Slovenia
& Croatia

The Great Alternative trail

trail part 4: KVARNER BAY & KRK ISLAND

MTBracenews.com reviewed the UCI MTB race event ‘Mitas 4 Islands’ – which features stages on four Croatian islands: Krk, Rab, Cres and Lošinj. Of the Krk stage it says: "All the talk at the finish line focused on the abundance of gnarly descending throughout the day as I think everyone was happily surprised by the quality of the trail riding. Without a doubt Croatia offers up some of the very best riding I’ve seen in all of Europe....incredible trail riding."

PICTURE THE JOURNEY

The trail

The Karst Plateau descends to the Slovene part of Istria but a short transfer will bring you to Croatian Istria, into the medieval town of Hum – which is officially the smallest town in the world. On this day, you will bike the slopes of the Učka Nature Park, all the way down to the Adriatic Sea. The Učka trails, comprising the Učka mountain massif and the adjacent Ćićarija plateau, provide magnificent views over the Istrian Peninsula – and superb rolling singletrack towards the Kvarner Riviera. You will bike on the ridges near Veliki Planink in Ćićarija and the Vojak peak on Mount Učka. You’ll end the day with rolling forest singletrack sections towards the Adriatic, topped-off with an ice-cold beer at the beautiful, Blue Flag Mošćenička Draga beach.

For the last two days of the week, you will bike in Krk, the largest island in the Adriatic. You might know Krk from the Mitas 4 Islands MTB stage race, which offers participants the chance to bike on four different islands on four consecutive days: Krk, Rab, Cres and Lošinj.

Croatia may have 1185 different islands, but only one of them – Krk – is known as ‘the golden island’, due to its natural beauty and high number of sunshine hours. Prepare to be enchanted by one of the most diverse mountain bike regions of the Mediterranean. In fact, many of our riders have a hard time focusing on the trails themselves, since the Adriatic landscape offers so many distractions, from picturesque coves and lagoons, to olive groves and dense forests, to parts of bare limestone and real mountain landscapes. But you will enjoy the variety of trails on Krk – a mix of forest trails, stony lunar landscapes and desolate coastal trails. One of the biggest highlights will be the climb to the famed ‘moon plateau’, followed by a flowy downhill through the pine forest to the gorgeous resort town of Baška.

Riding surface

Expect everything from flowy forest singletrack to high plateau riding to faster, rocky double tracks.

Average mileage

Your routes in Krk are going to be around 50-60km, and 8.00 meters of elevation gain – lots on fun never-ending rock gardens. Krk has an extensive and network of trails, so we can make your ride as long or as short as you like.

GET THERE NOW BEFORE THE CROWDS DISCOVER

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