How far would you go – and how long would it take you – to avoid flying and thoroughly 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 trip as the destination itself. Instead of bombing the highway for marathon stretches, the idea was to slow down and see new things.
It seemed like we’d barely rolled off Le Shuttle (the Eurotunnel name was changed again last spring) when my husband and I were out of France and bouncing along the bumpy highways of Belgium. After a six-hour drive, Germany’s oldest city, Trier, made for a pleasant overnight stay, with the reconstructed Gothic Hauptmarkt Square bathed in late afternoon sunlight. The summer pop-up bar taught me that the Moselle wine region makes some very drinkable rosés.
Germany turned out to be one of those places where I couldn’t stop taking notes about things I was going to discover next; and the night we spent in Munich made me wonder why I’d never been there before. It wasn’t just the beautiful Marienplatz and the neo-Gothic New Town Hall; the food shops and stalls at the Viktualienmarkt made me seriously hungry.
Instead of staying in the old town, we opted for a hotel in Werksviertel, a few stops away on the S-Bahn. This former industrial area is now full of container bars, sleek hotels (including ours, the Adina, with a fantastic roof terrace), concert halls and a huge Ferris wheel.
Another lovely surprise – the first of many the next day – was Lake Chiemsee, which we caught a glimpse of from the motorway into Austria. Bavaria’s largest lake shot up, “How on earth have I never heard of this place and can I please come back?” list.
In Udine we saw a Renaissance city wake up from its afternoon nap and come alive with the evening passeggiata
Our arrival in the spicy named region of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia in Italy coincided nicely with lunchtime. Determined to avoid a terrible highway meal, we found a restaurant in tiny Tarvisio that served pizzas smothered with local San Daniele ham. Later, in Udine, we saw a beautiful Renaissance town wake from its afternoon nap and come alive with the evening passeggiata. An aperitivo in Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, a walk under the colonnades of Piazza della Libertà and a dinner of Spaghetti Alle Vongole is what you want after a five-hour drive. The next day, as we caught our first glimpse of the Adriatic Sea on the way to Trieste and stopped for lunch surrounded by Habsburg stateliness, I made plans to return.
Our Italian interlude was so delicious that I almost regretted whizzing through Slovenia and eventually Croatia. My destination was my parents’ Lika region, in the west of the country, above Zadar, but for once I did not visit the interior where my family came from. When I was writing my 2022 travelogue on Croatia, My Family and Other Enemies, I lamented how – with the exception of the Plitvice Lakes National Park and its environs – much of this beautiful region is left behind in Croatia’s tourist boom. My intention this time was to explore the western half of Lika, where tourism has more of a foothold.
It’s easy to find a rural retreat in Lika’s karst mountain landscape of forests, rivers and lakes. An online trawl came up with a wooden house outside the village of Perušić. The house, named IV-AN after its brilliant owner from nearby Gospić, was surrounded by forests and farmland in front. The only sounds were birdsong, crickets and, when evening came, sizzling meat on the barbecue. My new obsession, the Merlin Bird ID app, picked up the calls of nuthatches, nightingales, owls and shrikes.
The avenue behind it led to the Grabovača Cave Park, of which the Samograd Cave was on my must-see list. Unfortunately, I was recovering from a knee injury and was unable to navigate the slippery steps. The same goes for other activities that turn Lika into a gigantic adventure playground: rafting and kayaking on the Gacka and Lika rivers and Krušćica Lake, mountain biking, quad biking and even just hiking. But Lika has other tricks up her sleeve.
One of the most fascinating is in the village of Kuterevo, about a 45-minute drive from our cottage. Since 2002, the Bear Refuge has cared for orphaned brown bears whose mothers have been killed or rescued from illegal zoos, all in spacious enclosures. Admission is free, but volunteer administrators are happy to accept donations. When it’s warm the bears lurk in the shade, but on this rainy morning they were all wandering around. The most poignant was Bruno, who arrived from an illegal zoo in 2019 and has still not lost his habit of pacing back and forth in captivity.
Besides Plitvice, Lika’s other claim to fame is being the birthplace of Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla, whose village of Smiljan spawned a mini-industry. At the Nikola Tesla Memorial Center, you don’t have to be a science enthusiast to enjoy the demonstration of the Tesla coil, the film about the inventor’s life, or the exhibitions in the house where he was born – next to the 1765 church where Tesla’s father was a pastor.
Smiljan is located just five kilometers from Lika’s provincial capital, Gospić, and the Lika Museum, housed in an attractive 18th-century building. Among the medieval artefacts and Habsburg furniture there is a very good art gallery with an exhibition of photographs from the early 20th century. Those photos had mesmerized me: my paternal grandfather was Gospić station master for a short time, until his untimely death in 1933, and this gave me a glimpse into his world.
When it’s warm, the bears lurk in the shade in the shelter, but on this rainy morning they were all wandering around
The other major town of Western Lika is Otočac, in the Gacka Valley, where many outdoor activities take place in the area. Most of the Gacka River is underground, but what you can see in this wide valley is of serene beauty, shaded by trees and full of brown trout. If I couldn’t go kayaking, at least I could find a riverside restaurant – Bistro Ribić and Bumerang were particularly good – and we enjoyed two whole grilled trout for €12.
Two of the three main springs that feed the Gacka are only a few kilometers apart, both wonderful little water worlds. At Majerovo Vrilo, old restored mill houses (one of which still grinds flour) form a bridge over the mini rapids; behind them the clear water lay still and blue, with reeds and lily pads adding a touch of green to match the wooded hills behind. A handful of wooden houses overlook this idyllic spot, and I envied their residents on their waterfront terraces. The same could be seen at Tonkovićevo Vrilo, where more of this sparkling water lapped under wooden bridges.
In a region that still shows signs of war and continues to lose young people to emigration, it was a pleasure to see hikers, cyclists, fishermen and kayakers enjoying this vast landscape. And a young man was there to literally make Lika’s spirit flow. Ivan Vlainić, 31, is bucking the trend of leaving the countryside, having moved from Zagreb to become the fifth generation to run the family brandy company Stilanova Lika.
“More young people like me have realized that we can make a living here,” he told me during a tasting of his smooth cognac in the restored family home outside Perušić.
But we soon left Lika to stroll along the Istrian coast back towards Italy, deciding at the last minute to visit Venice. That night, our simple one-star hotel on Italy’s Lake Iseo amazed us with its five-star view of the sun setting on Monte Isola. A few days in the French Alps and a final night in Burgundy rounded out our road trip. My brain was a jumble of languages, my phone chock full of photos. It was slow travel at its most joyful, and worth the wait.
• The journey from Folkestone to Calais was provided by Le Shuttle (crossings from £87 each way). Self-catering for seven nights IV-AN costs €600. Adina apartment hotel in Munich has self-catering apartments from €152 a night. Hotel Allegria in Udine has doubles of €139 B&B. My family and other enemies of Mary Novakovichs: Living and Traveling in Croatia’s Hinterland (Bradt Travel Guides, £9.99) is available from Guardianbookshop.com
Related: ‘Time to dream’: five writers about the slow joy of travel that brings them peace