Family Road Trip Croatia: Adriatic coast Highway

My wife Vesna and I were restless travellers even before our children were born. With the birth of Lucija (now 7 years old) and Filip (now 3 years old), our travelling took a short break, but now they are already thoroughly infected with the travel addiction. For Vesna, the word often leads to questions: where to go next, how expensive are the plane tickets... We dreamed of renting a camper van in our old age and going on a road trip. Then we realised that we are are basically already old :D

And so, while looking for a destination and a method of travelling for the May 2025 holidays, we decided without further ado to rent a campervan, and this from Balkan Campers - A company that we already knew through social media. The plan - somewhere to Ston and back - was also immediately approved by the house council.

Mate - VW T4 campervan was - to availability and the desired features (4 beds and 4 seats) - a match. The description on the website says that it was named after the famous Yugoslavian boxer Mate Parlov. He was a real giant, with brand new hiking boots (read: new spiked tyres). Miha, who handed Mate over to us (the handover was hustle free and included a pleasant chat about the history of their business),
also left a phone number in case anything went wrong, but I knew from the first moment we met that we wouldn't hear from each other until we returned from our road trip. Mate really exuded the strength and reliability of a famous boxer. Just sitting and driving was... I think I was in kind of parallel world the whole journey.

It is perhaps pointless to describe the road trip in detail (all the places we saw), because from the very beginning only one thing was important - to avoid motorways. The "Jadranska magistrala" - Adriatic coast highway - that stretches along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea is better suited to such vehicles. And for us passengers. It may sound cliché-ish, but with a camper van you only have one plan in mind – the journey is the destination.

And that's how it was. Every day, right up to the campsite where we spent the night, Mate presented us with beautiful pre-season Croatia. Whether it was the fairy-tale beaches of the bays coastal road or the endless, colourful and windy viewpoints of the winding local mountain road. No crowds, low campsite prices and just the right temperatures were the icing on the cake.

I can only liken the remoteness, simplicity and freedom that this type of travelling offers to surfing the waves. Choosing your direction each morning, letting the road itself and the beauty of the nature set the pace of your movement, is the best kind of holiday. We could also stop at nearby bars for a coffee or juice, but the coffee made on Mates cooker just tastes better. For added comfort at mealtimes, there was a set of 4 camping chairs and a table, and for the ultimate indulgence with an open beer can and the sunset, we had a hammock with us (as we always do).

For the kids, Mate was a real playground that quickly expanded to the nearby neighbourhood of the campsites. We didn't use all of the additional sports equipment that Miha had put in the boot for us, but we did try out our fishing for the first time in our lives. We didn't catch anything (well, a pile of seaweed once), but we had a lot of fun.