Croatia's climbing scene has been something of a "hidden treasure". That is, until recent years, when Croatia gained popularity as a travel destination due to affordable travel and news spread about this beautiful unspoilt country. Now over a thousand quality routes and a deep climbing culture has become accessible to climbers worldwide. And new routes are appearing on a daily basis.

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The best time to go climbing in Croatia is anytime but high summer when it gets too hot. In mid-winter, the weather does not go below 10°C in Split. In fact, the local climbers there quite frequently go climbing in winter, primarily at a crag called Marjan where, for some reason, it can get up to 20°C in winter.

We offer climbing in mainly 2 areas: around Split in the South, and in the Paklenica national park in the North. In both areas, there are sport routes, deep water soloing and bouldering.

Split

Split is a popular tourist destination and is a port that is connected via ferries to the other side of the Adriatic, for example to Ancona and Venice in Italy, as well as to islands and coast to the North of Croatia. Together with Dubrovnik further south near the Serbian border, they are the primary gateways to the Dalmatia coast, which is a really beautiful stretch of coast and islands.

There are lots of climbing areas in and around Split. If staying in Split, most of the climbs are within 30-45 minute’s drive out of town – very handy. Hvar is a 1 hour ferry ride away – both day trips and overnight trips possible.

Split is the destination to go if you like it warm and you like being next to the water. Although there are multi-pitch routes in this area, it is predominantly for single-pitch climbing. Deep water soloing is big here and the locals have been doing this way before people in general even knew what deep water soloing is all about. The old-timers here think shoes and chalk are overkill for deep water soloing!  A lot of the routes in and around Split have been set up by our lead Croatian guide Dani and his friends from the Marulianus climbing club - there is even a popular route called Marulianus (F7a).

Paklenica

People go to Paklenica for the big climbs. Paklenica is a national park in the Velebit mountain range, so with a mountainous area comes big routes. There are lots of really nice multi-pitches here with good bottom pitches for single-pitch climbs. A lot of people also go walking here and there are huts where you can stay overnight for multi-day walks. There is an entry fee to the park, which is about 3 Euros per day.

Paklenica is probably the biggest, oldest and most popular climbing area in Croatia. When they developed climbing in Paklenica, they were smart enough to restrict it to one area before it got too crazy, so the climbing is concentrated to just one part of the national park.

Paklenica is also by the sea but it isn’t really the sort of sea you would go sunbathing in, unless you take a boat out to the adjacent islands. There is a bit of watersports here but don’t know too much about it. Seafood is great through and it is fresh!

There are campsites here too which is another reason for its popularity as you can camp and climb there for a week or more on a budget. This isn’t possible in Split as the campsites are not near the climbing areas.

Anica Kuk is probably the most well known crag here. It is about 350m high and there are lots of awesome multi-pitch routes up to 11 pitches on it.

More details of the routes can be found on the Paklenica website.