“Mountains & Sea” — Camp Tour
CroatiaCome with us on a journey into the Croatian hinterland and experience enchanted, picturesque forests, steep, rocky trails with an adrenaline factor, but mostly easy to ride, breathtaking mountain trails, which make this tour perfect for gentle overlanders or off-road beginners or as a combination with a beach vacation.
Discover Croatia with us!
A one-week trip through the most beautiful landscapes in Croatia — from the panoramic views of the Vinodol Valley, across the northern Velebit and Lake Sveti Rok, to the sources of the Cetina. We spend the night by the sea, in mountain camps and by rivers such as the Zrmanja. Along the way, we visit interesting places such as the birthplace of Nikola Tesla and the Krupa Monastery. We spend the last evening at Lake Peruća before the trip ends the next day. The route offers a balanced mix of nature experiences, camping and easy hikes to places of interest.
Day 1: Meeting point
We meet at Camp Omišalj, which is located right by the sea. This is an opportunity to get to know each other, exchange experiences and ask the guide questions about the tour. Of course, you can also swim in the Adriatic Sea. All the amenities of this first-class camp are available to you on the day of arrival. A joint dinner is planned for the evening.
Day 2: Panoramic tour with a view of the Kvarner Bay
Departure is scheduled daily at 9:00 am. Before departure, there is a short briefing about the day ahead. The journey takes you along the panoramic road “Oči Vinodola”, which offers six picturesque viewpoints. The road is mostly asphalted and winds its way up in narrow hairpin bends. The road continues below the wind turbines and there will be an opportunity to stop under one of them and feel the power of these giants.
Day 3: Velebit — Dabarski Kukovi
The route takes us along a paved road through a dense beech forest along the border of the Northern Velebit National Park. We reach the Veliki Alan mountain pass, from where a breathtaking view of the Adriatic opens up. The route continues through the beautiful “Dabarski Kukovi” mountain ridge. We end the day at Camp Velebit, which is strongly reminiscent of the Shire from the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy.
Day 4: Panos — Nikola Tesla — Wildcamping
From 950 meters above sea level, we descend to the Lika plateau, from where we drive to the mountain peak of Panos. This was once the site of a military radar station that monitored almost half of the airspace of the former Yugoslavia. We hurry on to a brief visit to the birthplace of Nikola Tesla, the greatest inventor in the field of electricity, before stocking up on food and other necessities in Gospić. This time, we set up camp for the night by a lake.
Day 5: Majstorska Cesta — Winnetou — Zrmanja Canyon
We drive up the continental side of the Majstorska Cesta (Masterpiece Road). The name is derived from the German word “Meisterstück” (masterpiece), as it was built in a very short time at the beginning of the 19th century and the gradient is nowhere more than 5%, which is still above the standards of modern road construction. What is important for Germans is that this is the filming location of the first Winnetou film based on Karl May’s book, which is why many Germans also call the road “Winnetoustraße”. The route continues to the village of Rovanjska, where there will also be an opportunity to switch on the four-wheel drives in the cars, and from there we rush on to the Zrmanja river canyon, on the banks of which we will spend the night in the camp.
Day 6: Krupa Monastery — Tulove Grede — Gračac
From the camp, we head to the Krupa River, where we will visit the Orthodox monastery of the same name. We continue to Majstorska Cesta, but this time we climb from the sea side, and after the ascent to the Mali Alan pass, we ride along the ridge of southern Velebit to the town of Gračac, where we spend the night in the camp. In Gračac, those who did not refuel in Gospić now have the opportunity to do so.
Day 7: Zrmanja spring — Cetina spring — Lake Peruča
From Gračac, we drive a few kilometers to the railroad line that connects Zagreb with Knin and take the service road. The road and the railroad line are located on an almost vertical cliff, at the bottom of which, 300 meters deep, lies the source of the Zrmanja River. We stop in the royal town of Knin to replenish our supplies before continuing to the source of the river Krka. The source of the Krka River is only visible in summer, as the small Krčić River then dries up, flowing over a waterfall right into the source of the Krka River. When the Krčić River is flowing, the source of the Krka is not visible. We continue to another spring, the source of the Cetina River, which forms the majority of the water mass that flows into Lake Peruča, where we will spend the night in the camp.
A joint dinner is planned for the end of the trip.
