Pure Adventures helped Deb and John, two cyclists from North Carolina, book a self guided cycling trip to the Istrian Peninsula earlier this year. While they were worried that spending a few days in Venice on either side of their trip to Croatia would add complications to their holidays, our travel planners helped make their self guided holiday stress free by arranging customized trip start and departures. Here, Deb to shares with us her most memorable moments from Croatia.
Our entire trip was extraordinary. We loved starting and ending our holiday in Venice with the sightseeing, history art, food and, of course, all the gondolas, gondolas, gondolas. And even the drive to begin our trip was nice, which started from the Tronchetto car park in Venice and ended in Buje, where we began biking. We drove through Trieste where my husband John had worked a few years ago helping to redevelop part of the old port city.
I think the first highlight of the trip was simply how beautiful and unspoiled Istria is. We rode through rolling hills, vineyards, olive tree orchards and along the seashore. And it seemed like we got to visit two different, wonderful worlds – the quite countryside and lovely hilltop towns in Istria’s interior and then the bustling, lively port cities of Porec and Rovinj.
Another of the best things about the trip was the consistent, high-quality of the places where we stayed – all were well-located, extremely comfortable, with friendly, helpful staff, and no lost bags. Motovun was extraordinary with breathtaking views of the surrounding vineyards, and the Hotel Kastel was lovely and we took full advantage of the hotel’s spa after our full days of riding. We absolutely adored being in old town Rovinj and staying in one of the fun, funky Casa Garzotto apartments.
Besides traveling, we absolutely love good food and drink, and in this regard our trip was terrific – in fact, world class. First, in the interior, we sampled lots of the local foods and even stopped at a road-side “fast food” restaurant, which was fun – simple sausages, potatoes – and so unlike the McDonald’s and other chain fast food places in the US. In Motovun and Bale, we had handmade pastas, local game all made with truffles and olive oils from the region. On the coast it was all seafood – grilled whole fish, squid, octopus, ceviche – all extraordinary. Everywhere we went, we also sampled the local wines, including teran, a hearty red, merlots and lovely whites.
By way of surprises and the unexpected, there were a number and most were related to making a detour or side trip from the routes the folks at Pure Adventures had outlined for us. Not that that the planned itinerary wasn’t wonderful, but our trip was an adventure after all. First, we made a short side trip from Motovun to nearby Kaldir to visit the Benvenuti winery – it was amazing. We tasted wines all afternoon with the Benvenuti family and their guests, and then filled our bike panniers with all the teran, muscat and malvasia istriana they could hold.
Another highlight was a last-minute decision to hop on a ferry from Vrsar to Rovinj. We were eating (and drinking wine) at a great little harbor-side restaurant in Vrsar and one thing led to another and we were on our way to Rovinj by boat – it was a blast, especially being handed a grappa as a toast when we jumped onboard. Arriving in Rovinj by sea was breathtaking.
So all in all, our trip to Istria was one of the best, maybe the best holiday of our lives – simply extraordinary.