Driving to Croatia

Jimmi

Television Lighting Engineer
T6 Guru
Hi, I’m planning a road trip to Croatia. The last time I drove in Europe was to Geneva about 10 years ago and we had the company credit card so cost wasn’t an issue. I’m trying to work out how much tolls will cost, if we had more time I’d be happy to potter along on B roads but unfortunately it’s more likely I’ll be using the motorways. Has anyone done a trip similar to this and can offer any advice or opinions regarding cost and anything else that may be relevant. As usual all opinions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Jim
 
Use Waze for navigation. Gives cost for tolls on route, provides cost of fuel at petrol stations and tells you where speed traps are on route.
Might be worth getting an Emovis tag sensor for the tolls.
 
We went to Croatia last September and drove as far as just south of Split. After we got home I put all the costs into a spreadsheet which I can't get to at the moment as I'm not at home - I'll post the costs of fuel and tolls later (and camping as well if you're interested). We will be doing the same trip at the end of August but probably carrying on through Croatia to Greece.
 
We drove down to Croatia in 2017.
Ferry Hull - Zeebrugge
Belgium into Germany - No tolls
Germany via Munich to Austria - no tolls
Austria through Slovenia - Carnet for Austria, currently around €10 for 2 weeks
Slovenia- Croatia, no tolls
We were towing a boat, so all was done on autobahns/motorways where possible.
This is by far the cheapest route option.

Coming back, we came via Trieste, Italy, France. Italian autostradas will cost about £30 & around £80 for French autoroutes. The Frejus tunnel was an eye watering €50 one way with the trailer. I did explain to the guy in the kiosk that I just wanted to drive through it, not buy it…
Even with the trailer, we go through as Class 2. So a van will be similar.
 
Driven to Bulgaria several times. My Dad is en route to there now, last update was in Romania last night. He has a T5.

Currently there are a lot (and I mean a lot) of road works on the major motorways in Germany, Czech and Hungary so if you can avoid them you'll save frustration.

Now days with Waze it's super easy and all countries have ANPR for vignette now so buy online and save being scammed at the forecourt.
 
For driving in Austria you can buy your vignette online or from a motorway service station. If you buy online you must do so 18 days prior to you entering Austria. You can also register your vehicle for online toll payment. Because I have a number plate with two numbers and two letters the ANPR at the toll booth didn’t recognise my plate so I just told the toll booth operator that my vehicle was registered and I was let through and charged to my credit card.


For a Slovenian vignette the official website is:

 
We went to Croatia last September and drove as far as just south of Split. After we got home I put all the costs into a spreadsheet which I can't get to at the moment as I'm not at home - I'll post the costs of fuel and tolls later (and camping as well if you're interested). We will be doing the same trip at the end of August but probably carrying on through Croatia to Greece.
That would be brilliant, thank you.
 
We went to Croatia last September and drove as far as just south of Split. After we got home I put all the costs into a spreadsheet which I can't get to at the moment as I'm not at home - I'll post the costs of fuel and tolls later (and camping as well if you're interested). We will be doing the same trip at the end of August but probably carrying on through Croatia to Greece.
OK. After a night at The Drum Inn (Ashford), we did the 10 mine drive to Eurotunnel and caught the 1015 hrs train on Monday to Calais. We then drove across France to just south of Reims staying at a site that we know well. From there, we went via Germany, Austria and Slovenia into Istria (Croatia) arriving on Thursday when we camped on a site on Krk Island. After a long weekend there, we headed down to Stobrec just south of Split before starting home after another week. We followed more or less the same route in reverse to get home with the exception of stopping for a couple of nights in Ljubjana, the capital of Slovenia) where we booked into a hotel for a couple of nights because we wanted to explore the city but there are no campsites within easy reach of it (to my knowledge anyway).

We were content to use autoroutes / autobahns / motorways wherever possible and therefore paid tolls most of the way through France and, to a lesser extent Croatia as well as having to buy vignettes for Austria and Slovenia (a vignette is basically a motorway pass) which we got from a service station on the German autobahn before crossing the border into Austria. We only really strayed of the motorway when we decided to find a campsite for the night(s).

