Going north along Croatian coast to Venice Italy (and back)

BartW

BartW

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 Oct 2007
Messages
5,236
Location
Belgium
www.amptec.be
That’s our Plan for this summer, Promises made long ago to swmbo ;-)
Departure is from Tivat Porto Montenegro,

As we have never been north of Sibenik with a boat, we have a few questions:
- Interesting spots and places to visit along the Croatian coast north of Sibenik ?
I’ll use Hardmy’s trip report for starters, and Brijuni is on the list already
- Best route to Venice, going straight from Rovinj across the gulf, or visit more places on the Istrian coastline
- Where to stay near Venice for visiting by tender ?
- Convenient Marina closest to Treviso Airport, for changing guests and provisioning ?
- Is it possible to go in the Canale grande with a 70ft boat ? my marine neighbor advised me its possible at 6am

Question regarding paperwork;
when we leave Croatia we need to “check out" the country (non Schengen)
Do we need to do something when entering in to Italy / a Schengen country ?
 
Sounds like a fantastic trip Bart.

Some suggestions for places to visit

1) At Sibenik take the canal up to Skradin to see the Krka national park and waterfalls
2) Zut island: moor at Festa and eat dinner http://zut.hr/hr/
3) Murter: moor at Fabro's and eat dinner on quay http://www.restoran-fabro.hr/. Be careful on the entrance into Murter
4) Kornati National Park: some people think the scenery is fabulous, others dont but probably worth cruising through the park for 1 day even though you have to buy a licence. Vrulje is a nice place to overnight on a buoy and watch the sunset
5) Telascica: also a national park but excellent and very sheltered anchorage right at the top around the 2 islands
6) Zadar: interesting and attractive city if you want a change and do some shopping
7) Mali Losinj: moor in one of marinas or anchor. Good stop before crossing Kvarner channel (don't cross in Bora wind as it can get very rough)
8) Opatjia: elegant town with many hotels/restaurants and ACI marina
9) Pula: go see Roman amphitheatre (better than Colliseum in Rome)
10) Rovinj: very attractive old town

No I wouldn't bother going further north than Rovinj. There are some reasonably attractive destination ports but not worth a detour although Trieste city is very scenic, at least on the waterfront

Can't help on berthing in Venice but I don't think that the marinas on Venice island accept visitors

I have a couple of Italian business contacts who moor their boats in Lignano which I think is acknowledged as being the best marina in that area. It is also not far from Treviso airport

Can't help you on checking out of Croatia as we left Croatia on the year it joined the EU. Maybe somebody else can advise?
 
thanks Mike, for the info on the places to visit,

regarding the marina,
will try Lignano, but probably also Cavallino, even closer to Trevisio and Venice

have you ever visited Brijuni ?

have you decided on your plans for this summer ? coming to Porto Montenegro ? ETA ?
 
BartW said:
we have never been north of Sibenik with a boat
Click to expand...
During our Adriatic decade, we've always been based in IT (either Veneto or Friuli), so we actually spent more time north of Sibenik, particularly whenever the time available was limited - i.e. often.
And in a nutshell, I can tell you that you will enjoy the trip for sure! :encouragement:
In fact, I'm afraid there's much more to be said than I have time to write ATM, so forgive me for asking a bit of patience - I suppose you are not going soon, or are you?
On top of the already valuable suggestions from Deleted User, there are several others popping to my mind, also with regard to the IT coast along the N Adriatic.
Stay tuned...
 
BartW said:
have you ever visited Brijuni ?

have you decided on your plans for this summer ? coming to Porto Montenegro ? ETA ?
Click to expand...
We passed the Brijuni islands a few times but never stopped there so I can't tell you what its like. No we haven't decided finally on our plans yet this year
 
BartW said:
That’s our Plan for this summer, Promises made long ago to swmbo ;-).............
Click to expand...

I've said it before Bart, you're a lucky man having a swmbo like E.
Most would be looking for excuses not to go too far from the marina, let alone the full length of the Adriatic and return.

What a great opportunity to explore the many islands of the Dalmation coast at the very least, as well as North East Italy.

How about getting Scubaman and his drone aboard as the media official.....now that would make the cruise report of the decade :encouragement:
 
AndieMac said:
How about getting Scubaman and his drone aboard as the media official.....now that would make the cruise report of the decade :encouragement:
Click to expand...

that would be a fantastic plan C, but than K has to sleep in the crew cabin,
not that space and comfort is the issue, he has spend already a few nights in there IIRC,
but I'm concerned that our cook can't withstand Kivi's charmes ;
Olivera will soon be 21yo ! :o
 
MapisM said:
During our Adriatic decade, we've always been based in IT (either Veneto or Friuli), so we actually spent more time north of Sibenik, particularly whenever the time available was limited - i.e. often.
And in a nutshell, I can tell you that you will enjoy the trip for sure! :encouragement:
In fact, I'm afraid there's much more to be said than I have time to write ATM, so forgive me for asking a bit of patience - I suppose you are not going soon, or are you?
On top of the already valuable suggestions from Deleted User, there are several others popping to my mind, also with regard to the IT coast along the N Adriatic.
Stay tuned...
Click to expand...

