We sometimes just drive the 1 hour 10 minutes from Lipizzaner Lodge down to the grand old Istrian seaside town of Opatija.. for a stroll and a coffee & croissant by the seaside "Croatian style"!

The big chunk of Croatia directly under Slovenia is called Istria and there are so many ways to get there from the Lodge that it just depends on what particular Green adventures you are gonna get up to as which direction you head!

Of course we feel extremely priveleged and lucky to live in the Greenest country in Europe, but we deliberately chose our position here between the mountains and the coast so guests could ALSO explore the best bits of Istrian Croatia AND north Italy and this adventure from the Lodge to one of the prettiest small cities by the sea in Croatia is a perfect example of that!

Not many countries have public beaches like this..

Many parts of Istria are closer to the Lodge than some of the places in Green Slovenia that are guests go for daytrips.. SO it is really close!!

And now with no border and everybody using Euros, it has never been easier to take a holiday from your Slovenian holiday and do a daytrip from the most beautiful country in Europe to the country with the most beautiful coast!!

The quickest way to Opatija is to go directly down from the Lodge via Postojna, Pivka, and cross the border after the unpronounceable Illirska Bistrica, but of course now Croatia is in Schengen, most days you can just drive across the border!

cute little beach to maybe have a snooze on in the shade..

On the way down there is a vast array of Secret Places to Visit you could choose to mix into your daytrip, or you could just spend the whole day by the Istrian seaside!

You will go right past not just ONE, but ALL the 17 Disappearing lakes of Pivka, several fab ruined and preserved castles, a fascinating Military museum with an exhibition hall explaining the 1991 Slovenian Independence War and even a secret hideaway where dozens of baby Lipizzaners go to spend their first years together..

big and small beaches right next to the Lungomare path..

You also skirt one of Green Slovenia's most beautiful, undiscovered and unknown mini regions, the Brkini, but most drivers will have their blinkers on, following the Satnav and trying to get down to Croatia as soon as possible, so they will miss out all of these extra Slovenian Green Goodies!

We won't scare you with all the possibilities of stuff to see if you take one of the other quieter routes over the border, but needless to say there is a lot to see and do between here and the Istrian coast.. maybe have a look at our Secret Places to Visit Treasure Map if you are interested!   

Not sure this beach will look so empty in the summer, but we prefer to enjoy Opatija off peak..

So no need to present your passport at the border any more, but have a few Euros ready for the Croatian motorway tolls, just one Euro for the couple of junctions down from the border to Opatija, direction Rijeka..

We have noticed the Croatian speed limits change randomly and without a lot of logic, so please be wary about keeping to the limits, especially if you have a foreign number plate..

It doesn't matter if the locals seem to ignore the signs and whizz past you on these wide open roads with very strangely low limits, cos what matters is your hollibubbles are not spoiled by a fine!

meeting the locals in the heart of Opatija..

Once off the motorway you drive down bendy, steep riviera roads that will remind you of the Cote d'azur in France.. lovely!

You could choose to stop in Opatija and spend the whole day there, so try to find a spot on the seafront, putting some coins in the meter, but there are also car parks. 

The old town centre of Opatija is colourful and full of tourist shops, cafes and grand hotels. There is a quaint old fish and fruit market building not far from a lovel hotel that has a chocolate fountain in the basement and we will visit later in this blog!

there was even some rare snow on the peaks of the hills above Rijeka..

the Lungomare Promenade..        

But for us, the highlight of coming down here is to walk along the beautiful coastline and we can all be grateful to the Austrian emperor who also fancied a stroll and so built a path from from Volosko to Lovran and called it the "Lungomare". 

Like Slovenia, Croatia was also part of the Austro Hungarian empire and Opatija became a popular seaside resort where in 1889 the emperor built this 12km coastal pathway, so you can do the most wonderful holiday hike and tick ALL the boxes for a hike, a swim, an ice cream, a coffee and a nice seafood dinner.. job done!

