Croatia

What an amazing trip to Croatia- the Dalmatian coast! My husband and I had an incredible experience on our very first VBT self guided vacation! Yes, we are already talking about another and we haven’t even made it back home. From the luxurious hotels, detailed itinerary, to our amazing host, Andrej, we had the best time! We were throughly surprised how much we were connected to our host since we were on a self guided tour. Andrej went above and beyond to make sure we were well taken care of. One thing that would have been helpful to know is that If you do go to Mljet National Park, you can bring your bike on the Krilo ferry. We didn’t realize we would want our bikes until we were already there. There are paths all around the lakes for bikes and you can rent there too. Excellent experience with VBT! I highly recommend this trip!

Thank you, Silvy, and the VBT reservation office for making this a true vacation and taking care of all the details. From the moment we hung up the phone I was certain my first trip with VBT would not be my last. Our local, native Croatian host, Andrej, was friendly, timely, helpful, informative, and an all-around nice guy. I also loved the Ride GPS app and the opportunities to explore Ston and other points of interest — I especially enjoyed roaming around the uninhabited town of Nakovana. With VBT arranged hotels all along the coast and beautiful September weather, I was able to swim in the Adriatic most days of our trip (bring water shoes to walk along the rocks and cobblestones!) So much more to explore…I will be back!

The Croatia trip is one of the best we have taken. Despite heavy rain, the guides created a great experience. They completely rearranged the itinerary including the cruising due to high seas. Once the weather broke, the views are stunning. This is definitely a VBT Moderate trip, with climbs of several hundred feet, rewarded by exciting downhills into some of the Adriatic’s most picturesque harbors and seaside towns. Our Croatian guides were well informed, affable, supportive, and a pleasure to be with.

The first VBT trip we took, Slovenia Austria Italy was phenomenal. 25 bikers 1 E Bike. This year 27 bikers 6 regular human powered bikes all the rest on E bikes. We met on several islands a group of German bikers, 37 in the group, 2 regular bikes. Numerous other groups with the same percentage of E bikes. E Bikes have now become the norm. The trip, the vacation, the crowd who does this kind of adventure has changed. I’ve always liked training for these trips with months of regular rides. By comparison, several of our group shared that they did indeed train for the trip with a couple of rides around their neighborhood the week before flying to Europe. The experience has changed. Sad to say but this is our last VBT.

The Croatia bike trip was simply outstanding. First and foremost, we could not have gotten better guides from Croatia to show us the islands of Hvar and Brac. The culture, the scenery, the comraderie could not have been better. Plus we learned how to ascend and descend rather large hills! Would absolutely do it again.

This was a fantastic trip taken at the perfect time of the year in September. We were able to ride, swim and dine in gorgeous settings every day. The chance to meet the locals in their homes for dinners and to hear of their lives in Croatia was priceless. We were very fortunate to have two excellent guides in Nevenka and Natasha; they were both so knowledgeable and accommodating, we couldn't have asked for better leaders!

The guides where wonderful I learned so much about the countries we visited. Everything was top notch. The reason I always choose Country Walkers is the fact they always use local guides this makes the trip stand out above the rest. You get an insight not found with other tour companies.

I can't say enough good things about our recent trip to Slovenia/Croatia. We were Country Walkers "newbies", urged by friends to try it, and thoroughly enjoyed all of it. We were initially attracted to the location, as I have ancestors from the region, but we had no idea about the gorgeous landscape, mountains, and warm and friendly people (most all are English speakers, since it is their second language in grammar school.) Hotels were above expectations, comfortable, and have addicted me to eiderdowns. The food also was better than " tour quality" and even included a private dinner at Tito's mansion on Lake Bled one evening, overlooking the lake. Excursions to a winery and Roman ruins lent educational interest (especially due to excellent guide Nada in Pula), as did the truffle hunt (thoughtcrimes, sadly, our truffle hound was unsuccessful in his hunt the day.) I must give the most credit, however, to our 2 Country Walkers guides-Vida and Irena, both avid hikers and mountaineers (among other sports), friendly, organized, and careful with our wellbeing. All tours should be fortunate enough to have such leaders. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

We had an amazing time on this trip and could not have been happier with our decision to take our first ever group tour with Country Walkers. Everything about our trip was seamless. Our tour guides, Dani 1 and Dani 2, were knowledgeable, mature, funny and amiable, each in his own way, and added greatly to the trip/experience. Their local knowledge of culture, food, people, history was unmatchable. We had deep trust in them, and we knew that although everything seemed to go smoothly, they were constantly working behind the scenes to adjust plans due to weather, changes in schedule, etc. They made it look easy, but we knew it was not. Of course the hiking was nice, the views and location fantastic. The food was sumptuous and always different, so we sampled many things and felt we got exposed to all kinds of traditional Croation fare. The wine and grappa were always flowing generously. The eating locations themselves were unique. We heard rumors that this tour was being regrouped or cancelled and were quite surprised as everyone in our group seemed quite happy indeed. It would be a shame to lose these fantastic guides/guys.

This walking tour was awesome. The different venues, hikes and lodging was all terrific . The single factor that made the trip so good, were the two Guides. Dani and Dani were so thoughtful, knowledgeable, and their trips to lunches and meals and wine tasting, at various venues were remarkable. Getting to know some of the locals at these venues, and visiting places off the beaten path, were one of the high points, in my view.