September 25, 2022 - Zadar County has included the project of connecting the island of Pašman to the mainland in the spatial plan as one of their priorities. The will is there, but it is not yet known how and from where this project would be financed, Hina was told by the Ministry of the Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure.

As reported by Poslovni, the ministry points out that for the project of connecting the island of Pašman to the mainland, a feasibility study with a cost-benefit analysis was prepared in 2021 for the project "Bridge to mainland - island of Pašman with access roads to the bridge." Based on the demand analysis of the traffic model, the main goal of the study was to select the best option for connecting the island of Pašman and the mainland.

According to the ministry, the study evaluated building a beam bridge as the best option, consisting of two parts, the first of which would go from Pašman to the islet of Ričul, and from Ričul to the mainland. The estimated value of the project is almost HRK 452 million.

On the mainland side, the bridge should be connected by state road D8 with the future bypass Zadar - Pakoštane, and the route exits to the very bank of the Pašman channel at the position of cape Tukljača.

From the mainland, the planned route goes to the islet of Ričul, about 400 meters from the coast, and continues towards Pašman, crossing the Pašman channel in a length of about 1400 meters. On the island of Pašman, the route continues, via the junction, to the state road D110, thus connecting the bridge with the main road of the islands of Pašman and Ugljan. The bridge's total length would be 2203 and a half meters, and the construction, according to the projections, would last about three years.

The recently opened Pelješac Bridge is slightly more than 2,400 meters long. The project's total value is estimated at 420 million euros, including the construction of the bridge, access roads, and the Ston bypass.

"The fact is that Zadar County has included the mentioned project in the spatial plan as one of the priorities and that the preparation of the documentation has started; however, we would like to note that the mentioned pre-feasibility study needs to be elaborated in more detail, especially concerning the preparation of technical documentation, i.e., more detailed elaboration of investment and operational costs," said the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure. They also point out that the future source of financing should be determined for the chosen option, given that it is not eligible for co-financing from EU funds, so in this context, they cannot say anything more at the moment.

By the way, the Pašman - mainland bridge, for which the Municipality of Pašman received the support of the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, is one of the most important projects for the island of Pašman, but also for Ugljan, which is connected to Pašman by a smaller bridge. The Ministry of Transport financed the pre-feasibility study with HRK 700,000, prepared by the international company Ernst & Young Consulting.

Interestingly, representatives of the Chinese company China Road and Bridge Corporation, which built the Pelješki bridge within the given deadline, once visited the municipality of Pašman to learn about the possibilities of building a bridge that would connect Pašman to the mainland. The representatives of the Chinese company said then that the bridge could be completed relatively quickly with a professional and thoughtful project. It is also not unimportant that the rocky bottom and suitable depth of about 13 meters on average would make this bridge much cheaper than the Pelješac one.

If it is built, the bridge could stop the depopulation of the two islands, and the price of land would increase, but some residents fear that the scenario of the rebuilt Vir could happen, where the bridge did not bring much good in terms of tourism.

The municipality of Pašman has embarked on a project to build the Pašman - mainland bridge, which for all islanders means an increase in the quality of life through a better connection with the mainland and a significant positive impact on the economy of the entire municipality, said the former mayor of the municipality of Pašman, Krešimir Ćosić, who believes that this project will be successful. For the municipality of Pašman, it is a strategic project, the realisation of which would provide even better opportunities for residents to stay in their hometowns. Ćosić recently said that only the islands connected to the mainland have an increase in population and that the construction of a permanent link would lead to new employment and lower living costs on the island.

Therefore, the Pašman bridge would connect the island of Ugljan with the mainland since Ugljan and Pašman, which together have about 8,000 residents, are already connected by the mentioned bridge in Ždrelac. There is even a detailed bridge construction project, and complete technical documentation made twenty years ago at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb.

The mayor of the municipality of Kukljica, one of the most developed tourist towns in Ugljan, Marin Boško, points out that in his town, there are more people in favour of the construction of the bridge than against it. "There are more pros for that construction than cons," said Boško for Hina. He points out that the prices of land and real estate would rise, and depopulation would probably stop in the long term.

As the main problem of the eventual construction of the Pašman Bridge, he points out the infrastructure that would not be able to handle significantly more tourists on the islands. "Infrastructure would have to be strengthened on both islands - both on Pašman and Ugljan, and by that, I mean water infrastructure, sewage, better access roads," said Boško, adding that the Pašman bridge would bring a lot of good, not only to tourism, which the bridge would further develop. "If we had a bridge, we could reach the mainland at any time, emergencies would not depend on ferries, and more people from the island could work on the mainland and travel more easily every day," concluded Boško.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

17 June 2021 - Jadrolinija national ferry company acquired a new ship that will connect the town of Biograd with Tkon on Pasman island.