Opatija is right in the middle of this walk, so you have time to explore both directions during the day and will be impressed with the rugged beauty of this coastline.

View across to Opatija, plenty of big grand hotels, but actually not so large..

As we live here, we love to go down off season on empty motorways with plenty of sunshine and concentrate more on hiking & eating than swimming!

A hot tip from us would be to NOT park in Opatija, but find a spot a bit further down the Lungomare in one of the villages of Ika, Icici, but last time we chose Lovran, cos we wanted to eat there after our walk.. and this was a great choice!

Our trip was a week before Easter so there was actually some surprise snow on the mountains behind Rijeka (means "river" by the way), but the sun was warm and glistened off the crystal clear sea to make a pretty picture for our walk indeed!

Opatija is around this bend in the Lungomare and the port of Rijeka is ahead..

This is the Adriatic, so there are NO natural sand beaches here, but numerous little pebble or stone beaches and pretty concrete terraces built into the rocks ALL along the Lungomare with steps down to them along the very well maintained path.

There are a few larger beaches too at Ika and Icici, which is comically pronounced "itch itchy" in English! (Maybe the famous Croatian footballer Boris Ivanic comes from there.. Folks that was just a terrible joke)!!

Guests with kids will spot the lovely pebble beaches and playgrounds with stuff for kids here, but it might be worth weighing up beforehand that Opatija does have stuff for kids, but might be a more adult kinda place and so the kids might enjoy the more sleepy fishing villages of Ika, Icici and Lovran with more for the access to the water..

lots of little pebble beaches and little villages on the way..

All along this imperial promenade route, there are benches to enjoy the beautiful vistas from and it is easy to find cafes and bars along the way, so it really is a terrific way to spend the day.

You get a fantastic view across the sea to two islands, Krk and Cres, which Slovenians seem to traditionally pour to on holidays and this remains a wierd mystery to us, but is very welcoming indeed, as it it leaves so much more space on the stunning Slovenian coast for our guests!!

This is the view you get from all these little concrete beaches.. islands Krk and Cres..

On this particular walk we went earlyish morning from Lovran towards Opatija and had a bumble around Opatija, but you can walk past Opatija towards Volosko on this promenade, which we did a few years ago and found some more pretty little fishing villages!

Our pre Easter mission was to head straight to the Chocolate Factory in the basement of the Continental hotel, when we reached Opatija!

the hotel was fully tooled up for the Easter rush..

You could either walk though the centre of Opatija, which hugs the coast with big chunky colourful hotels and lots of shops and hustle & bustle or stick to the coastal path, then duck in when you get to the big park by the sea, but worth knowing that the hotel is at the other end of Opatija..

Opatija sure looks like something out of an Agatha Christie novel and the Continental Hotel is no exception with a huge grand circular foyer entrance that could be in a film, but head for the steps down to the basement for the choccy!

There is a double chocolate fountain and lots of different chocolate bars and styles to choose from and there is also a chocolate factory down there where you can see them making the stuff.. we were there at Easter so there was a gigantic Easter eggg and lots of choccy chicklets for sale!

in summer you can see the factory in full production..

We really love coming to Istria as it has a unique and different feel to the Slovenian and Italian coasts, which are basically the same geographically, but very different culturally..

So here in Croatia you will notice how the local people put so much effort into tourism and customer satisfaction, with signs in English where you need them and really great pastries too, but of course a lot of people..

So choose carefully when to come, even the day of the week or time of day can make a big difference to your experience, especially if you are coming in the peak season, where swimming or floating in the warm salty sea will be high on the agenda!

picture this scene along the Lungomare..

Maybe you will head a different way back to the Lodge and see another part of Istria in Croatia OR Slovenia on the way home, but this time we found a lovely local restaurant in Lovran and looked out to the sea as we completed our dayout in Istria in style!

You might not have realised your Green holiday in Slovenia could also include a day out in Venice, Trieste, Pula or here in Opatija along the Lungomare, but why on earth not!