The main attractions of Istria:
• The Pula Amphitheater – A well-preserved building from the 1st century, the sixth largest Roman amphitheater. It is most interesting during summer evening concerts.
• The Euphrasian Basilica in Porec – Monument from the 6th century, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, with beautiful Byzantine mosaics.
• Rovinj – For many people, the most beautiful city in Istria. Beautiful old town on the peninsula, a dozen or so small islands and a picturesque headland with a fantastic botanical garden.
• Brijuni National Park – Picturesque islands, once Tito's residence and hunting grounds, today a bird habitat and a paradise for tourists.
• Limski Channel – A narrow and long bay resembling a Norwegian fjord, which is best admired from the excursion boat.
• Hum, Roć and Glagolitic Avenue – Two tiny historic towns connected by an unusual avenue commemorating the oldest Slavic alphabet.
• Groznjan – Old stone houses, narrow winding streets a plus… tons of galleries, painters, sculptors, musicians and sybarites, that is, the Grozny Cultural Summer and Truffle Days.
Istria – It is the most visited land in Croatia. According to the Croatian Ministry of Tourism, over a third of foreign tourists book accommodation in Istria. Guests come mainly in summer, when the sea temperature is 23.3-24.1°C with an average air temperature of 23-25°C. In winter, the weather does not encourage sightseeing – it's quite warm (ok. 10°C), but humid. According to the authors of advertising brochures, the triangular shape of the peninsula resembles a heart. The Croatian coast of Istria has, not counting the islands, 445 km long.
Pula is located at the point where the east coast meets the west coast – the economic and tourist center of Istria. Impressive monuments from Roman times have been preserved there - the most famous is the huge amphitheater. It is not far from Pula to Cape Kamenjak, the southernmost point of Istria. Tourist settlements stretch around Pula and almost to the cape, hotels and campsites, and on the seashore - beaches and bathing areas. Near Pula, there are several protected islands within the Brijuni National Park. The largest of them, Veli Brijun, was the residence of Josip Broz-Tito, which for several decades decided the fate of Yugoslavia.
The West Coast does 242 km long. It abounds in coves, and the white rocks seem even brighter against the blue sea. Along the shore there is an almost uninterrupted strip of camping sites, hotels and tourist estates, which in the summer are generally full of guests. Among the few beautiful historic cities, the most interesting are: Poreć with the Euphrasian Basilica, Rovinj, Umag and Novigrad.
The east coast is a bit shorter (203 km), much less populated and less crowded. In its southern part, from the town of Barban, there are no larger towns. The tourist centers of this part of the coast are the historic Labin and the nearby Rabac.
The administrative capital of Istria is Pazin, situated in the middle of the peninsula. Not too many tourists reach it. In Pazin, you can see a wonder of nature - the enormous Jama Fojba, in which the waters of the Pazinćica River disappear.
The interior of the peninsula, in terms of the number of tourists per square kilometer, is completely different from the coast. For the historic ones, people in the hillside towns should be visited, for whom vacation is a time of unhurriedly exploring monuments and discovering romantic alleys. Such tourists will probably like Hum – the smallest city in the world, Groznjan, Motovun or Buzet, which advertises itself as the city of truffles.