"Jadrolinija" is one of the most used words in the Croatian language during the summer, at least on the coast. This national ferry company has been connecting the mainland and the islands of the Croatian part of the Adriatic for decades. Its international lines see it connecting Croatia with Italy for part of the year as well.

Because of the small size of the towns and villages and the scarce population living on the islands, only a portion of these lines are profitable and the fleet is pretty large. It is therefore quite a newsworthy item to see Jadrolinija presenting a new addition. Ferry „Tkon“ joined the fleet that now counts 55 ships in total.

Valuable Addition

It was purchased from Rapska Plovidba (Rab Shipping) as index.hr reports. Tkon is a product of renowned Croatian shipyard Viktor Lenac. It is 42 metres long, 15,3 metres wide, and can hold 250 passengers and 35 cars. It was built in 2003. In comparison, ferry „Prizna“ that serviced this Jadrolinija line so far is over 50 years old. It will be on stand-by for the busiest parts of the year. After the purchase Tkon is heading to the docks for maintenace and re-painting. This is good news for all travellers to Pasman island, but also all the islanders and Biograd locals. Chairman of the board of Jadolinija, David Spota said the move goes along the strategic goal of updating and improving the fleet. This is the fifth new ship to come under Jadrolinija flag in the last four years.

It really is difficult to avoid blue-striped Jadrolinija ships along the Croatian coast. They bring much joy to all those wishing to visit some of over a thousand magical islands of Croatia. Here's to Tkon's smooth sailing!

Follow the latest travel updates and COVID-19 news from Croatia HERE.

For more on travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

February 1, 2021 – The Adriatic might be too cold for us right now, but conditions are perfect for this dolphin family, spectacularly captured gliding through glacial, undisturbed waters by an overhead drone

The Adriatic might be too cold for us right now, but conditions are perfect for this dolphin family, spectacularly captured gliding through glacial, undisturbed waters by an overhead drone

The footage of the dolphin family was captured spectacularly by keen amateur drone photographer Davor Miljkovic. Davor, who is from Zapresic, usually puts his eye for aesthetics into website design – he works as a PHP website developer for Virtus dizajn in Lanište, Zagreb and as a freelance website developer. But, he is currently taking advantage of working remotely and was able to catch footage of the dolphin family during his off time.

“I live in Zapresic but my grandmother is from island Rava, near Zadar,” Davor told TCN on 1st February 2021, two days after he posted the video of the dolphin family to his Youtube channel. “So, we have a house here by the sea. My fiance and I spend part of the winter here and we are here all summer too.”

The Zadar archipelago (in Croatian Zadarski arhipelag) is an incredibly picturesque group of islands off the coast of the city of Zadar. In addition to island Rava, off which Davor saw the dolphin family, the archipelago also consists of the islands Dugi Otok, Galešnjak, Iž, Lavdara, Ošljak, Pašman, Rivanj, Sestrunj, Tun Veli, Ugljan, Vir, Vrgada, Zečevo and Zverinac.

The beautiful stretch of islands is usually very popular with summertime visitors. It would seem that it's also popular in wintertime with visitors who live in the sea. And, of course, people like Davor who are lucky enough to catch sight of them.

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June 28, 2020 - Tourism was on hold when we started this series of articles, but most of us still have plenty of time. So let's look at the virtual resources available to explore Croatia virtually. We continue our new Virtual Croatia series with the tools to discover Pašman, the magical central-Dalmatian island.

A few weeks ago I wrote that being a tourism blogger in the corona era was about as useful as being a cocktail barman in Saudi Arabia. I feel less useless now, a few weeks later, and I am encouraged by the number of Croatian tourism businesses who are contacting us wanting to start thinking of promoting post-corona tourism. 

One of the challenges of writing about tourism at the moment is that there is nothing positive to write about. With people confined to their homes and tourism in Croatia currently not possible, many have decided to go into hibernation until it is all over. 

I think that this is a mistake, and I have greatly enjoyed the TCN series by Zoran Pejovic of Paradox Hospitality on thinking ahead to tourism in a post-corona world.  You can find Zoran's articles here.

Way back on March 14 - several lifetimes ago - I published an article called Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Ways to Discover Zagreb. The way I saw things, now was an OUTSTANDING opportunity for tourism promotion. People have time, they yearn for their freedom and former lives, so give them the tools to thoroughly research and enjoy your destinations, and you will have then longing to be there. And when they do come, they will have a deeper understanding of the destination due to their research. 

South Africa and Portugal were the first to do their post-corona tourism promotion videos several weeks ago (Post-Corona Tourism Planning: Lessons from South Africa and Portugal), a trick which has been followed by other tourism countries, the latest being Croatia with the national tourist board campaign, #CroatiaLongDistanceLove, going live yesterday.

But while these campaigns create longing and market presence, they don't really educate. People now have time to really get into destinations. And dreams of escape to somewhere more exotic are high on the list of priorities of many. 

