Driving to the Makarska Riviera from Poland, Czechia and Slovakia

Most of our guests at Beach House Buinac arrive by car, many of them from Poland, Czechia and Slovakia. It is a long drive but a straightforward one, and having your own car on the Makarska Riviera makes day trips, beach hopping and the road up to Biokovo much easier. This is what we tell friends who ask us how to get here.

From Czechia the classic route runs through Austria and Slovenia: Brno, Vienna, Graz and Maribor, then into Croatia towards Zagreb. From Zagreb the A1 motorway takes you south along the coast, past Split. Leave the motorway at the Ploče exit and follow the coast road back up north for about 15 minutes, past Gradac, to Brist.

From Poland and Slovakia many drivers go through Hungary instead: down to Budapest or through western Hungary, past Lake Balaton to the border at Letenye and on to Zagreb, where you join the same A1 south. This route avoids Austria and Slovenia, and Lake Balaton makes a pleasant place to stop.

As a rough guide, allow around 10 hours from Bratislava, 12 to 13 hours from Prague and 13 to 15 hours from Kraków or Katowice, without long breaks. Check a route planner for your own starting point and the traffic on the day you travel.

Sort out your motorway payments before you leave. Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia and Hungary all use vignettes, and all of them can be bought online as an electronic vignette linked to your number plate. Buy them only from the official websites. Slovenia is the one people forget: even the short stretch from Maribor to the Croatian border needs a vignette. Croatian motorways work differently: you pay for the distance you drive, by card or cash.

If you are travelling with children, splitting the journey makes the first day of the holiday far more pleasant. Popular overnight stops are Zagreb, Lake Balaton on the Hungarian route or one of the small towns along the A1 in the Lika region.

Summer Saturdays are the busiest days on the A1, when holiday apartments change over all along the coast. Leaving very early, or travelling midweek if you can, makes a real difference. Before you set off, check the traffic information from the Croatian Auto Club (HAK). The strong bura wind occasionally closes parts of the A1 to caravans and high vehicles, and they also report roadworks and queues.

Croatia is in the Schengen area and uses the euro, so there are no routine passport checks at the Slovenian or Hungarian border. Bring your passport or ID card anyway. You will need it at check-in and for day trips into Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as Medjugorje and Kravice Falls.

When you arrive in Brist, each of our three stays has its own private parking space, so there is no hunting for a spot in August. It is level ground from the car to the house, then the house's own stairs. There is also a shared storage room on the ground floor for beach gear, bikes and kick scooters. One of our guests recommended bringing kick scooters for the seaside promenade to Gradac, and we agree.

The car also opens up the whole region: the Biokovo Skywalk, the ferry from Drvenik to Hvar, the wines of the Pelješac peninsula and Dubrovnik are all an easy drive away. Send us your dates and we will gladly help you plan the route.