafood, grilled lamb, pizza, pasta and salads, with influences from central Europe, Italy, and other parts of the Balkans.

Weather

Croatia has one of the sunniest climates in Europe, and some regions are well known to be free from rain. Our trips from March through to October, so you should expect some variation in temperature and possibly some rainfall. Temperatures can be high, particularly on the July departures when average temperatures are around 29C (84F). Temperatures in March, April and October are typically cooler.

Is this trip for you?

This tour is classified Road; Activity Level 2 (Leisurely/Moderate).

There are five days of cycling with an average distance of 12mi (19km) per day with full vehicle support.

The rides mainly follow paved roads, but where possible on the islands we use the quieter older roads that tend to be hard gravel. The roads are quiet and there is less traffic on the islands than the mainland. The route will be generally undulating but there are a few challenging hills that can be tough in the warm weather. The trip is vehicle supported so it is possible to miss some of these harder sections if you prefer. At times, the route will follow roads or tracks with a steep downslope to one side. Certain sections will not have a barrier.

No specific cycling experience is required but you should be comfortable on a bike and have a reasonable level of fitness.

Following a review of all our trips we have categorised this trip as generally not suitable for persons of reduced mobility. However if you are a regular traveller on such trips, please contact customer services to discuss the trip and your personal condition.