Croatia with Kids: A Hotel So Good We Barely Left, Truffle Hunting, and the Last Stop of Our Istrian Europe Trip

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Croatia was the last leg of our three-country loop — Venice, then Slovenia, then Croatia, all close enough to drive between that we never lost a day to airports. We crossed over from Slovenia after our stop at Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle, and settled into Marea Suites, Valamar Collection for the rest of the trip.

We’d originally planned a night in Rovinj with dinner at Al Dente Riviera and a transparent kayak tour along the coast, but between everyone being done with driving and how much we ended up loving Poreč itself, we scrapped it. No regrets.

Where We Stayed

The hotel deserves its own post.

It felt like a five-star, adults-would-love-this hotel that also happened to cater to kids better than any place we’ve ever stayed. At check-in, each kid got a shirt and flip-flops in their size. When we left, they each got to pick out a stuffed animal.

In between: water aerobics, kids’ dance time, a movie night overlooking the water with free popcorn and apple juice, live music most evenings, a game room where you could rent video games (we played Mario Kart as a family on the one rainy day), a climbing wall, a giant Lite-Brite board in the lobby, and “bubbly time” during the day with free snacks and drinks. Every room had a pull-out changing table. We had a suite with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a patio that walked straight out to the pool.

The Buffet

Breakfast and dinner included, and genuinely great.

Fresh fish cooked in front of you, a station for organic baby food, a separate toddler station with unseasoned food, a kids’ station with fish sticks and age-appropriate options, and full bread, pasta and dessert stations — everything made fresh. If you have ever tried to feed a picky kid and an adult who wants a real dinner at the same table, you understand why this mattered so much.

Pools, Beach & the Wibit

We spent an entire day on a floating water course.

Outside there are multiple pools with slides, a huge Wibit floating water course right behind the hotel, and direct beach access with clear water and soft sand. A zipline course and mini golf are both nearby. It was also noticeably, refreshingly full of actual Europeans — we barely heard American English the whole stay.

Poreč Old Town

Classic Europe, fifteen minutes on foot.

The old town is walking distance from the hotel — about fifteen minutes, or a short train ride — and it felt like classic Europe: cobblestone streets, great restaurants, incredible gelato. We ate dinner one night at Pijat, which was excellent.

Ask the Kids

It’s not going to be a castle or a hike.

If you ask my kids what the best part of Croatia was, the answer is the hotel itself: the Wibit, the Adriatic, the saltwater pools, the slides, the buffet, and the nightly entertainment. That is worth knowing before you build a week around day trips.

Truffle Hunting

Karlić Truffles was one of the best outings of the entire trip.

You head into the forest with a guide and at least one truffle dog. The dog sniffs one out, starts digging, and you all go chasing after it — genuinely fun for kids and adults.

Afterward we did a tasting, sampling different truffle products and getting a real feel for why people get so obsessed with them — including a truffle omelette they made for us on the spot.

What We’d Skip

The cooking class and Motovun — both interesting, both a day we’d want back.

We did a cooking class in Pula, about an hour away, set on an olive orchard. It started with a trip to the local market with our guide to pick out ingredients, which was genuinely a highlight — we got to meet the farmers. We also paired an earlier day trip to Motovun, one of Istria’s classic hilltop towns, with an olive oil tasting at Ipša.

Both were interesting. But if we did this trip again, we’d skip both. Between the market and the class, the cooking day ran five to six hours — longer than we wanted to give up. And Motovun plus the olive oil tasting just weren’t worth the day away from the hotel and the beach.

Sometimes the best itinerary move is admitting you don’t need to go somewhere else.

Lim Fjord

We rented a boat and snorkeled in Lim Fjord.

Toward the end of the trip we rented a boat for the day through Tuna Tails Boat Rental and took it out to snorkel in Lim Fjord. The boat itself was older than we’d hoped and we ended up cutting the day a little short — worth asking what you’re actually getting before you book. The snorkeling was worth going for.

Flying Home

We drove back to Venice to fly out.

Venice had a direct flight back to New York, while flying out of Croatia would have meant a layover. It’s worth factoring in when you’re planning a multi-country loop like this one: sometimes the smartest flight logistics mean ending your trip in a different country than the one you’re actually leaving from.