Yes I remembered that you should know the area quite well,
tips and advice are alway's welcome (and thankfully apreciated !)
we have time,

plan is to start our trip around 6th july,
than to Venice in one and a half week,
stay there 3 - 4 day's,
and then 4 weeks trip back, arrival in Tivat around 15 august
several stops on our way back are fixed for changing guests
guests and kids booked tickets to/from : Venice, Zadar, Split, Cavtat, .... Tivat
 
Hardmy said:
About Venice, not a lot I can tell you. But at the time I was considering basing my boat around Venice I prepared following map. Its probably outdated and not exhaustive at all
Click to expand...

thank you for the links V,
I must have a google map somewhere with waypoints in south Dalmatia that I made many years ago,
I"ll try to find it and provide the link, I'm not sure if we can merge two maps

have you actually been in Venice with your boat ?
still looking for advice on how to approach Venice with Blue Angel, or where to ancher ?
 
summer holiday is approaching,
here is our brief planning:

8 july departure from Cavtat and going north.
so far night stops have been planned in Mljet and Hvar
more will be decided on route (might be influenced by comments on here)

around 15 july arrival in Venice area

return trip starts on 20/7
guest change in Zadar on 25/7
another guests change in Split on 1/8
arrival in Cavtat on 8/8

if we are crossing someone from the forum don't hesitate to send a message
(would be more appropriate on the raggy's forum I guess)

someone told me its doable, and very exiting, to go by boat in the canale grande at sun rise,.
so I would like to stay on ancher very close
Does someone know a nearby Anchorage that is suiteable for that ?
also for visiting Venice by tender ?
 
I cant help re Venice and north of Split but for an overnight on Mljet I particularly like Okuklje (north coast, towards east end). You stern to berth to a quay, completely €free, but you have to eat in the restaurant of the berth owner. Aim for the red painted restaurant right on the quay, or the pair of big berths (almost the last 2 on your right) that can take 25m boats and have an ok restaurant. Sounds a nice trip all round - best wishes for it
 
Regarding Hvar Bart, MapisM spent quite a while based at Vrboska on the northern side of the island, a fairly quiet little town but very nice.
The town where the action is for your younger crew members in definitely Hvar town itself on the south-western corner. Limited berthage in the town itself, mainly used by lots of commuter ferries and cruise boats coming and going.
The island group called Paklinski, directly to the south of Hvar town is where most boats seem to anchor, I guess so they can access the town, still being in close proximity.

We were in Venice just last week and noticed the Police using manned speed cameras based onshore, on the boats in the Grand Canal, with small police boats chasing anybody speeding. Obviously very strict, and incredibly busy of course. Perhaps warn your crew members in the dinghy.

Please keep the cruise updates coming, this should be a great cruise!


Edit: just a thought on the Venice by dinghy thing, I can't offer any advice because we didn't arrive by boat, but one option could be to get the dinghy near a Vaporetto (water bus) quay on the outskirts of Venice and move around by public transport if you want to stay in the city for a length of time, like restaurants and shopping etc. just use the dinghy to explore the internal canals without stopping.
The internal canals seemed packed with local dinghies, very limited space and being constantly bumped and bashed by all sorts of commercial craft, the worse offenders being larger and heavy built work boats moving supplies around.
We downloaded an app called SYGIC (in walking mode) and put our different locations in so we didn't get lost, it's pretty confusing in those narrow alleys. Even the gps struggles to keep up signal.
 
Last edited:
Blimey this mobile ui works well, managed to delete my earlier post whilst trying to edit it. No matter, wasn't adding anything useful to this topic anyway...
 
BartW said:
more will be decided on route (might be influenced by comments on here)
Click to expand...
Sorry B, I'm a bit late but eventually I managed to dig in my old backups and found the file I had in mind.
Trouble is, I only just noticed that the waypoints I stored on my PC are a fraction of all the waypoints I had stored in the plotter (which are now lost), cumulating a whole decade of cruising.
In hindsight, I think I only stored those which I used in the last year I spent there, because before then I didn't use the PC for planning.

Anyway, I'm posting the ones I found for the moment, and will think asap about other places worth mentioning, including them in a next post.
Below is just a printscreen, but I can email you the file, if you can read it. Aside from the native Garmin GDB format, I can export them in MPS, TXT, DXF and GPX - just let me know your preference.
Of course the offer is valid also for anyone else who might be interested, in which case, please pm me your mailbox.