Day 8: End of the journey
This trip is suitable for SUVs / off-road vehicles / 4x4 vans (camper vans) / pick-ups with a camper cabin
- Partly self-catering
- 6 x campsite, some with restaurant
- 1x Wild Camp
- min. 3 & max. 7 vehicles
- all entrance fees
- 1 Croatian, German-speaking guide with own vehicle
- 6 x campsite
- 1x Wild Camp
- 2x typical local dinner included
- Travel insurance certificate
- Radio on loan
- Detailed travel documents
What our customers say about the tour:
Croatia mountains and sea
It was a great tour that lived up to the description. We were a group of six cars in total, two of which we already have, with very nice people and a thoughtful guide Tom. The first few days of our tour were easy terrain with beautiful views. Tom took us to very nice places to spend the night, whether wild camp or campsite. Some of the terrain on the last few days was a little more challenging, but thanks to Tom, even these passages were manageable. All in all, a successful and enjoyable vacation. Gladly again with npl-Oberland
Amazing Trip and Off-road Adventure
Croatia is beautiful, the trip was very well constructed so we saw a lot in a short time. Tom is a brilliant guide with lots of knowledge of history and the terrain as well as being able to help with the off roading. The off road tracks were challenging, some of them the most challenging we have driven, and took us to some awesome scenes. The camping was fun and added extras like the night at Puma made this unforgettable. Thanks Tom!
Fantastic week in the mountains of Croatia
We had a fantastic week in the mountains of Croatia on easy overland tracks, but also on moderately difficult and sometimes challenging tracks up to 1600 meters. Tom is a very careful guide who was always on hand with help and advice, even on the more challenging tracks. We liked all the camp sites, 4x wild camp on lakes and in the mountains, 3x CP. Many thanks for a great experience, we will be happy to book with NPL again!
Another beautiful tour with NPL
After traveling with Nils in Albania last year, it was clear to us that we wanted to travel with NPL again this year. We decided on the Croatia tour. Mountains & sea — that’s exactly the right description. Tom, the Croatian guide, and Nils chose a scenic tour with relatively easy off-road routes (which suits us better) and lots of impressive views of the Adriatic and offshore islands. The group was great, the evenings around the campfire were very enjoyable and Tom always had lots of information about the country and its people to hand. We would particularly like to highlight Tom’s tireless efforts in organizing the repair of one of the group’s vehicles so that the two participants were able to rejoin us at the end. We can definitely recommend the tour.
Great landscapes and places
As newcomers to off-roading, we really enjoyed the tour with Tom our guide. Level 1 was just right for us greenhorns. The first four days with our Jimny GJ were good to get used to with interesting places and views over the Croatian mountains to the Adriatic Sea. As a local, Tom always had interesting stories to tell, even about the not so nice years during the war with Serbia. We were well set up with our rear tent, even if it took a little longer to put up and take down. From Winnetou locations, wild horses, spectacularly beautiful landscapes with wonderful meadows to the later challenges of very rocky ascents and descents, with the necessary reduction in air pressure, everything was there. But we were able to manage everything well, Tom was always very helpful and prudent so that even difficult passages could be taken without damage. great photos and videos now remind us of the enchanting places. Thank you also for the interesting conversations and cooking duels with the passengers in the evenings after the tours. Keep up the good work NPL Overland.
Simply super
We — my wife and I — enjoyed the tour “Croatia — Mountains and Sea” very much, so here are 5 stars The short version: The booking — uncomplicated The tour — just right for our level of experience, great nature, wild camps and camps The guide — Tom was and is a super guy and that has to be mentioned explicitly here. The tour with him as our guide was great fun. The long version: Booking with NPL-Overland was uncomplicated, questions about the tour and booking were answered quickly. The line to Nils is short. We chose the Croatia tour because we were unable to realize our plan to drive off-road in Croatia on our own due to a lack of preparation time and experience. In addition, it is definitely better to travel with at least two people. We found the offer from NPL 4 weeks before our vacation, the inquiry and booking was uncomplicated, everything went smoothly. Now that the tour is over, we have to say that our Croatian guide Tom took us to places we would never have found on our own. We chose the level of difficulty associated with the tour because we have only been off-roading since 2019 and were only able to complete two weekend off-road training sessions due to the pandemic. We were therefore not looking for a tour where you spend 6 days scrambling up rocky riverbeds, pushing your equipment to the limit and possibly only managing 40 km per day. If this is what you are looking for, this tour is not for you. The first 4 days were more gentle through breathtaking nature. On the 5th and 6th day, the roads were definitely not gentle on the material and we were glad to have equipped our Mitsubishi L200 and its standard chassis with underride protection and rock sliders. Both were needed. There was a lot of uphill and downhill driving over rocks and stones. In terms of driving technique, this was of course the biggest challenge during the tour, for the driver it meant a lot of driving fun as well as concentration, and for the co-driver a lot of adrenaline — at least in our case. Our guide Tom is a super guy, as a Croatian he really knew his way around, was friendly and always willing to share his knowledge with the group. In the end, we spent another day together at the last camp we visited before Tom set off again to explore new tracks. All in all, we were and are totally thrilled and can only recommend this tour to beginners and “overlanders with off-road ambitions”. However, it should be borne in mind that the difficulty level is 1 out of 5 according to the NPL, and there were participants for whom it was too “onroad”. If you are already experienced and like it a bit “tougher”, you should choose level 2 or 3 out of 5. It was just right for us. Thumbs up!