On the outward and return drives, we never tended to do mega distances in one day and generally get on the road by around 0930 and drive until 1530 - 1600. We usually take a break early afternoon and then work out where we're likely to be at around 1430 -1500 and check on line for campsites in that area. We've never booked a campsite in advance but that's relatively easy out of high season. In Croatia in particular, we aimed to be at a site by 1500 and usually got ourselves set up and tea brewed in time to watch the site begin to fill up. I learnt a long time ago that there were few things worse than driving all day and then having to find a campsite, sometimes in the dark.

We did a total of 2801 miles during the whole trip and spent £341 on diesel. Tolls / vignettes etc. came to about £215 and campsite fees another £510. We used an ACSI Camping Card on every site and only paid the full price for one night at a site on Krk Island because we are too early for their ACSI window by one day. IIRC that one night cost us about €46 but the rest of the stay was €25 per night which was very close to the average cost of a pitch per night over the whole trip.

Thats about it from me. I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you can think of and also provide a list of the campsites that we used during the trip. That said, I did report on most of them on here at the time in this thread (starting at Post 7117):
 
OK. After a night at The Drum Inn (Ashford), we did the 10 mine drive to Eurotunnel and caught the 1015 hrs train on Monday to Calais. We then drove across France to just south of Reims staying at a site that we know well. From there, we went via Germany, Austria and Slovenia into Istria (Croatia) arriving on Thursday when we camped on a site on Krk Island. After a long weekend there, we headed down to Stobrec just south of Split before starting home after another week. We followed more or less the same route in reverse to get home with the exception of stopping for a couple of nights in Ljubjana, the capital of Slovenia) where we booked into a hotel for a couple of nights because we wanted to explore the city but there are no campsites within easy reach of it (to my knowledge anyway).

We were content to use autoroutes / autobahns / motorways wherever possible and therefore paid tolls most of the way through France and, to a lesser extent Croatia as well as having to buy vignettes for Austria and Slovenia (a vignette is basically a motorway pass) which we got from a service station on the German autobahn before crossing the border into Austria. We only really strayed of the motorway when we decided to find a campsite for the night(s).

On the outward and return drives, we never tended to do mega distances in one day and generally get on the road by around 0930 and drive until 1530 - 1600. We usually take a break early afternoon and then work out where we're likely to be at around 1430 -1500 and check on line for campsites in that area. We've never booked a campsite in advance but that's relatively easy out of high season. In Croatia in particular, we aimed to be at a site by 1500 and usually got ourselves set up and tea brewed in time to watch the site begin to fill up. I learnt a long time ago that there were few things worse than driving all day and then having to find a campsite, sometimes in the dark.

We did a total of 2801 miles during the whole trip and spent £341 on diesel. Tolls / vignettes etc. came to about £215 and campsite fees another £510. We used an ACSI Camping Card on every site and only paid the full price for one night at a site on Krk Island because we are too early for their ACSI window by one day. IIRC that one night cost us about €46 but the rest of the stay was €25 per night which was very close to the average cost of a pitch per night over the whole trip.

Thats about it from me. I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you can think of and also provide a list of the campsites that we used during the trip. That said, I did report on most of them on here at the time in this thread (starting at Post 7117):
I stayed here last year Camp & Hotel — Ljubljana Resort
 
@Alied - How did you get into Ljubjana? I ask as it's a bit too far to walk for a night in town and we don't particularly like driving anywhere once settled at a site.
 
@Alied - How did you get into Ljubjana? I ask as it's a bit too far to walk for a night in town and we don't particularly like driving anywhere once settled at a site.
I rode in on my bike. If I remember correctly it only took around 20 minutes.
 
@Bav. Sorry but I missed your post until now - IIRC it was 21 or 22 nights but I'll need to confirm it later.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bav
@Alied - How did you get into Ljubjana? I ask as it's a bit too far to walk for a night in town and we don't particularly like driving anywhere once settled at a site.
We stayed there this year and caught the bus in. The campsite reception sell tickets and the bus goes from just outside the campsite. Thoroughly recommend Ljubljana, it's a lovely small city.
 
We went to Croatia last September and drove as far as just south of Split. After we got home I put all the costs into a spreadsheet which I can't get to at the moment as I'm not at home - I'll post the costs of fuel and tolls later (and camping as well if you're interested). We will be doing the same trip at the end of August but probably carrying on through Croatia to Greece.
Sorry I know this is a old post but do you still have the spread sheet please as we plan this year
 
Back
Top