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

The mere mention of Croatia conjures up photos of crystalline blue waters, orange-roofed historic towns, and languid days put in island hopping. But traversing the country’s shoreline by auto, in particular for the duration of shoulder season, can be just as impressive. A travel alongside the southern Dalmatian Coast will bring you to delights frequently ignored by the masses: relatives-operate wineries on remarkable sloping hills, oyster farms nestled in silent turquoise bays, hundreds of years-aged villages, and secured lakes and rivers that are excellent for paddleboarding, windsurfing, and kayaking.

Now, with a new bridge uniting northern and southern Croatia, it’s achievable to see these highlights in just one seamless road trip from Dubrovnik to Split. The Pelješac Bridge, which opened in July 2022 as a single of the biggest European Union-funded initiatives in heritage, allows motorists to finally bypass a slender strip of Bosnian coastline that beforehand essential inconvenient (and occasionally lengthy) border checks. For Croatians, the opening of this new structure marks a historic milestone. And for tourists, it usually means much easier street entry to Croatia’s unsung—and typically a lot less crowded—rural highlights.

“It’s opening up locations that have been previously unfamiliar and kind of hidden from the map,” suggests Zrinka Marinovic, community relations supervisor for Adriatic Luxurious Motels, a selection of independent luxurious motels in and around Dubrovnik, in which she grew up. “In the previous, Neretva Valley was not really available since we did not have the bridge. You experienced to cross the Bosnian border to get to it and the rest of Croatia.”