A quiet corner of northern Istria has a problem that's growing one motorhome at a time. In the Ćićarija region above the hill town of Buzet, near the Slovenian border, residents say large campervans and vehicles towing boats are turning narrow country lanes into bottlenecks — sometimes for hours at a time.
The roads in question are genuinely tight. Some sections are barely over two metres wide, with rock walls on one side and steep drops on the other. When a campervan meets an oncoming car, there's often nowhere to go. Resident Marin Nežić told HRT that traffic has been blocked for hours, with some larger vehicles unable to handle the steep gradients or find anywhere to turn around. Locals have occasionally had to take detours just to reach neighbouring villages.
Weekends are the worst. Holidaymakers driving between Croatia and Slovenia are being routed onto these rural roads by navigation apps, which happily send a seven-metre motorhome down a track built for tractors. Locals blame the problem partly on poor cross-border connections: there simply isn't a good motorway link between the Slovenian network and Istria, so drivers following the shortest route end up on local roads.
The fix being discussed is a mix of short- and long-term measures. Locals want signs restricting campervan and large-vehicle access on unsuitable roads — a quick win that could happen fast. Longer term, there are calls on authorities in Zagreb and Ljubljana to improve connections, including a link between the Koper area and the western branch of the Istrian Y motorway, and better routes towards Rijeka. There's also talk of joint cross-border tourism projects that would benefit communities on both sides.
If you're road-tripping through Istria in a campervan or with a boat trailer, this is worth knowing before you go. Main routes to Buzet, Motovun, Grožnjan and the coast are fine; the trouble is on small mountain roads that apps treat as shortcuts. If your satnav proposes an unnamed rural road in the Ćićarija hills, check whether it's actually a through route — or drop pins to a village and ask locally. You'll save yourself a very stressful multi-point turn on a cliff edge, and spare residents a blocked road.
