Wanderlust Travel Magazine (UK)
Sustainable experiences
Leave your car behind when you visit some of Croatia’s Adriatic islands, as they’re made to be explored slowly. In fact, seven of the islands have banned cars completely.
If you happen to be visiting Lošinj, you can take the ferry to two of its island neighbours. Tiny Susak has a couple of sandy beaches, a cluster of restaurants and a few rough tracks – definitely the place to get away from it all and enjoy slow rambles after a swim and a lunch of local fish. From here you can take the ferry to equally tranquil and car-free Unije.
If you’re visiting Zadar, it’s hard to resist the ferry journey to little Silba, where you can rent bikes to visit the island’s beaches, secure in the knowledge that you won’t be disturbed by any cars.
Similarly, they don’t allow cars on Zlarin in the Šibenik archipelago; this was also the first island in Croatia to ban the use of plastics. Zlarin’s even smaller neighbour, Prvić, is just a short ferry ride away and tempts you with time-frozen villages, sandy beaches and car-free lanes.
Come to Dubrovnik and you’ll be offered day trips to the three inhabited Elaphiti islands, two of which – Lopud and Koločep – have also banned cars. But sometimes a day isn’t enough: feel the pace slow down once the day-trippers have gone and you have the beaches and forested trails to yourself.
Sailors have discovered the joys of meandering through the dozens of islands that make up Kornati National Park. This is proper off-grid territory: no mains water or electricity, not even any permanent settlement. The islands themselves have a stark beauty about them, and are mainly barren and scrubby with the occasional grazing wild sheep. Come in summer for relaxed meals at the water’s edge, when the handful of restaurants scattered around the archipelago open their doors and offer feasts with local produce.