Croatia 2024

On September 27, 2024 we flew Delta from Salt Lake City to Paris. It took every bit of 2 hours to get to our gate for our flight to Split, Croatia. We arrived in Split about noon on the 28^th. Waiting for us was the AK agent, Mislav. He and his driver took us to our hotel, The Conaro Hotel. We got settled in our room and later took a walk around. The next day we met Mislav for a walking tour of the Diocletian Palace and the waterfront. Mislav was encycopedic in his description of the history of Croatia and especially the Palace. The next day we met the Backroad guides in the lobby of the hotel at 6:30 am. They took our luggage and we walked with our backpacks down to the ferry dock for our ferry ride to the island of Korcula. The trip took 2 ½ hours and when we got there we got set up on our ebikes. Our guides were Alex, who was the states, and Ivan(pronounced with a long E, evan). The third guide was Anahita who we just called Anna. Our first ride was along the coast of the island, out and back for 12 miles. 

We had lunch in town, Lambarda and then set out for our afternoon ride. It was an 18 mile ride which gave us glorious views with perfect weather. That night we stayed at the Aminus Hotel and had a welcome dinner. Early the next day we ferried across the channel to Orebic and had great morning and afternoon rides. We then shuttled to Dubrovnik and checked into the Royal Blue Hotel. That night we went to Old Town and had a Croatian dinner at a restaurant called 44, the jersey number of Bojan Bogdanavic (ex Utah Jazz player) who owned it. The next day we took a boat ride to Lopad Island where we hiked up and over to a sandy beach. We had lunch at a charming family owned restaurant. That night Diane stayed in the hotel and I took an Uber to Old Town and caught up with the group on a tour. I went to dinner with Ted and Cathy and also Karl and Babara, our new friends from Colorado. I took the shuttle back to the hotel and got to bed by 10PM. On Oct 3, we left Dubrovnik and took a short boat ride to Cavtat for our AM bike ride. Diane got a flat tire and Alex came and switched out her wheel and we were on our way until Diane tried to brake and had no brakes. We remedied that and then we finished the ride. After lunch, we rode our bikes across the border into Montenegro and switched to the van and checked into the Regent Hotel, a very od but very nice hotel.  We were now in Tivat, Montenegro. On Oct 4, we went to the old town of Kotor and had a guided walk of the old city that was interrupted by a rain storm. We passed on the steep switch back hike toward Mt. Loven due to the rain. It would have been slippery and dangerous.  Oct 6 was our las day. We got in sea kayaks and paddled to an island in the Bay of Kotor. The island was called Our Lady of the Rocks.  It was created over 400 years after 2 brothers saw a face of the Blessed Virgin in the water and started dropping rocks there to build an island. After over 4000 years an island was formed and a church was built there. We went back to the hotel and cleaned up for our shuttle back to Dubrovnik ending the Backroads part of the trip. We said our goodbyes and checked into the Excelsior Hotel for the last night of our trip. We walked to Old Town that night, had dinner at Bura Restaurant and shopped for gifts for the kids and grandkids. Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, and were picked up by the AK driver and guide for the trip to the Dubrovnik Airport for our trip home.