Dalmatian town Grebastica

Grebastica is a small town or more precisely a town-type village by the sea some 15 kilometres from Croatian town Sibenik.

When it comes to Croatia, in general, especially about Dalmatia, most of the seaside settlements are villages, but the impression that it could be a city. It’s because the houses are very close to each other and these villages have relatively good infrastructure to serve tourists. They usually have several small shops and a lot of bars, restaurants and cafes located along the seaside. They also have many private hotels, some larger but a lot of small ones.

Grebastica is quite well-known tourist destination because of the sunny weather, the clean sea, which is actually a bay, and its beaches. The beaches, of course, as in most of Croatia, are with small stones but not rocky in Grebastica.

It should also be noted that this place is especially attractive to Germans, Swiss and Austrians and you will hear a lot of German language around.

Our final destination for this trip was even more remote seaside village of Sevid, but for all the above reasons we decided to spend a couple of nights in Grebastica. It is located on the way to Sevid as we arrived at Zadar airport. Grebastica is located about 60 kilometres from Zadar, so we were able to see many beautiful scenes on the way.

Getting there

Getting there is very easy. There is practically only one main road D8 along the coast and the main thing is not to miss the right turn. Actually, driving on the D8 is very slow. In rare parts you can drive at 80-90 kilometres per hour, but mostly all the time there are speed limits of 50, 40 and even 30 kilometres per hour, even in places where there is no apparent reason for it. In addition, speed limits tend to change every half a kilometre, so it requires additional attention all the time.

Speed cameras are often installed on the roadside, which makes driving even more nervous. In addition, Croatians have a habit of driving very close to the next car, no matter what speed you drive, and you can’t really enjoy the surrounding views without stopping. It must be said that there are quite a few places to stop on the side of the road and the uncomfortable driving is forgotten practically at the moment you reach your destination by the sea.

We had already booked apartments at Apartments Holidays Roko many months in advance. If you ever think of driving to this hotel, be aware that the hotel is marked in the wrong place on Google maps. This is not uncommon in Croatia, but the owners are usually very responsive and give all directions on how to get to their place.

Arrival

Our arrival coincided with the very beginning of the hot season, so if you want to find a good accommodation, it is practically impossible to do it a month in advance. Regardless of how much you are willing to pay for it – there are simply no vacancies.

Just being curious, we checked when this hotel would have free rooms and it turned out that it is only in November (we were in Grebastica in the middle of June). That’s a reason you need to plan all these things very early. We do it usually before or at least around New Year.

Accommodation in Grebastica

The owner welcomed us with white wine. He immediately understood that we needed wine after the exhausting journey (he didn’t ask to pay for it, it was complementary, although it’s a common thing in Croatia). When we had finished with the wine, we went to our apartments, the host showed around everything we needed.

The apartment was very good. Clean, renovated to the best standards (the house didn’t look new from the outside, but the interiors, including the staircase and corridors, were posh). Spacious bathroom, bedroom, large dining room with kitchenette and a terrace with sea view.

Food and joy

Since we liked everything very much, we also decided to go to the owner’s small restaurant for dinner; the restaurant is located on the other side of the street by the water. That’s another common thing in Croatia. We were not disappointed with our choice at all. Menu was with huge choice national dishes, fried and grilled seafood and many other things. The prices were good for what we ate.

Before our arrival, the weather was windy with thunderstorms, so the water in the sea was quite cold, even though we went there for a swim on the first day. For the next day we had originally planned to drive around the nearby area, but when the host showed us the pool on the roof terrace of the hotel, we quickly made the decision to stay. To relax on the roof terrace, sunbathing and soaking in the pool. It was planned to go to Sevid on the next day.

Sevid was our destination for a summer vacation on the Adriatic coast in Croatia. I already wrote before that we arrived at Zadar airport and spent a couple of days in a small town Grebastica and on the way to Sevid we stopped in Dalmatian town Primosten.

Sevid is great place for quiet vacation, the nearest town with an active tourist life is Trogir, which is about 20 kilometres away. The beaches of Sevid, of course, have many people like everywhere else in Croatia, but they are not overcrowded. People go there with their private cars, because the village is located a short but not walking distance from the D8 road, there is no motorway nearby, and it is difficult or even impossible for tourist buses to pass through narrow local roads.

Another peculiarity, why there are no bigger hotels in Sevid is that the village does not have a central water supply. Houses use their own boreholes for water, but in many places water is even supplied by vehicles in water tanks. We lived in a villa that had its own well, but the landlady suggested that it is better to buy drinking water in a store – just in case to be on safe side.
In the part of the village located by the sea, there is one shop, one pizzeria and one (expensive) restaurant. It is not much, but it is quite enough if you have your own transport to go to the city when necessary. We had already bought everything important on the way to Sevid stopping in Šibenik, where there are large shopping centres and you can buy practically everything you need.

Sibenik is located 45 kilometres from Sevid, the journey takes less than an hour. The city is interesting with a rich cultural heritage, episodes of the Game of Thrones series were also filmed there. If you’re around, Sibenik is worth a stop.

The small villages have another good thing – every morning, local bakery products are delivered near to your doorstep, so we could eat freshly baked croissants and other similar products for breakfast.

Roadside restaurants

From time to time we also went to explore the surrounding area. One of the most interesting things seemed to be the large grill ovens at the roadside restaurants.

Every morning a lamb, piglet, or goat is impaled on one or more skewers, well-roasted for lunch, and offered to passing riders. During holiday season it is better to book a table in advance, because there are a lot of people who want to eat. It is interesting that meat is not sold in portions but in kilograms. For example, order a kilogram for three people and in addition order portions of side dishes.

