Pula’s track is full of places for a relaxing vacation. Medulin is one of them, with a course close to the last stage of the peninsula at Cape Kamenjak. The four-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a great place to relax. If you’re energetic, it’s worth taking a day trip to beautiful Njive Beach, 10 miles off the coast at Premantura.
Rovinj, on the other side of Pula, is the jewel of the Croatian Adriatic. It has a distinctly Venetian heritage, which swarms over a small peninsula of orange-tiled roofs, culminating in the pale bell tower of the hilltop Church of St. Euphemia. The five-star Grand Park Hotel Rovinj is a relative newcomer with townscape views across the bay via a wide screen.
Those seeking more sophistication may want to look (just) inland, to Belle – where the Meneghetti Wine Hotel and Winery is an oasis of sophistication offering spa treatments, gourmet cuisine, and its own reds, whites, and rosés amidst whispering vineyards. It also boasts a beach club.
The upper half of Croatia’s west coast of Istria – where the Pazinca River flows into the Adriatic at the fjord-like Linn Bay – is as idyllic as the lower half. Here, a series of resort towns dot the coast without any big hustle and bustle. The largest, Poreca, is another refugee from medieval Venice, and like Rovinj and Pula, it offers a ferry service to La Serenissima. In fact, you may feel like you’re already in St. Mark’s, in the labyrinth of streets that fan out around the UNESCO-listed sixth-century Basilica of Euphrasis. Four-star options are also available on the promenade!
Further north, Novigrad and Umag are close to the waterline in equally photogenic mists, the latter operating on the Horseshoe Harbor. There are hotels in both places, but it’s also possible to stay slightly inland, in one of the many luxury villas that adorn the countryside. Vintage Travel offers Adriana, a three-bedroom villa with a pool, 10 miles from Novigrad in Višnjan. Elsewhere, Croatian Villas offers a four-bedroom resort with a pool near Buje, six miles from Umag.
To be precise, the easternmost part of the peninsula, which includes Moshieni Kadraga, is a separate county, Primorsky Krai – Gorsky Kotar. But the distance is so manageable, and the region so fascinating, that it makes no sense to ignore it. Almost at the point where the peninsula meets the main Croatian torso, Opatija has been an elegant resort since the Vienna Railway reached the region in 1873, bringing in hordes of wealthy tourists seeking the rejuvenating sea air. Many of the town’s opulent houses were built at this time.
