Istria peninsula is one of the most beautiful places in the earth for a summer holiday destination. Its of course depends on how you wanna enjoy your holiday. However, if you like Mediterranean, Aegean or Adriatic sea and their climate, we are sure that you will love Istria. We enjoyed its well-preserved nature, beautiful virgin coasts, delicious foods, good-tempered people and budget-friendly prices a lot.

We stayed for two weeks in the below routes of Istria and we will share our experiences with you. At the end of the post you will find a summary of our budget, recommendations and insider tips. Until there, here is our journey:

It started like below 🙂

Then, we followed the below route during our vacation:

Before you take in to your journety lets start with some preliminary information:

About Crotia

Language: Crotian (Most of the people can speak better German than English. So good news for the German 🙂

Money: Their money is Kuna. For the time being 1 EUR = 7,44 Kuna (August 2020)

Fazana

Its a small town that you can enjoy nearby beaches and try seafood in its delicious restaurants with reasonable prices. We had lunch with a giant seafood plate and payed only 190 Kuna (which was the cheapest and the most delicious comparing to the all other places)

Pula (city center)

We flied directly to Pula airport from Berlin. It took less than 2 hours to arrive to Pula. There are many other ways to travel Pula. There are direct ferries from Venice as well if you are going to travel from Italy. (It can be a problem due to Corona tough).. Since our biggest motivation was exploring sea activities and nice beaches, you will not see much about history of Pula. However, it worth’s to mention to Pula Arena. Its 6th biggest and the best preserved Roman Amphitheaters. It was built on the 1st century during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian (69-79) for organisation of gladiator and other combats and for staging bloodthirsty beast hunts. Today, arena is used as a stage for many cultural events, concerts and for the Pula Film Festival as well.

Another well preserved building is The Temple of Augustus: It was built at the forum of Pula during the reign of the first Roman emperor Augustus. On its front, the dedication of the template can still partially be read: ROMAE ET AUGUSTO CAESARI DIVI Filio PATRI PATRIAE (To Roma and Caesar Augustus, the son of a deity, the father of the homeland)

There are many beaches around Pula city center. Here are the list of some of them that you can access by walking from Pula:

• Saccorgiana Cove: Its a small and peaceful beach that you can access via walking from Pula. There is sport center for kids and you can do SUP (stand up paddling)
• Valsaline Beach: Again a small beach. We likes this one more than Saccorgiana but once we started to swim we realized that there are jellyfishes in the sea. They were very small and not harmful but still unpleasant for me. (it was 18th of July while we were there). There is a small cafe near the beach so you can have a drink and relax. There are WC and dressing cabinets which helps a lot as well.
• Gortan’s Cove: Another nice beach with brilliant crystal clear water.
• Zelenika Beach: very close to Stoja beach. Its very small but less crowded comparing to Stoja
• Stoja Campsite: Its a large camping site that you can come with your tent or with your caravan as well for longer stays. They have also mobile homes that you can rent and stay inside the site. We are thinking to this in the next time. You can make your booking through their website. There are sport center, restaurants, cafes, small shops and basically you can find everything that you need. For us it was one of the best spots to enjoy our time. However northern part of the Stoja beach is having too much wind and it was not ideal for us.
• Histria Beach: small and nice beach but there were also jellyfish problem 🙂

Additionally, many boat tours including dolphin excursion, Brijuni island tour are available from Pula harbour every day even at night.

And we should especially mention one place which is a perfect place for windsurfing and also for swimming is Pomer. You can also stay very close to the Winsurfing Center in Pomer. Its a large camping site, you can come with your caravan or you can stay in one of the mobilehouses over there. The sea is very calm and its very suitable for all kinds of water sports and swimming itself. Thats a unique place that needs to be in the bucket list I guess. 

Bale (Valle)

Its a small settlement comes from Roman times. We stayed one night inside the Bale castle in a pretty house made of stone. Its a quite peaceful place to get relax. You can also make shopping from local olive oil stores.

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Rovinj

Its a very beautiful town. we stayed one night inside the town. We enjoyed their good fish restaurants, watched the sunset and relaxed.

If you are heading to the northern of Rovinj (around 50 kms) there is Istralandia which is a big and Europe’s 2nd best aquapark according to user ratings on Tripadvisor.

Opatija

Its a small town next to Rieka which is one of the big cities of Croatia. This town was very famous in 19th century and its houses had been used as summer houses by Habsburg dynasty. The beautiful design and architecture of the old houses can easily be recognized at first sight. It has some small, calm beaches protected by the harbour and gives you perfect moment to enjoy adriatic sea.

