Day Trips from Zadar

Sixteen turquoise lakes tumble through moss-grown travertine dams. Timber walkways let you hover centimetres above the surface. Morning light paints the water the hue of weathered copper, and the scent of crushed pine needles rises from the boards.

White karst walls plummet into sapphire water. The engine dies and you hear only cicadas and waves slapping limestone. Day boats serve grilled fish on deck, so rosemary smoke drifts across the anchorage.

Skradinski Buk's stepped falls thunder louder than you expect. Shut your eyes and cool mist kisses your cheeks. Later, Šibenik's cathedral of white Dalmatian stone glows amber in the fading light.

Pine resin thickens the air as you climb between rust-streaked karst walls. Scree crunches under boots and the odd whistle of a griffon slices the sky, this is eagle country.

The causeway gives you front-row seats to turquoise shallows. Once on Pag, the wind carries the sharp tang of sheep's-milk cheese aging in stone huts. After dark, Zrće's bass thumps across the bay.

Dugi Otok feels like the Adriatic before anyone mailed a postcard, quiet coves where turquoise water snaps against chalk cliffs. In Telašćica Nature Park wild rosemary mixes with iodine drifting off the salt lake.

The river cuts a rust-red limestone canyon. Paddling beneath leaning pines you hear only drip of paddle, cry of falcons. The water is so clear trout shadows stripe the sand.