Omis is not to be missed!
Trip dates: March 5, 2017 - March 9, 2017
Omiš is a small town that's less than an hour's drive southeast from Split and makes a great day trip. The town is situated on the mouth of the Cetina river, surrounded by gorges, and is absolutely beautiful. We stumbled upon this place when I came across the option to zipline in Croatia. Since it's the offseason, Eric and I were the only ones to sign up so we got a private ziplining session. We were told that in peak, they might go through upwards of 250 people per day!
Eric and I have both ziplined before, but this was probably the best experience we've had. It was a series of 8 ziplines through the gorges and across the river, the first of which was the longest and also the fastest. Since it was windy, our guides told us we probably were hitting 70km/h on that one! The ziplines were all different, some faster than others, some shorter; there was one where Eric and I could do in tandem - see our video below! The other line worth a shout out was the second to last one, where we could stop ourselves right over the middle of the gorge and take in the scenery. It was a beautiful setting to get the adrenaline going first thing in the morning!
After our ziplining adventure, we headed into town to get some lunch. There were locals out and about but otherwise, it was very quiet with most restaurants closed (surprise surprise). We walked through one of the main alleys (there's only 3 streets to town really) and came across a restaurant with some guys hanging out watching the telly. Thankfully, they were serving food and not just hanging out!
Once we refueled our tanks, we set our sights on the old fortress stari grad in Omiš. We had seen online that there are two routes to get up there, a short one and a long one. The long one is the regular route and supposedly started somewhere in town, but we didn't see the trailhead when walking around. We did see a sign for a trail at the parking area past the tunnel next to the town, so we took that one.
Turns out, this was the hard way up. It was only about half a mile but it took us 45mins to make it! The path was a steep climb up, with the final portion an uphill scramble requiring hands and feet. The wind was also extremely strong the higher up we got, so much that we had to squat and duck at times for fear that we'd get blown off balance.
We weren't really prepared for how difficult the climb up was but reaching the top made it totally worth it! We were the only ones up there, the view was beautiful, and the constant wind always kept us on our toes and made things interesting. It was definitely one of our more exhilifying experiences!
The climb back down went slightly faster but was just as exciting. There's a lot of loose rocks on the trail and the wind was constantly blowing downwards at your back. I decided to just slide down on my butt for part of the way at the top, which worked out pretty nicely. The rest of the trail wasn't as bad since you get sheltered from the wind once you get back to the forest area. There's also lots of trees on the trail that you can use to help you brake as you're heading down.
We hadn't really expected much from Omiš, seeing it only as where we needed to go for ziplining. After visiting though, we would totally recommend it as a pitstop as part of your Croatian vacation. The town is in a beautiful setting and is small enough to still feel more local than touristy, though I'm sure it's crowded with tourists in peak. Because of its location, there's lots of outdoor activities available, including rafting tours in the summer, as well as lots of hiking trails in the area. Omiš is probably one of my favorite places we visited in Croatia, which is saying a lot. Check it out for yourself, you won't regret it!