So TCN has decided to help with that education with a new series called Virtual Croatia, where we will be helping you discover many of Croatia's destinations with all the best virtual tools available on your self-isolating sofa at home. 

We started with Tourism in the Corona Age: 10 Virtual Tools to Discover Hvar.

After this, we put our a press release (which you can read here in English and Croatian) offering a free article to any local tourist board in Croatia who would like the free promotion in our Virtual Croatia series. 

The Sinj Tourist Board was the first to respond, and now you can see just how rich the tourism offer is in this proud Alka town - your virtual tools to Discover Sinj. This was followed by DIscover Opatija, Discover Brela, Discover Rogoznica, Discover Stari Grad, Discover Omis, Discover Lumbarda and Discover Jezera.

Now, Petra Perinović from the Pašman Municipality Tourist Board helped us find virtual tools to discover the island of Pašman. 

Let's begin! 

Pašman - the Central-Dalmatian Island of Dreams 

Tourist board Pašman- new promotional video 2020 - wake up the forgotten part of yourself!

Remarkable video promoting Pašman through Škraping

Tourist board's video "From Pašman with love <3" 

Meet the destinations on Pašman

Dobropoljana

Barotul

Mrljane

Banj

Kraj

Čokovac Monastery

Ždrelac

Neviđane

Pašman

Discover Pašman Website

Find out more about the Pašman island and its destinations on the municipality tourist board website, where you can find out more about one of the most recognizable Croatian sights, the Galšenjak Island, and follow the Pašman webcam. 

So, is Pašman your next vacation destination? 

To discover more of virtual Croatia, you can follow this series in our dedicated section, Virtual Croatia. 

If you are a local tourist board in Croatia and would like your destination featured in this series for free, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject Virtual Croatia (and destination name)

Like elsewhere around the globe, and especially over the last decade or so, running events have been springing up all over Croatia like mushrooms after the rain, in all sizes and shapes. Among the many, there is a truly outstanding one - the country’s biggest trekking and trail race - Škraping. Christened so by its real founder Josip Tomic, a genuine athletic enthusiast thirteen years ago.

''Škrapa'' is a rock or a cliff by the sea. In other words, you don't go just running, but you go ''cliffing and rocking'', you run, you jump over the cliffs, climb up and down, all along the picturesque coastline of Pasman island.

The first Škraping was held back in 2006, with weak but enthusiastic local organisers, it gathered 182 enlisted participants, all so enthused and enchanted with the very particular track, spread the word around so that the event kept growing until it reached 1350 runners. In the words of the organisers, the Municipality and the Prvenj Comunal Entity of the picturesque little place of Tkon, that is the upper limit for the number of possible participants.

Why?

''Of course we'd like to have tens of thousands of people, but we are aware of our capacities. We don't have the necessary logistics for more than 1,300 people, approximately, that's about the number about which we're sure we can provide accommodation for, as well as catering and other services, transportation, and so on. We've had a lot of local infrastructure sorted out over the last several years, we've improved the old side and forest roads and made some ten kilometres of new paths and proper roads across the territory of our municipality, for at least two good causes - protection against wood fire and for Škraping!,'' says Goran Mušćet, the Mayor of the picturesque Tkon.

''It mobilises all our forces, but the purposes of Škraping are many. Taking place in early March each year, like an early harbinger, it announces the spring and the tourist season, it injects so much life into our otherwise very quiet little place, it helps the local economy, our young ones are interested and take part either by participating or volunteering in the organisation, friendships are coined, and so on. Last year we had people from eleven countries,''

Any age or limits of any other sort?

''Not really, as long as the person is healthy, one can be 100 years old and run! To support this, I always quote with special affection how some years back we organised the ''Little Škraping’ for pre-school kids. With our assistance, our local kindergarten invited other kindergartens from the island and the mainland. It's so touching to watch those little faces give their genuine effort to arrive first and win. So they also learn about the good that running can bring, about competition, about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, they mingle, share a fruit juice and a cake and make friends. Who could ask for more?'' concludes Mušćet.

There are other things happening during ''Škraping time'', too, music, fun, and the traditional and, again, another special event - the Fair of Island Products, a trademark under which some forty small private producers offer their very particular local products, from cosmetics to food.

But don't get discouraged just because you're past pre-school age! There are four different tracks, from short to long, you can choose and apply for any that you think suits your post-Christmas form. More details can be found here, and if you want to register, click here.

Hurry up, as registration closes on March the 1st, and many of those who have participated before have already registered again! Have fun, start getting back in shape in preparation and join the 1000+ people that, just like you, want to feel healthy in the cleanest environment imaginable.

Stay up to date with this and much more by following our dedicated lifestyle page.

An incredible discovery is made in the Zadar region.

How do you like your morning coffee?

One island in the Zadar region is about to get a large cash injection filled with American dollars...

Good news for two island communities in the Zadar region.

Are you ready for Škraping?