You can do various sea activities such as windsurfing, kayaking, pedelling as an amateur and also as professionals. I saw many surfer on the sea before six a.m in the morning and they were really professional. If you are looking for strong winds you should watch out morning hours.

One of the best thing we enjoy in Opatija is the peaceful ambiance of the town. The time is not flying there, you can relax, enjoy the sea, taste the delicious restaurants and cafes (ostaria veranda was our best restaurant, Kaokakao’s cakes was perfect)

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Krk island

We have tried a couple of different places and beaches in Krk island and then stayed 3 nights at Malinska. So, lets start with Malinska

• Malinska: Malinska is located almost at the middle of the Krk island. It takes 1 hour from Rieka by bus (thanks to Google to show our route via Cres with ferry but there was no other option to embed it differently) . It has calm sea, long and family-friendly beaches, nice restaurants to enjoy good foods with reasonable prices. We found a good apartment 1 km far from the center and with a sea view and it was really great to stay there. For us Malinska have the best beaches inside the Krk island. Not cold, not warm, full of sport activities, etc..

• Baska: It has definitely the best beach view of the island. You can take maybe the best beach pictures out of Baska but you can’t easily swim since its very wavy and not calm. There are a lot of good fish restaurants out there but I have to admit that they were a bit pricey

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• The city of Krk: Its the center and maybe the most crowded part of the island. We liked the beaches and restaurants and also the stone houses inside the city center. After Malinska it was our second choice to stay. There are a lot of good souvenir shops to do some shopping

• Vrbnik: Its the most peaceful place of the island but it was too silent for us 🙂 If you are really looking for a silent place with few people and a small bay to enjoy the calm sea, its definitely your place.

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Premantura & Kamenjak

We can clearly tell without any hesitation Kamenjak is the most beautiful area of the Istria. It has crystal-clear beaches, lots of sport activity (maybe the best place to do) and very good landscape for hiking or biking. We did hiking until the end of the Kamenjak and it was life-time amazing experience for us. If you plan to do so, please start early and use the cool weather wisely.

we followed the below route from Premantura to the end of the Kamenjak: Basically we have explored the right side of the Kamenjak:

Our recommendation is to start early in the morning from Premantura center. You can have your morning coffee around the cafes and start hiking or biking (there are plenty of places to rent bike in Premantura). Beach Lokva was our first stop to swim. Like the all other latter beaches, you will not get disappointed with the sea. Next stop was Windsurf wave spot Palin which I did windsurfing and my wife did kayaking. We are really recommending this place since there is a very good amount of wind at the place which is perfectly suitable for non-professionals. You can easily and safely steer and navigate the board and adjust yourself easily to the wind. You can rent all your equipment from the Facility, they are professional and also very helpful. After doing some sea sport we headed to beach Mali Portic. Its again a brilliant place to swim.

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Then, Debeljak Cove another swimming point. We finally reached to the end Cliffs & Caves of Kamenjak. If you are interested in Cliff Diving this is the spot 🙂 Don’t forget to bring your swimming shoes since the rocks are a bit sharp there. And after that on the way back to Premantura drop by the Safari Bar. Its a very authentic place with a great Adriatic view, interesting budget-friendly menus. You can spend a few hour and chill there before starting to the return way. 

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You must be hungry right 🙂 There is a perfect Eco-farming restaurant that you can find really delicious local foods coming directly from the nearby farm. Its called Istarska Farma Restaurant. we really recommend this place for having a heavy lunch or dinner.

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Insider Tips:

• Mobile Internet connection is not good in especially Opatija and in Malinska. So, if you need it for business, etc. it might be a problem for you. You can use Wi-fi but its also not perfect. Its better to check with your hotel beforehand
• The weather is mostly better in the morning times than in the afternoon. During the 2 weeks of our vacation the pattern didn’t changed. It may be a good tactic to enjoy the sea in the morning and rest in the afternoon if it rains
• There are plenty of good food you can try and also buy for your return. Wine, Olive oil, olive,fig and truffles are the best ones among all.

• Car renting in Istria is quite convenient and cheap. We have use Active Car Rental and paid less than 25 eur per day for a Golf. Theis service was quite nice, highly recommended.

Budget

For 2 weeks holiday, including the flights and all other expenses we spent around 2000 EUR. We stayed mostly on the apartments which have daily rates between 40-50 EUR.

Pula and the neighboring cities are generally is not expensive and you will never disappoint with the quality of the food. (espeically they have very good delicious icecreams 🙂

We hope you a pleasant Istria trip and please comment on our post with your experience. All the best for you 🙂