After an eventful day (see Croatia Online - Trip Day 5), with our third disaster yet to come, we found Camping Oštro just after 6 pm. It’s of the “holiday camp” variety of campsite but was pretty deserted when we were there in early May and was not quite ready for the holiday season. This was to set the scene for things to come and came as no surprise – despite tourist board campaigns like Croatia 365, which aim to promote Croatia as an all year round destination, many campsites along the coast (and hotels, restaurants, cafés, etc) are struggling to break the habits of a lifetime. The “just in time policy” of getting venues ready for the historically short summer season of July and August continues and the “natural” sounds of May and June in Croatia feature the clattering of hammers on nails and timber, as well as the sound of birds tweeting!
It wasn’t a problem for me, here, that just a few of the leisure facilities weren’t ready, but it did become rather annoying, as the trip progressed. The degree of “unreadiness” could sometimes be quite major, and very few of the campsites were up front in telling you when you arrived, let alone offering a reduction in prices. One notable exception to this was Camping Split who were probably amongst the “readiest” of all the campsites in the pre season and yet had the decency to offer a small discount on checkout because some of the peripheral “extras” weren’t quite ready.
However all the essentials were there, we had a great pitch, a lovely sandy beach nearly all to ourselves and a beautiful sunset. The whole site was renovated in 2010/2011 and the facilities were modern and clean.
The view was interesting too – across the bay is the Rijeka oil refinery which, as these kind of installations go, is weirdly attractive..
The pitch itself, one of about 200, backed onto the beach, though there was a chicken mesh fence directly behind which was quite useful. A few strides away were some steps down,.
Price wise, it was higher than average. I paid a total of 162 kunas – pitch 103, 1 adult 35, insurance 1, city tax 4, registration 7, dog 12). I did stay in the best area – Zone A – and, all in all | think it was good value for money, even without all the high season activities. Like everywhere else, prices change, in phases, according to the season.
My grilled chicken and vegetables (simple but delicious) was 60 Kn and I washed it down with a glass of house red wine at 18 Kn.
The campsite is dog friendly though they’re not really supposed to go on the beach. Generally, if you have a well behaved dog, you and those around you will use their discretion – I just make sure there’s no one around who might get upset and NEVER leave a mess or allow the dog to approach anyone! Some people of course can’t resist his charms and ask to say hello which he loves.
As far as location goes (circled below) it’s designed to be a holiday destination in its own right and not, so much, a transit camp. It’s some way from the motorway but close to the main coast road and not much of a detour if you’re on your way to Krk island. It has the relatively remote Ostro headland pretty well all to itself and so it needs to be fairly well contained in terms of food, drink and entertainment.
For more information go to:
Croatian Tourist Board Info - Kraljevica
And for those of you who want to enjoy the camping lifestyle in a little more luxury and/or don’t have a caravan or motorhome with you, there are twenty two-bedroom holiday homes available..
