Vošac – One of the Most Beautiful Viewpoints on Biokovo
Location: BiokovoLength: 0,74 kmElevation gain: 105 mDifficulty: ModerateDifficulty rating: K1, T1, VR1
Biokovo is our ultimate mountain, harsh and very dramatic. It looms over perhaps the most beautiful riviera in the world — the Makarska Riviera — and thus forms an incredible blend of the mountain and the sea. And it is precisely this exposure to views from the beach that has often created the illusion that climbing it is simple. Biokovo has always lured those hungry for adventure, and many careless ones who underestimated it never returned from it.
Biokovo has many incredible spots, but if I had to choose, for someone passing through who does not have much time, a single place that captures the magnificence of this mountain, it would probably be Vošac (1422 m).
Vošac is one of the most prominent peaks, offering spectacular views of the entire coast from Trogir to Pelješac, while of the islands you can see everything, from Mljet to Drvenik. It is one of the hiking tests of fitness. If you choose to climb from Makarska, it requires excellent physical condition. If you choose to ascend from the other side, Vošac is easily accessible. It is some 17 km from the entrance to the Biokovo Nature Park, and a perfectly decent road leads to its foot. The road is for the most part narrow, so more careful driving is needed. Every now and then there are widenings where vehicles coming from the opposite direction can pass each other. Foreigners often describe the road as terrifying. We have been driving it all our lives, so we are used to it and to many other narrow roads through our villages and hills, and as we have experienced much worse, this one is perfectly OK for us.
I would certainly advise against heading up during the tourist season, when people queue in long lines for the so-called SkyWalk, an attraction located on the way to Vošac, which will be discussed in more detail in another article. You should also avoid the climb if a strong bura is blowing or if everything is still locked in ice and buried in snow. Once we got stuck up there in a cloud so thick we could not see the front end of the car, so that too is not advisable on such a narrow mountain road.
Vošac is one of the most prominent peaks of Biokovo, offering spectacular views of the entire coast from Trogir to Pelješac. It is one of the most spectacular views in the world!
At the 17th kilometre there is a clearly marked turn-off for Vošac to the left. After about 850 m of driving you reach the car park in front of the former lodge below Vošac. The mountain lodge has been sold and a private hotel is now being built there.
The climb itself is short and not strenuous. You can turn the trail into a loop if you head towards the stone houses and turn left behind the second one. On the way back you can go straight towards the aforementioned former mountain lodge. This is also the official trail, which we have marked on the map above.
On Vošac itself, at an altitude of 1422 m, stands the Toni Roso Mountain Lodge. The plateau around it is quite wide, and the improvised bench behind the fence, right above the abyss, is ideal for an unobstructed view that you will remember for a long time.
From Vošac, St. George (Sveti Jure) seems within arm’s reach, and we will write about it in one of the coming articles.
Special
Although our focus is on Croatia, due to great interest in reviewing some international locations from our travels, we decided to launch the Special section. In it, we will not cover locations in the same detailed way we do with Croatian ones, but will instead provide a brief overview of multiple locations grouped into meaningful categories. The only criterion we still strictly follow is that they must be natural attractions.