IAS NIKA TRAVEL

Croatian Roads (Hrvatske Ceste)

Croatia has some of Europe's most difficult landscapes for road building, which has produces some of Europe's most spectacular roads and tunnels. So we felt they deserved their own section devoted to them.

Croatia has undergone a massive road development programme which has been commended by many European countries for its extent and the high quality of craftsmanship dedicated to the projects.

Where possible, Croatia's philosophy has been to preserve natural habitats, provide access routes for wild animals - bears, wolves, rodents etc - and build roads that are safe and will last. To this effort Croatia's roads are often build high above the surrounding landscape or pass through a mountain, rather than going around them. This mean you can often get distracted by some spectacular views just before you dive into a 6km long tunnel!

Croatian Roads have to cope with a huge variety of weather conditions and driving conditions. Temperatures ranging from -40 to +50; torrential rainfall in a few minutes; gusts of winds over 200km per hour, highly seasonal traffic, tennis ball sized hailstones, and last fro over 100 years.

Croatia also has an extensive network of service stations every 25-30km along all major routes.

By 2011 all major new motorway routes will be completed, linking up major towns and districts by high speed, high quality links, including Dubrovnik.

In spite of Croatia's impressive network summertime is complete madness - even more so on summer weekends. Millions upon millions of tourists arrive from all over Europe and beyond, their vehicles bursting with luggage and themselves. In any weekend morning anything up to 100,000 vehicles can pass through Croatia's borders causing km's of backlogs and traffic jams. The best advise for anyone travelling to Croatia is to follow these simple instructions:

• Try and avoid weekend driving - weekdays are far less busy, but queues are still expected
• Road temperatures can reach upwards of 50 degrees
• If you don't have aircon do not drive during the day
• Take plenty of water and hydration salts
• Make sure your car is kept fuelled
• If you are stuck in traffic DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CAR. The temperature difference between your car and the outside can be 30 or more degrees Centigrade. People die each year just because of heart problems caused by such temperature changes.