A Week in Istria, Croatia

So- when we first started talking about a trip to Croatia, we were both very excited. There were a bunch of cool places to see - like the amazing waterfall park and Dubrovnik- that I was super excited about. Spouso was really excited about the idea of staying put, enjoying the beaches, and eating their food- which is an interesting mix of Italian influences plus truffles. Pretty quickly we realized we had problem: we were picturing two completely different trips. As the deadline ticked down and we still hadn't booked anything, we finally came to an agreement. The first part of the trip we would hop around to a different site every other day, and then for the second part of the trip, we would park in the same place and enjoy some relaxing. So after our hops from Ljubljana, to Lake Bled, and down to Plitvice National Park, it was time for the second phase of the trip: parking in a big house with a pool near the beach in Rovinj (ro-veen-ya), with a few short day trips in the area. Sadly, this meant that we could not get down to Dubrovnik, which is just way at the southern tip of the country. Hopefully, we will be able another time.

heading to the west from the National Park to Rovinj 

(Note: Dubrovnik wayyyy down at the bottom)

Around the House

So our house was great- we shared it with two other families who had older kids that were basically awake at completely different hours than us- so we always had the pool to ourselves. We had some lovely lazy days of swimming or walking down to the beach in between the baby's naps. We also started trying more card games with our bigger kiddo- so there was a lot of War and Go Fish when it was too hot to be outside. 

Rovinj

So- we picked the location of our house to be near Rovinj,  because it is right on the coast and had a nice little beach nearby. It's also fairly centrally located on the peninsula of Istria, so it would make for some easy day trips. Our house was just outside of the the old city, so we had to take a quick boat ride into town. The town itself is super charming- it's just on the tip of a peninsula, basically surrounded on all sides by water with super hilly streets. On lazy days when we didn't leave the house, we took the boat into town for dinner.

Groznjan

After a good lazy day or two, it was time to hop back in the car for our first day trip. We wanted to go to Motovun, but everyone we'd met told us to go to nearby Groznjan, so we decided to stop there first. It's a tiny medieval hilltop town that has become an artist enclave, so we wanted to check it out. It was raining, but still very charming. Lots of twisty, tiny streets, and general loveliness. 

Day Trips from Rovinj: Groznjan, Motovun & Piran

cheeky baby

Motovun

After Groznjan, we hopped back in the car for a quick drive so the little guy could have a quick afternoon nap. We stopped at a vineyard for a quick wine tasting, and then headed on to Motovun.  This is another medieval hilltop town, particularly known for its food. In general, the whole region of Istria is known for its food because it was previously part of Italy, and also a place where truffles grow, and Motovun is kind of the center of it. We did a quick walk around the town walls but mostly we were there to eat! Dinner did not disappoint- the truffles were sprinkled on everything (even the kids' food) abundantly. (Fun fact, the restaurant we picked is the same one that Anthony Bourdain visited when he traveled to Croatia). 

wine tasting stop!

climbing up to the town

view of one hilltop town from another

                                                                            soo many truffles

Piran

Our last day trip was to Piran, just across the border into Slovenia. On the way, we stopped by a crab shack on the water that turned out to be pretty awesome. (Also somewhere Anthony Bourdain stopped, not sure how we managed that). Then, we headed north. I read that Piran was known as "Little Venice", so of course I pictured canals and general loveliness. It turns out that they call it that because it has the same architectural style as Venice, so we were a bit disappointed when we got there and found zero canals. It was blazingly hot, so we basically had a drink and some ice cream and got back out of there asap. 

baby on vacation

kids love oysters!

Welcome to Little Venice!

Aperitif time

                                                            ice cream for everyone

time to go

Thoughts on this trip:

I think this model worked really well for us. Every other day was lazy: we stayed at the house, swam and relaxed and made sure the baby had two good naps. We generally went into town for an easy dinner or just cooked at home and kept things really easy. But then the other days we were a bit more adventurous and got to see a few things in the area. We definitely worked around the nap schedule- he was having 2 naps a day at this point, so on our travel days we generally left after his morning nap, had a first stop, and then let him sleep in the car on the way to the second stop. 

Because we stayed put for a week, we were able to stock up on groceries, so it was easy to whip up breakfasts, lunches, and impromptu dinners as needed. On days when the boys were clearly just too tired to mess with a restaurant, it was nice to be able to fix something quickly. But generally the food was pretty amazing, so whenever we did get to a restaurant, it was well worth it. By the end, we were all sick of truffles, which is not something I've ever experienced before. 

And with that - it was time to go home and start school.