Travel Tips

Flights and hire cars etc:

We suggest flying into Trieste airport.  This hosts budget carriers e.g.Ryan Air  from Stansted ( North London)

Trieste airport is very small and for example, the Hertz desk is immediately outside the exit from the baggage hall.

 When you exit the airport follow the signs (blue or green) for the autostrada; they will initially indicate Venice, Trieste and Udine all in the same direction. When you actually pass through the toll booth onto the autostrada the road splits in two, one half going toward Venice and the other toward Trieste, Capodistria etc. Take the Trieste direction. Having achieved this successfully (hopefully), your job is to stay on this road as long as it continues toward Capodistria (or Koper as it is written in Slovenian). Do not be fooled by a couple of signs suggesting you should exit for Slovenia, these are there to tempt you toward Lubljana in the East; you must head toward Koper.

 Eventually (after passing through a toll booth and continuing along a free section) the road will pass behind the city of Trieste, which will be visible below you on the right. You are now approaching the only tricky part of the journey, so the passenger must concentrate! The solution now is to follow all signs for Capodistria/Koper. Watch carefully as you will have to make a left turn as you descend an incline (having gone through an old tunnel) and, a little further on, you will exit a fast road and double back on yourself alongside and under the fast road before branching right, again following the signs for Capo/Koper.

 

You should now have been driving for around forty minutes and be very close to the Slovenian border. The rest is plain sailing! Gradually you will see signs for Pula and these should be followed. They will lead you through Slovenia (twenty minutes to cross) and into Istria. Having arrived in Istria, you should find your destination without any problems.

 

The main north south road in Istria has recently opened  (the Ypsilon). It'll make a massive difference to all travelling up and down Istria. Do note that there are no petrol stations on it so you need to fill up before you get into Istria.

 

You could fly to and drive to Istria from Venice airport.  This also hosts budget carriers:

• Ryan Air from Brussels, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Paris, Rome and the UK airports of Luton and Stansted

• Easy Jet from UK airports of Bristol, Gatwick and Nottingham.

• Jet 2 from the UK airports of Leeds/ Bradford and Manchester

 A number of airlines have also opened up routes to Rijeka, Ljublijana and Pula.  Pula is in Istria and so is the most convenient airport in Croatia or the surrounding area followed by Rijeka and Ljublijana.

• Easy Jet flies into Rijeka, Split and Ljublijana.

• Thompson flies into Pula. 

 

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Hotels

 

Probably the best inland hotel in Istria is the San Rocco  and I understand that it is available for about 100 pounds per night. It has nice air conditioned rooms, a relaxed atmosphere and a pool to cool down in. There are many other hotels.

The following links may help you:

Visit Croatia - well set out site with at a glance Hotel information

Istria.com - loads of info on Istria, the sights and hotels.

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Places to visit

 

Assuming your stay is for about 2 days then I would recommend the following: 

 

At some point you must drive along the road from Buje to Oportalj and then follow the road to Motovun, passing through Livade. This is a stunning drive, giving you the best views of these old towns. Whilst Oportalj is still basically empty, Motovun is largely renovated and is well worth a walk around: another lunch or drink break here.

 

I would recommend that you undertake another drive to visit some of the coastal towns. Rovinj is stunning and would make a great place to start the day, with coffee and pastries on the front at the Hotel Adriatic. You should drive down the fast road and take the signs for Rovinj. Keep driving along the approach road until you can go no further (only residents are allowed in the centre) then park in the public parking (hence the recommendation to get here early). From here all of Rovinj is easily walked and, actually, this car park provides a great aspect on the old town. After Rovinj, proceed up the coast to Vrsar (a drive through) and then head to Porec.

 

Porec is probably the most commercial town in Istria but probably still worth a quick visit. You need to park near the old part of the town. I would recommend that you follow signs for the Hotel Porec and park in the free parking behind it. Then walk past the hotel to the waterfront and proceed along the waterfront toward the old town. You should see the Venice ferry pier. Take a short walk around the old town area and visit some of the famous historical buildings etc ( although I haven’t done this yet!).

 

After Porec, head for Novigrad, a further 10 miles up the coast. Again drive right into the old town and park in the public parking on the waterfront (you can’t go any further). Have a coffee in the Café Vitriol, thirty yards from the parking along the outside of the city walls. The café has a lovely terrace overlooking the sea. You can then walk around the outside of the walls next to the sea, occasionally passing through the archways to see the old townhouses inside. Novigrad is already a busy Marina and will become much more attractive for the sailing crowd upon the completion of a new 400 berth Marina which is underway.

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Where to eat.

 

There are many good restaurants, offering local (prosciutto, cheese, olives, fish, pasta and truffles) produce. If you like truffles then you should try Fusi Tartufi, which is a local pasta with a creamy truffle sauce – makes a great lunch. The most famous truffle restaurant (and the most expensive) is Zigante Tartufi in Livade, which you will pass through on your drive from Oportalj to Motovun. Also on that drive, but between Buje and Oportalj, there is a lovely little family run eating place called Stokovac in the village of Novaki (house 39). I had a lunch here on their terrace overlooking the fields and it was very enjoyable. All of their food is homemade (as is the wine) and I can again recommend the pasta and truffles. We were forced (honest) to have an apple strudel desert that was fantastic!

There is a nice fish restaurant called Mauve (or something like that) near Porec .

 For simple pizza or steak and a salad we like Dali in Porec.

The local wine is also of a high standard. Malvasia is the most common white grape and Terran the red.