Island Pag
On the 3rd day of our eastern holiday, we made a whole day trip to the Island of Pag, which is about 30 minutes from Zadar, along the road you have wine fields and agricultural land, but once you reach the island of Pag, the landscape completely changes, the photos below are taken by the bride Paski most leading to Pag Island, as you can see I looks like a moon landscape!
During the homeland war this bridge was the only connection between northern and southern part of Croatia, (as I mention in our story from Zadar, the JNA force was position a few km outside of the city) a friend of mine from Split, told me that during the war he used 12-14 hours to drive from his hometown Mostar to Zagreb for supplies. The bridge was close to collapsing in 1993 do to the heavy traffic, but luckily a second north – south connection was opened to take most of the traffic before that happened. Postwar the bridge has been completely renovated and enforced.
Pag Island is well known for at least 4 things, the first of them you meet (or at least their parents) just after crossing the bridge! Paski lamb is consider to be one of the best lambs you can get in Croatia, if not even in Europe, do to the high concentration of salt on the Island, the sheep’s diet consisting of grass and wild herbs gives the lam from here a very special taste.
The second thing which Pag is known for is the Paski Sir, which is a cheese made from sheep milk, again the sheep’s diet place an important role in terms of generating a very special taste, but also the facts that the cheese is rubbed in olive oil before maturing are said to have great impact on the taste. When you drive around on the island, you see signs with “Paski Sir” available here everywhere
The third thing which Pag is known for is salt, the last 7-8 km before you reach Pag city, (following the road 106 Paski most – Pag) you will on you left hand side see a large area of strange looking flat fields, this is the production area of the company Salona Pag, who is the main salt producer in Croatia, so if you have bought salt in the supermarket down here, you have for sure tried there product.
Besides regular table salt, Salona also produce sea salt and several special salts for cooking like garlic salt or meat salt, the two later I highly recommend you to try, they are excellent for a barbecue.
After you have past the salt fields you will reach grad Pag (Pag city), Pag city has a nice old town with streets constructed in squares, in the old town you can also find the last remaining tower from the prior fortification, several old churched and the duke´s palace from the 15th century.
Pag is popular tourist city, so you can easily find private accommodation, in the city there is also a few hotels, unfortunately there is no camp outside the city, but with in a range of 20 km you have 3 camps available, Camp Šimuni, Camp Košljun and Camp Dinjiška.
From Grad Pag, we continue on our Pag excursion to our next stop Novalja, which is 25 km from Pag city, on the way we have to cross a small mountain, and saw the following welcome message in a serpentine? (We assumed this was related to 4th thing which Pag is known for)
After 40 minutes drive on curve road, we reached Novalja. Novalja city is properly the most well know tourist destination on the island, main reason for that is a the forth thing which Island Pag is know for, a beach called Zrce, situated 3 km outside the town. Zrce beach is one of the biggest party places in Croatia during summer, as you can see on this preseason photo the area is quite big and as far as I have heard it is crowded here in the main season!!
Of course Novalja, Is not only for young people parting as you can see on the photos here, the city in also a really nice place for a nice family holiday.
From Novalja we went all the way to the peak of the island in Tovrnele, before turning the car for a 2 hour drive back to Zadar. We all had a great day, with lots of impression, so we will for sure return to Island Pag another time.
Here you can find more photos from our excursion to Pag, Grad Pag, Novalja, Lun, Tuvrnele, Zrće.
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hi, i am looking for information regarding travelling from Split airport to Novalja? Is there a ferry? thanks
Hi Jessica
there is no ferry from Split to Novalja, so the easiest way would be to take the bus, from Trogir (6 km from Split Airport) to Zadar, in Zadar main bus station you can find buses which would take you to Novalja. As far as i remember you have bus at 8 Am and 5.30 PM from Trogir, which from a time point of view fits with the Zadar -Novalja bus, travel time is about 4.5 hours.
brgds, Morten
[...] Pillow gifts – famous “Paska Cipka”, laceworks from the Pag island. The most vivid centre, where the tradition successfully survived until the present time is the Pag [...]
Hello,
Do you happen to know if there is a ferry from Pag Island to Hvar?
Thank you!
Hi Amanda
to my knowledge there is no ferry between pag island and Hvar? For where did you get that information?
I think you best option would to take the bus to Zadar, their you take a second bus to Split, from Split you then have several options to get to Hvar.
Morten
In August 2010 I will going to Novalja on Pag Island from Budapest; next I wiil go to Hvar and then to Prague. I’m very confused about the the best and fastest way to travel in Croatia. Is there a flight to an airport from Pag to Hvar?
Hi Blair, i think best and easiest way is to take bus from Novalja to Zadar, from there you take a fast bus to Split, and In Split you take the Catamaran to Hvar town. Other alternative would be to rent a car e.g. in Zadar on the way to Pag and give it back in Split. There is now flight between Pag and Hvar.
Regards, Morten
Would anyone please recommend the fastest way to get from Dubrovnik to Navalja, OR the other way around. My wife & I will be flying from Zurich this summer and want to visit both islands. Its seems like they are very far from each other, but we don’t want to miss out on either one. Any recommendation would be much appreciated.
Clyde
Hi Clyde, the fastest way from Dubrovnik to Novalja is by car, which should take you 5 to 6 hours, if you go by bus you most properly will need around 8 hours. May i ask why you specifically want to visit Pag island? you have beautiful Island like Korcula, Hvar and Brac which are all much closer to Dubrovnik?
Regards, Morten
Croatia Expert,
I am traveling to croatia from london on the 4th July 2010.
We are booking a hotel in Novalja. Is it easier to travel to zadar airport or split airport?
Also, what is the average price for transfers? I have been quoted 150euro each way from zadar to novalja for 3 people which seems a little extreme.
Looking forward to your response.
Thanks,
Simona
Hi Simona,
For sure Zadar airport is the one to travel to, but if you can get cheaper tickets to split and are willing to rent a car, this could be the cheapest solution. (From Split Airport you have about 2.5-3 hours drive to Novalja).
The transfer quote you got seams very high, normally you pay around a 1 Euro per Km for transfer, which would mean 90 Euro each way from Zadar Airport to Novalja. From Who did you get the 150 Euro Offer? Get quote from a few other companies, mail me if you cant find any in the area, then i will see if i can come up with a few alternatives.
Brgds, Morten
Hi Morten,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
Would you happen to know at what time the last bus leaves Zadar airport to go to Novalja?
We arrive at Zadar airport at 8.35pm.
I got the previous quote for the transfer from the website: http://www.johnnie.hr/
Thanks,
Simona
Hi Simona,
There is no bus from the airport to Novalja, you will have to go to main bus station in Zadar first, but i am afraid that the last bus from Zadar to Novalja already left when you arrive.
We contacted some transfer companies as well as the local taxi central in Zadar when we did this information page about the Airport http://www.croatia-expert.com/zadar-airport-airport-bus-and-transfer/, it seams like taxi might even be the cheapest version, i will mail you a few web-pages which you can try to contact for an offer.
Brgds, Morten
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