Istria is small enough to see from one base, and that is how it should be done. Moving hotels twice in a week costs you two days and gains you nothing — everything worth seeing is within ninety minutes of everywhere else.
The principle
Three days out, three days at the beach, one day doing nothing. Alternate them rather than grouping them: two sightseeing days in a row in thirty-degree heat and the group starts to fray.
Plan the days out for the beginning and middle of the week. By day six most people want to stop moving, and an itinerary that saves the big excursion for Friday tends not to survive contact with reality.
Day one — arrive and do nothing
Whether you flew or drove, the first day is for finding the supermarket, the nearest beach and a restaurant. Resist the urge to start the holiday properly; the week is long enough.
Day two — the sea
Find your beach. Try the nearest one in the morning and a second one in the late afternoon, and decide which of them is the one you will come back to. This sounds trivial and it sets up the whole week.
Day three — Pula
Amphitheatre early, before the heat and the coach parties. Then the forum, the temple and the arch, all within a fifteen-minute walk. Lunch in the old town, then either the market or a swim at one of the city beaches in the late afternoon.
A full day, but a relaxed one, and mostly on foot.
Day four — beach and nothing
Back to the beach you chose on day two. This is the day that makes the rest of the week work.
Day five — the interior
Motovun and one other hill town, timed for the late afternoon. Leave after lunch, arrive when the stone has stopped radiating, walk the walls, eat there and drive back in the dark.
If it is autumn, make this the truffle day and go earlier.
Where to stay
Apartment Gordana
Where to stay
Villa Karla
Day six — Brijuni or Kamenjak
Two very different options. Brijuni is the boat, the Roman villa and the strange safari park — a proper day out and the best choice if you have children over six or anyone interested in history.
Kamenjak is the opposite: drive to the southern tip, park, and spend the day moving between coves. No facilities, no schedule, the best swimming in Istria.
Day seven — the second beach day you were saving
Or the market, or the wine road, or nothing at all. By this point you know which you want, and a plan made on day one would have been wrong anyway.
What to leave out
Rovinj and Poreč are on the other coast and both are beautiful. From the east side, each is a day, and adding both to this week is how you end up spending your holiday in a car. Pick one, or leave them for next time — which is, in practice, what most people who come back have done.
