Croatia Trip May/Jun 2026 - Part 3 Hilltop villages inland and Poreč on the coast, Istria

We drove into the interior of the Istrian peninsular to visit a couple of hilltop medieval villages. The interior of Istria was very green - I noticed lots of what looked like hay meadows full of absolutely perfect grass, not a weed/flower in sight. That would make top quality hay. Not like what you see in my part of France, which is usually 50% weeds (/wildflowers depending on how you look at it). However we barely saw any livestock. It was a bit strange!

The first village was called Grožnjan. The population has fallen from between 3-4,000 people living here in the decades of 1910-1940s to its current about 656, which includes some other nearby settlements as well as Grožnjan itself. However nowadays it is known as the 'Town of Artists' and is visited by tourists and people visiting the art galleries and attending the annual jazz festival, all of which have brought life back to a declining village.

When we arrived we discovered some market stalls with antiques and bric a brac which I love mooching about in. I chose a Murano glass bead bracelet as a birthday present from K, as my birthday fell during our holiday.

This cute house below is for rent as a holiday home.

Lots of cute alleyways and totally unspoilt.

The next village was called Motovun but it wasn't as scenic as Grožnjan. We had to walk a long way up a steep hill and after a while we just gave up and called it a day! It was too hot for walking uphill any longer and the main bit of the village was right at the top of the hill!

I think it was the next day when K took this picture of a Hooded Crow. Those who live with these crows would think of them the same way we do about the all black crow that we have in our part of Europe, so that explains the photo and the interest - because they are very different to what we are used to! (I should mention that some of these photos are K's mixed in with mine. I often just took pics with my phone when I was using my alpine stick as it was easier.)

The following day we went further down the coast to Poreč. Originally we had planned to visit Rovinj, but I couldn't find anywhere that we could park a moho so we compromised and visited another smaller seaside town where parking was a lot easier. This is what I see as the only real downside to motorhoming.

Upon arrival we came across an antique market - something we were very lucky with in Croatia was the amount of markets we stumbled upon - I absolutely love looking around them - whether it's old things or modern clothes or fruit and veg and honey, I don't mind what, I find it all fascinating.

There was a lot of building work going on in the harbour area around where the market was, so I haven't included any photos of that. I'm not sure what this tower is below but it looks like it has a garden, or at least a terrace, on the top.

A lovely facade with Venetian windows.

The main street was full of little shops - a mix of tourist stuff, clothing boutiques and lots of jewellers. Jewellery seems to be popular here and there’s a lot made with red coral from the Adriatic. I didn’t see so much of the blue coral though (I bought some blue coral bracelets from a market stall later on).

A lovely green square. It’s funny looking back on that after nearly three months of drought and heat, as everything is so brown and sad. But our seasons are like that and we will soon be moaning about the rain and the cold!

More Venetian windows.

There was an island just across the bay full of 4 and 5 star accomodation.

I think this is a part of the old town walls.

Looking towards the marina in the distance, which is where the market was.

So that was what we saw during our brief time in Istria, but there was so much more to see elsewhere and it was time to move on...