Sunny Porec, Croatia

Walking the promenade around the Old Town as the sun sets--it's a truly stunning time. The sea is so clear and blue, it's ideal for swimming and boat trips.

Quick Tips:

Always have a hat, some water, and sunscreen with you. Croatia has more hours of sun than any other country in Europe and in the summer it's very hot. In July it was 32 or 33 degrees Celsius each day.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking is the easiest option in the town and boats are the best way for getting to nearby bays and islands.

There are only two hotels in the actual town of Porec and they are both owned by the same company and are within seconds of each other. One is this hotel and one is the Hotel Parentino; both have superb harbour views. You can pay a little extra for a sea view, which we did. Unfortunately, this means it's noisy at night, but there is a curfew in the town of midnight for the main noise, after that it's just private boat parties. We stayed half board and the food was incredible, with a huge buffet-style breakfast and the same again at dinnertime. In addition, we also had an Istrian Specials dinner, where we had live Croatian music and plenty of tasty food, plus a free cocktail before dinner.

The hotel staff were very helpful and the rooms adequate. Ours was fairly small but this was because we had the sea view--the rooms without the view were larger. The hotel also issues you with a boat ticket across to St. Nicholas Islan, which is great for swimming or just strolling amongst the trees and lizards.

The hotel has a bar and large seating area on the street which is great in the evenings for a few cold beers. The prices are reasonable and the staff friendly. Overall, this hotel does what it's supposed to and more and I'd gladly go back.

This is a great little pizzeria almost on the front and just doors away from our hotel. The pizza sizes here are crazy: a small is what we English would call large, and large - well, it's total madness. We followed the locals and had a medium between us with a beer; this was still a struggle to eat at lunchtime. However, the pizza was gorgeous with a ridiculous number of flavours to choose from, and all with plenty of cheese. The prices are reasonable and the service good.

For a quick lunch, this is the place to go for quality fresh pizza.

Porec Old Town is a quaint cobbled town with a medieval feel. There is the superb and UNESCO-classed basilica (see separate entry). But there is also the second-century Temple of Neptune, which stands hidden away at the sea end of the main street. It takes some finding but the bits that are there are impressive. Further along the main street (Decumanus) there is a beautiful Romanesque house with a wooden balcony, decorated with flowers in the summer. Further along still you come across a Gothic house with a 15th-century Renaissance balcony (the Romeo and Juliet sort).

The city was once walled, and although you can see some of the walls on the north side of the city, mostly all that remain are a couple of Venetian towers, mainly the pentagonal tower, the round tower, and the northeast tower. They are easy to come across as you wonder the streets.

The streets are cobbled and almost traffic-free, so walking is great but sensible shoes are required if you're not to break your ankle. A walk around the town taking it all in at a leisurely pace will probably take a couple of hours.

This is one of the world's best preserved Euphrasian basilicas and has UNESCO protection, with some of the world's finest intact Byzantine art. Built on the site of a fourth-century basilica and fifth-century church, the complex includes the church, an atrium and bapistry. You can view the mosaic floors from previous centuries but the best part is the glittering wall mosaics. They are sixth-century masterpieces depicting biblical scenes, archangels, and Istrian martyrs. The main altar is styled on St. Mark's in Venice and there are three smaller chapels on the right-hand side which are equally stunning. There is so much to say about this beautiful place that I simply don't have space, but please go and visit, it really is worth it. Plus for 10 kuna (£1) you can climb the tower and have the best view possible over Porec.

Porec is nicely situated almost opposite Venice, and so it's very easy to take a boat trip across for the day. We travelled on the Prince of Venice, a huge catamaran which takes about two hours to do the crossing. You cruise up past St. Mark's Square and the Grande Canal before coming to the area where day boats are allowed to moor. Customs paid us no attention and we were whizzed through and off along the canal front over little bridges until about 20 minutes later we arrived in St. Mark's Square. Here our guide gave us a talk about the square which was not only amusing but educational. After that it was a quick walk to a Murano glass factory where we watched a man create a glass horse in under five minutes - it was very impressive. Then after walking very carefully around the mega-expensive gift shop we were on our own.

We made a beeline for the Rialto bridge, stopping only to buy a baguette on the way. The Rialto was very well signposted, and although busy we were able to take some photos before wandering back into the mash of little streets and bridges. Venice is superb in that at each turn you are confronted with another scenic view. We returned to St. Mark's Square via an ice-cream shop for a look at the Bridge of Sighs and then on along the Grande Canal away from the crowds. We'd decided to take a water taxi from St. Mark's Square back to the boat as this meant for 7 euros we had a trip all the way up the Grande Canal and down another one, a superb taxi ride and worth every euro.

Now having completed the major sights of Venice we collapsed back on to the boat for our ride back to Porec.

The day trip is quite expensive (440 kuna) but well worth it if all you want to do is say you've been to Venice and then impress friends with a mountain of photos. I'd recommend it as Venice isn't somewhere I'd like to spend a lot of time - simply too many tourists!

This was our last full day in Porec so we opted for a leisurely cruise down the coast. The boat (Zorelac) leaves from the main harbour area every Sunday and is the only boat to travel up the entire Lim fjord. (It's not a fjord really but is called one!)

We picked up some more people from resorts a bit further out of town and then travelled down the coast. Croatia is home to the largest nudist camp and beach area in Europe, and interestingly this boat trip takes you straight past all of it. It is a little disconcerting having naked people in boats and on jet skis come flying past but it's interesting to see ths sights!

Once past this distraction, you head down the fjord with its caves in the cliffs--it's very pretty. You cruise past the oyster beds, providing the finest oysters in Europe, and on to the town at the end of the fjord. Sadly, most of it was shut when we arrived and we later discovered this was because they were expecting a visit from the President of Croatia who in his swimming trunks happily waved to us from his boat on the way back out of the fjord.

Then it was on to Rovinj - the next main town down the coast. It's supposed to be more popular than Porec but I can't see why--it's not as pretty and is dirtier and far more touristy. However, it's a nice place to go and has a pleasant old town with an impressive church.

After an hour or so here, it's back on the boat as we head back to Porec. It's great to spend a day on the sea and this is a pleasant leisurely trip to do that. The boat staff are really helpful and have drinks for sale on board. The toilet facilities are good although dark.