croatiatolls.com

Toll-free roads in Croatia

Only motorways are tolled in Croatia. Every other road is free, and beside each motorway runs the old road it replaced. The question is what your time is worth.

Free, although they look like they should not be

Not free: the Učka tunnel and the Mirna bridge, which are part of the Istrian Y, and the short stretches at Bregana and Rupa.

Zagreb to Split without the motorway

The D1 runs from Karlovac past the Plitvice Lakes, Korenica, Gračac and Knin to Split. It is a good road through empty country, and it passes the national park that the motorway misses. It is also a single carriageway through villages: allow roughly two hours more than the motorway. What it saves is the motorway toll from Zagreb to Split.

A common compromise is to drive the motorway to Karlovac, take the D1 to Plitvice, and rejoin the A1 at Gornja Ploča.

Zagreb to Rijeka

The old road, the D3 through Gorski kotar, is slow and winding, with lorries and, in winter, snow. Count on at least an hour more. What it saves is the motorway toll from Zagreb to Rijeka.

Along the coast

The D8, the Adriatic road, follows the whole coast from Rijeka to Dubrovnik and is one of the fine drives of Europe. In July and August it crawls through every resort. Use it for the view, not to save money.

Istria

The old road over Učka climbs to the Poklon pass, 922 m above the sea, instead of going through the tunnel: a mountain road, free and slower. Inside Istria the old roads between Pazin, Poreč, Rovinj and Pula run close to the Istrian Y, and the tolls they save are small.

Is it worth it?

For a car the motorway costs about 7 cents a kilometre. On a long journey the old road saves €20 to €30 and costs two hours or more, and some of the saving goes on fuel. Where it pays is on short hops at each end, and for category III and IV vehicles, whose tolls are several times higher. To avoid motorways in a navigation app, switch on “avoid tolls”; it knows the free bypasses.

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