Family Road Trip to Croatian Islands of Cres and Mali Lošinj

This year we decided to go on a family road trip exploration of the Croatian twin-island jewel of Cres and Lošinj.

Since we don't have our own camper van, we rented it from Balkan Campers. This is the third time we rented the camper van from them and it was always a great experience.

Our journey began in Slovenia, from where we made our way to the Istrian peninsula in Croatia. We made our way down the winding coastal road to Porozina, where we boarded the trademark ferry and switched to the island vibe.

The island vibe, in case you were wondering, is a feeling where nothing seems to be a problem, and even bad weather can’t spoil your mood. Arriving at the island of Cres, we were suddenly met with a proper storm! 

But, with a Balkan Camper we knew that the Sun is just a short drive away! 🌞 ⬅️ 🚐

So, after driving through the whole island of Cres we finally found our place - a camping site called Bijar in Osor, just before the island of Lošinj, and parked our van for the night. It was getting late so we wanted to stop and rest, then see what’s the situation next day and take it from there.

Next morning, we woke up to the sounds of crickets while the mild morning sun rays were gently kissing our faces as we slept with the doors open. What a treat!

After a cosy slow start to the morning, it was time to crawl from the upstairs bed and make some breakfast!

A folding table and chairs were neatly packed in our Camper van, so we pulled them out and filled the table with the morning goodies, drank our yummy Turkish coffee, for which the camper van also came well prepared, and made a plan for the day!

After breakfast, when we were all ready to roll (um, ourselves to the beach of course), we packed everything up and hit the road!

Over the days we visited the Veli Lošinj island:

Town of Nerezine:

And camp Čikat on the island of Lošinj:

And Martinščica beach:

And Valun, on the island of Cres.

We liked some beaches more than others, so we'd even visited a few places more than once, coz with a camper van you can do what you want! 😼 Doing this trip in a Camper Van really gave us the absolute freedom to choose where we wanted to go, and if we didn't like the beach we came to, we just had a quick bath and took off elsewhere. Van trip is pure freedom.

Cres is the bigger island with some beautiful public beaches and also many semi-private coves, some only accessible by water or a long hike. 

And on the way towards the unknown, we passed by some mind-blowing spots like this one with a view on the other islands nearby, such as Krk, Rab, and Lošinj.

The views from our blue moving house were just stunning!

Lošinj on the other hand is smaller, but sees more seasonal vacationers. Unlike its sibling Cres, there are less wild and more camp or city beaches on this island. They are all open to everyone without any fee.

Scorching sun and beautiful beaches - what else would you want from your summer? 

A cocktail, I agree. Plenty of those around anyway! 🍹 😎 ☀️

And the water was just perfect! 

All that hard island living means that by the evening, you’re pretty famished. Often, we’d take advantage of the stove in the van which was amazing, we definitely saved some cash, so we could, on a special night, treat ourselves to a delicious sea-food dinner outside, which is definitely a must on a Croatian road trip adventure.

Perhaps it takes a day or two to acclimatize to the ambience of the island, but once you do, time slows down and you soon start asking yourself, is the meaning of life to live on an island and move around with a Balkan camper?

Now, I’ve done many roadtrips in my life, I’ve traveled to places in various transports and stayed in different types of accommodation. But after all these experiences I can say for certain, this is by far the best and most interesting way to travel. 

Traveling with a Balkan camper was super easy. The tank seemingly needed very little fuel for how much we traveled, and parking and finding a spot even in the buzzing towns, was never a problem. 

Thank you Balkan Campers for what you do and how you do it! We will definitely be back for more!