Laguna Istra Hotel

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My wife & I have stayed at the Laguna istra twice,1st in June 03 & then Sept 04. We flew into Trieste & the bus transfer took about 90 mins. The journey went through part of Slovenia before entering Croatia.
We experienced some delays at the border crossings but as Slovenia is now a member of the EU I would expect that the delays on the Italy Slovenia border would no longer exist. Some operators use pula airport which is only about 1 hour from porec & in Croatia so no border problems.
The hotel & indeed the entire resort was spotlessly clean & our room was more than comfortable & well equipped. The towels etc were changed every day. All the staff were excellent & couldn't be friendlier. What we noticed was that all the staff that we remembered from 2003 were still there in 2004-not a bad sign for the hotel. The pool & poolside area were again, spotlessly clean & very well maintained with absolutely no sign of any damaged tiles etc. The pool was never overly busy & we never had any problems getting loungers. There was animation, aerobics & so on every morning in & around the pool & kids clubs everyday.
The buffet lunch was fabulous with a choice of salads,3 or 4 fish dishes & 3 or 4 meat dishes each day & everyday the selection changed. Out & about there were several bars/cafes & numerous clothes & souvenir stalls right next to the manmade beach which is only 200 mts from the hotel.
You could also use the bars in the neighbouring hotels none of which were more than 5 mins walk away & all of which had evening entertainment. The bars stayed open until between midnight & 1 o’clock, 500ml of good local beer costing 1.70 Euro. The beach itself was fairly lively with volleyball, football, water sports etc & again within 5 mins walk from the hotel were upwards of 20 tennis courts.
If you fancy excursions there were plenty on offer, eg llubiana, zagreb, trieste. We went to Venice by hydrofoil which took about 2hrs & 30 mins & cost 65 euros each. We also did an excursion to the postojna caves/lippanzer horses in Slovenia which cost about the same as Venice. The caves were amazing. The local bus service from porec was cheap & punctual & a good way to get around but language was a problem.
We did both pula & rovinj by local bus. Rovinj was an amazingly beautiful place.
If you don't fancy excursions then porec town is an ideal place to pass an afternoon or evening. It’s an old roman town absolutely full of old charm & character. It has a cathedral with marvellous roman mosaics & an old roman street called decumanus that was great for local arts & crafts.
All the bars/cafes did very reasonably priced snacks but beware the large size pizzas costing 5-6 euros-they were really tasty but about the size of a car wheel & 1 is more than enough for 2 people.
If you go to porec the easiest ways are by local bus (bus stop right outside hotel but frequency not great), noddy train about 300 mts from hotel or lastly but easily the best way, by waterbus that leaves every 30 mins from the pier about 300 mts from the hotel costing 2 euros per person each way.
For either a relaxing poolside holiday or an excursion filled break porec/ zelena laguna is the perfect place & the laguna istra is the perfect hotel. It's the only hotel that we have ever returned to for a second holiday & we certainly intend to go back to it again at the first opportunity.
PS There are several steps on entry inside & outside the hotel so this would be a difficulty for wheelchair users or anybody with mobility problems but I can honestly say that this is the only negative comment that I could make about this hotel.