Istria in five days
A Roman amphitheatre, hill towns, truffles and a cave, in the quietest corner of the country.
Istria is the peninsula most people drive past on the way south, and it is the part of Croatia that feels least like a holiday coast: Italian is still spoken, the interior is hill towns and oak forest rather than islands, and the food is the reason half the visitors come. Five days does it comfortably as a loop from Pula, and it works in shoulder season when the Dalmatian ferries have thinned out and the coast down south is closing for the winter.
The route, day by day
- Day 1 The Pula Arena
One of the six largest surviving Roman amphitheatres, and still used for concerts.
- Day 1 Cape Kamenjak
The wild southern tip - low limestone, clear water, no development, an unpaved road in.
- Day 2 Rovinj
The prettiest town on the coast, and it knows it. Stay overnight; the day crowd leaves.
- Day 3 Euphrasian Basilica, PoreÄŤ
Sixth-century mosaics, gold ground, almost nobody in the room.
- Day 3 Baredine Cave
A short guided descent, and a genuinely cool place to be at midday in September.
- Day 4 Motovun and the Istrian Hill Towns
The interior. A walled town on a hill above a truffle forest, with three more within half an hour.
- Day 4 Istrian Truffles
In season from autumn. Ask what is fresh and what is preserved before you order.
- Day 5 The Istrian Wine Roads
Malvazija and Teran, sold at the door of small producers, on the way back to Pula.
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Getting around
A car - the hill towns have no useful bus service and the whole peninsula is under two hours end to end. Parking in Rovinj and Motovun is outside the walls and paid.
When to go
May, June, September and October. Truffle season runs from roughly September to January for the white, and the autumn is also when the interior is at its best. July and August fill the coast with Austrian and Italian families.
Honest expectations
The coast here is developed and the campsites are enormous - this is a long-established holiday region, not a discovery. Rovinj is expensive. The interior roads are narrow and slow. White truffle is priced by the gram and a lot of what is sold as truffle product is flavoured oil, so ask.
This is a suggested order, not a booking. Every stop links to its own page with access, season, entry and what is genuinely annoying about it. Check opening days and ferry timetables yourself before you commit - they change, and this page does not.