Hello! My husband and I are interested in cycling the Parenzana trail this summer, but are unsure about some of the logistics. We will likely start in Trieste, Italy and are hoping to catch the ferry from Porec, Croatia (the end of the trail), back to Trieste. Has anyone had experience with this? We are mostly concerned regarding the ferry schedule as it seems to potentially only run Sat, Sun, and Wed., as well as the logistics of renting bikes and leaving our luggage. Thank you in advance!!
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Virginia, USA
4 posts
There is a fantastic article from the NY Times by Alex Crevar that covers biking along this route.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/24/travel/bike-ride-italy-croatia.html
The comments in the article should also be a good resource for you. One of the recent posters left their rental car for a week at a hotel in Muggia, which is connected to Trieste by a short ferry ride.
I have done this bike ride from Trieste all the way to Pula and I loved it! But I will say that biking from Trieste to Muggia was the least scenic and most traffic-exposed part of the trip (still very doable), so I like the idea of starting in Muggia and visiting Trieste by ferry.
If you're able to, I highly recommend extending your trip all the way down to Pula. Rovinj and Pula are both great in different ways. If you like the idea of cliff jumping into the Adriatic Sea, check out Galebove Stijene outside of Pula on Google Maps. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. If I could do it again, I would extend the trip another day to Kamenjak for even more swimming and cliff jumping.
For your question about logistics, planning ahead by day of week for the ferries was necessary for my trip too. Some bike rental companies will also do transport which could make this more flexible.