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Tour operators Idriva Tours, bus operators Frey Travel, Grosskoellnbach.

Start in Munich (Froettmating busstation) at 22:30 o'clock with 30 min delay. The seat pitch in the Frey buses is significantly lower than in most aircrafts.
At highway exit Irschenberg for 2 hours traffic jam. A good bus driver should know the traffic jam and drive an alternate route - while watching traffic information and navigation devices.
Suddenly heavy smoke emissions at the rear of our bus. The Frey bus driver steered on the emergency lane to the next highway parking. After 30 min cooling down period for the engine, the trip was finally continued.
Although from Rijeka to Zadar there is a brand new highway, we usually go parallel to the highway on narrow serpentines roads through the mountains. That costs us a lot of traveltime.
Therefore we arrive much to late at about 15 o'clock nearby Sibenik (Vodice). In already 17 hours stressful drive, the bus operator Frey Travel made only three short 15 minute stops.
Some guests should get off the bus at Zadar to reache their cruise, but none of the managers of Idriva and Frey Tours remembered in time.
In Vodice we are transhipped outside a hotel into another bus of the company Atlas of Croatia. This additional bus now clatters along the coastal road to several hotels where some guests disembarked. The bus driver of Frey Travel phoned constantly while driving on the winding coastal road with his cell phone without a handsfree car kit.
Despite the already large delay Idriva Tours unfortunately provided no minibus which could us bring directly to the embarkation harbour Trogir.
At 16:45 o'clock we arrived at Split airport, but our real goal ought to be the sailing ship in Trogir.
Looking through the porthole in the tiny toilet on the sailing ship Petrina
45 minutes we had to wait for passengers from Berlin at Split Airport. At 17:30 o'clock the marathon trip was continued in another bus towards Makarska.
Again, the bus clattered along various hotels on the coast, where the Berlin passengers disembarked.
At 20:00 o'clock we finally arrived after a 22 hour odyssey at the harbor of Makarska. It was already dark and far and wide no tour guide from Idriva Tours in sight. So we wandered around for some time at the harbor, until we finally found our ship Petrina at the ship refueling station.
tiny Cabin No. 9 on the Idriva sailing ship Petrina Unbelievable but unfortunately true - the captain of windjammer Petrina parked the timber ship in Makarska all night long right next to a ship gas station. The nearest petrol pump was only 2 meters away from our cabin. It is unimaginable what can happen if someone had heedless thrown down a burning cigarette from the ship.

As last arriving guests we got the noisiest cabin no 9 right next to the engine room. A better cabin was supposedly no longer free.
A cabin size below 3 m2 is absolutely inhumane for 2 adults. The airspace in the supersmall cabin is so low that at night the front door must remain open at all times.

According Idriva Tours the journey from Munich to Trogir should take only 10 hours.
Despite the 2 1/2 hours delay by the traffic jam at Irschenberg Mountain and the smoke emission of the Frey bus engine we could arrive in Trogir just in time (according Idriva catalog from 11.30 bis 13:00 clock). Only the mismanagement of Idriva Tours caused the huge delay
Due to chaotic 22 hour bus ride caused by Idriva Tours, the first day of the cruise (along the Makarska Riviera) we lost.


Figure left: deck layout of the Idriva sailing ship Petrina

Also the service on the Idriva Tours sailing ship Petrina was very poor:

  • no change of bed linen in 7 days
  • One small towel per person for the entire trip time
  • no deckchairs and only two ancient lying mats for twenty guests
    (in Idriva Tours catalogue is written: 15 deck chairs - on all other ships that we have seen on our sailing cruise, there were of course a lot of sun loungers)
The food on the ship, however, was very good. It is amazing what the cook serves in his small ship kitchen.
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