My two adult kids and I will driving through Istria on October 8th and spending two nights in Rovinj and a full day touring the country side (Motovun, Grožnjan, etc.) before we drive to Plitvice National Park on October 10th. Do you have any favorite restaurants, wineries, experiences in Rovinj or in the countryside?
Thank you in advance for your feedback!
Konoba Mondo in Motovun is a real treat! Best food I have on my trip to Croatia and Slovenia. If you have time, a truffle hunt is a great experience. We went with Michael from Villa Marie in July, which is black truffle season. I believe white truffles are in season in October. These are the much more valuable variety.
I want to be sure you're aware of the situation at Plitvice. You can now buy tickets in advance online, and you are not guaranteed to get into the park if you arrive without tickets in hand. The park is extremely heavily visited during day-tripping hours, so it's important that you not plan to drive over from Istria and see the park the same day. The walkways can be absolutely packed, which seriously degrades the experience. Word is that if you arrive sort of late in the afternoon and see part of the park then and re-enter the park at opening time the next morning, you should avoid the worst of the crush.
Kerri, thank you for your feedback! I’ve booked a night in Motovun with dinner at Konoba Mondo and a truffle hunt with Nikolai. We’ve also scheduled a wine tour at Fakin, so should be really fun!
Acraven, I have purchased tickets for the 8-9am entrance, so praying for good weather!
Do either of you have a recommended driving route from Rovinj to Plitvice falls? I’d like to drive Route 66 near Opatija as suggested by a previous poster. Thanks
I have only approached Plitvice from Zagreb so have no personal experience with your route. You can check ViaMichelin.com to see what it suggests. If you zoom way in, you'll see scenic stretches of road highlighted in green. Inland Istria is very attractive, but I note that you will already have spent a day driving through it.
I drove from Split and used Google Maps.
We just got back from there and enjoyed driving around the hill towns of Istria for a day. One suggestion I have is not to rely on on google maps or gps too much ( they directed us to go up private drives and small pathways 😏....Road map and signs are better in this area. Truffles were in when we were there and all the food we had was delicious!
I just uploaded the photos from my trip to that area in July. We spent 6 nights based in Rovinj and visited Pula and Porec as well as several hill towns including Motovun and Groznjan. There is a town called Oprtalij which is just across the valley (and the main road) from Motovun. You can actually see it from Motovun (just barely) but it takes 20 minutes or more to drive due to winding narrow roads, but it was so worth it. Much less visited than the others, still partially in ruins, but we loved it. Check out the photos of it (and the other places as well) https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/f244307974
As I said, I'm just now getting the photos posted so they aren't all labeled yet, but the "Istrian Hill towns" gallery has the town names labeled.
We arrived at Plitvice at 3:30 and toured the park for a few hours, stayed the night (Hotel Bellevue) and went back in the following morning. Can't remember the names of the road we took between Rovinj and Plitvice but it was pretty much whatever google maps said. It took longer than expected.
We were in Rovijn in September and really enjoyed watching the sunset and dolphins from Valentino bar. Also, we enjoyed the wineries in Momjan. Kozlovic is highly regarded and has a modern tasting room. You don’t need a reservation to sample and buy the good olive oil or wine. The website confused me on this point.
gkclark1, we'll be visiting the Istrian peninsula next summer. We would like to visit a winery or two. I have a couple of questions. Approximately what is the cost of a tasting at a winery? Also, not all of our group are wine drinkers. Will there be a pleasant place for them to sit and relax?