It is also possible to order meat to take away, what we also did, so that we did not have to prepare lunch ourselves.

On weekdays, only pork is usually offered, but lamb is roasted on weekends. It must be said that all kinds of meets were very tasty – they really know how to roast it. The chefs said that they do not raise livestock themselves, but buy from farmers in nearby mountain villages.

Boat hire

If you are at the sea, one of the options difficult and even unwise to give up is a trip to the sea by hired boat.

We found a phone number right on the beach board advertising where you can rent a boat and called that number. We agreed that we will take the boat for half a day, which also means half the price. The deal was agreed and the next morning around ten we were already sitting in our motorboat.

Traveling by boat has one major benefit – you can drop anchor almost anywhere near the shore and swim. No need to worry about the sea urchins that are common on the rocky beaches of Croatia (for this reason, we always used the water slippers we brought, which protect quite well from accidental injuries).

We also decided to go out into the open sea and went to the nearby island. We found a nice beach there and had a great time before heading back.

Looking at the map, we travelled only about six kilometres all together, but it felt much more. Swaying in the waves of the sea and humming from the cargo ship, whose path we would had to cross was fun.

It should also be mentioned that the locals left a very pleasant impression. Returning home I noticed that I had left a pair of sunglasses with a relatively large amount of money on the boat. When we slowly went back to the villa, the guy with the scooter caught us up and returned the left property – many thanks to him for that!

I have already written quite a lot about traveling to Croatia, but here I will summarize how to get there by car from Latvia.

Even though we have been flying everywhere for the last decade, we have mostly driven by our car to Croatia. We have also seen other cars with Baltic and Polish license plates in Croatia, so we are by no means the only ones and this information may be useful to someone else.

The usual route is as follows: Riga – Warsaw (Poland) – Bratislava (Slovakia) – Graz (Austria) – Maribor (Slovenia) – Zagreb (Croatia). This is also the option offered by Google Maps. What happens after arrival to Zagreb is entirely up to you, depending on where else you have decided to go. There are people who prefer to drive through the Czech Republic, but staying overnight in the Czech Republic (not to mention Austria) can be quite expensive.

If you are going to relax by the sea, then you should take into account that it is practically impossible to visit all the regions of Croatia at once. The country is stretched from north to south and there is a highway that connects it all. But once you get off the highway, driving is very slow.

I would say that there are three main regions in Croatia that are worth visiting – the north, the Istrian peninsula and the island of Krk, the south of Dalmatia, including Dubrovnik, the Peljesac peninsula and the island of Korcula, and central Dalmatia – Split, Trogir, other smaller towns and seaside villages.

Driving from Riga

We started driving at the time when it was a habit to drive through Poland during night. Now a lot has changed in Poland, so you can drive through it during the day. Driving at night has the advantage that it is possible to drive a longer first part of the distance. On the first day, we usually tried to drive at least 1200 kilometres.

In any case, it will take at least ten hours to get to Warsaw from Riga, so if you leave around midnight, you will be in Warsaw around ten in the morning. We usually chose hotel or apartment somewhere in Slovakia. You still have to drive quite a long distance from Polish capital, about 500 kilometres, which is at least 6 – 7 hours. It should be noted that it is also necessary to stop to eat, relax and stretch.

We usually took thermoses with hot water and dry soups with us, so that we didn’t have to only eat dry snacks. Although, we usually got off at least once in Poland to have a late breakfast or lunch at one of the roadside restaurants.

Overnight stay in Slovakia

We used the accommodation to stay at night because we were traveling with children and it would have been quite cruel to ask them to spend the night in the car. After driving more than 1000 kilometres, you need to sleep in a normal bed. You must also remember to replenish the hot water supply for next day’s soups before departure!

We usually looked for hotels (guest houses) in Slovakia on the Internet somewhere between Zilin and Trencin, a little off the highway. When it comes to the motorway, remember that in Slovakia (as well as in the Czech Republic) you have to buy a vignette. Inspections are not frequent, but if you are caught without a vignette, you may end up with paying quite large fine.

Now it is possible to buy a Slovak e-vignette online in advance, you can pay with payment card or PayPal. Even in Austria, to drive on the motorways, you need to buy a vignette; Austrian vignette for 10 days (minimum time) costs 9.6 euros (summer 2022).

Slovakian vignette for ten days costs 15.8 euros, but if you choose to drive through the Czech Republic, you can save a little – for 10 days there, a vignette costs 12.5 euros, but other costs, if you stop, will probably be higher.

Spending night in Zagreb

The last section of the route from Slovakia to Zagreb is practically only driving on motorways. Google Maps offer to drive through Hungary as the main route, but I don’t recommend it, because the roads are rather boring and driving through Hungary just doesn’t excite me (we’ve tried it ourselves).

Since you can get to Croatia (Zagreb) in about seven to nine hours from Slovakia, we did not rush to leave early in the morning. Accommodations usually offer breakfast and you also want to slow down a bit before leaving. And the main thing is that it is not even possible to go anywhere further than Zagreb during that day, unless your destination is the island of Krk or the Istrian peninsula.

In that case, you can pass Zagreb going through Slovenia in the direction of Rijeka. It will take up to 10 hours in total then.

If the destination of your trip to Croatia is central or southern Dalmatia, then staying overnight in Zagreb is worth it. Both in the city and its outskirts, there are many hotels for good price. It should only be noted that they are all very busy during the summer season; the hotel should be booked well in advance when the trip is being planned. This also applies to all other hotels in Croatia during the summer period.