Re. Venice, B, I would use Porto Turistico di Jesolo as a base for BA, and talk with the guy I told you about, who is the marina director. Whatever he doesn't know about Venice, is not worth knowing.
And if by chance you would wish to have some suggestions on any work you wish to do on BA, you can definitely trust his opinion.
If you ask him to show you the DP56 which he has for sale in the marina (a boat which was built when he was still the owner and director of the yard), you will understand why! :encouragement:

HR%20WPTs.jpg
 
AndieMac said:
The town where the action is for your younger crew members in definitely Hvar town itself on the south-western corner. Limited berthage in the town itself, mainly used by lots of commuter ferries and cruise boats coming and going.
The island group called Paklinski, directly to the south of Hvar town is where most boats seem to anchor, I guess so they can access the town, still being in close proximity.
Click to expand...
For Hvar Town there are 4 choices. The first choice is to moor on the town quay itself but it is impossible to get a berth in high season and it is swelly due to passing traffic and in an onshore wind. The second choice is to anchor off the harbour but the same caveats apply. The third choice is to anchor in one of the anchorages amongst the Pakleni islands opposite and take the tender across to the town but don't take that crossing lightly because in any wind it is choppy. The fourth choice and one we favoured during our time in Croatia was to berth in the ACI Palmizana marina in the Pakleni islands and take one of the many water taxis which ply between the marina and Hvar Town. The other advantage of this is that you can walk over the hill from the marina and have dinner in Zori's restaurant which IMHO is one of the best in Croatia and in one of the nicest locations as well. Zori's is located in a bay in which you can also anchor in the right conditions and tender to the restaurant
 
Deleted User said:
...The third choice is to anchor in one of the anchorages amongst the Pakleni islands opposite and take the tender across to the town but don't take that crossing lightly because in any wind it is choppy. The fourth choice and one we favoured during our time in Croatia was to berth in the ACI Palmizana marina in the Pakleni islands and take one of the many water taxis which ply between the marina and Hvar Town. The other advantage of this is that you can walk over the hill from the marina and have dinner in Zori's restaurant which IMHO is one of the best in Croatia and in one of the nicest locations as well. Zori's is located in a bay in which you can also anchor in the right conditions and tender to the restaurant
Click to expand...
+1 to all that. Palmizana marina has perhaps 4 or 5 berths for BA size, one of which is an alongside pontoon, plus shops and restaurants on site.
As regards anchoring in Paklenis, in the anchorage closest to Hvar, you probably want to use a stern line to the rocks ashore. It's a nice spot. Re going to Hvar by tender, I agree, but BartW's novurania430 will easily handle the typical chop
 
For Bart's younger crew members (and maybe himself also) the Paklenis islands themselves apparently have a bit going on at Carpe Diem Beach, Stipanska Bay with a fairly serious party scene, between this and Hvar town itself.
He may have to leave the crew there and pick them up on the way back south again from Venice :)
 
AndieMac said:
For Bart's younger crew members (and maybe himself also) the Paklenis islands themselves apparently have a bit going on at Carpe Diem Beach, Stipanska Bay with a fairly serious party scene, between this and Hvar town itself.
Click to expand...
Yes you can hear the racket from Hvar Town!
 
Deleted User said:
For Hvar Town there are 4 choices. The first choice is to moor on the town quay itself but it is impossible to get a berth in high season and it is swelly due to passing traffic and in an onshore wind. The second choice is to anchor off the harbour but the same caveats apply. The third choice is to anchor in one of the anchorages amongst the Pakleni islands opposite and take the tender across to the town but don't take that crossing lightly because in any wind it is choppy. The fourth choice and one we favoured during our time in Croatia was to berth in the ACI Palmizana marina in the Pakleni islands and take one of the many water taxis which ply between the marina and Hvar Town. The other advantage of this is that you can walk over the hill from the marina and have dinner in Zori's restaurant which IMHO is one of the best in Croatia and in one of the nicest locations as well. Zori's is located in a bay in which you can also anchor in the right conditions and tender to the restaurant
Click to expand...

there is a fifth option, that is anchoring in a very nice cove, on the main Island, about 1nm NW from Hvar town,
thats the one were we alway's anchored in the past with our <30ft boat's, and enjoyed the deers living there on the shore (and searching for food in the trash cans)

for this occasion we will try to get a berth on the town quay,
a Phone call to our "agent" in Cavtat, and some Belgium chocolates did it last year and the year before

re. party at Carpe Diem Beach, you know very well that we are too old for that ;-) swmbo became grandmother remember !
it will be hard enough to keep our cook away from the spot, as she is a frequent visitor / fan of the famous techno party beach in Budva (Montenegro)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top