As a peninsula, you are never that far away from the Adriatic on Istria, and we stopped to explore three coastal towns during our visit.

Rovinj
One of the better known towns on the west coast, Rovinj is postcard-worthy with water on three sides. It was relatively quiet on a Sunday in early May, so we lucked out and were able to park in a seaside lot on the edge of town (2€/hr). Views from the promenade were great.

We walked around the perimeter enjoying the various shades of blue through alleyways and overlooks of the sea.

Next, we cut into the old town and made our way uphill through narrow lanes and past colorful buildings to the Church of St. Euphemia.

After lunch we continued to explore, walking around the marina and over to the ‘newer’ part of town.

While touristy, the town is still quite charming and seems to balance day-to-day life reasonably well. Rovnij would be a contender for a future longer stay where we worked remotely.

Novigrad
A charming smaller town, the center of Novigrad took less than an hour to walk around.

Street parking was quite easy on a sleepy Monday – we got the same parking spot when we returned for lunch two hours after our initial visit!

Porec
Sized in between Rovinj and Novigrad, Porec felt a little more planned, with several large hotels on one side of town. The restaurants here also looked a little more expensive than the Novigrad options.

We were there on an overcast Tuesday morning, and the local market was in session, with some tasty looking strawberries. We had about an hour to explore and would consider lunch here on a future visit.