Croatia

This hotel is my children’s favourite place to go on holiday. We have been twice in 2023 and 2024 and they regularly ask to go back. I don’t think we will go back a third time as I am too keen to explore other places but if they had their way they would spend every summer in Croatia.

The journey

We flew from Gatwick to Pula with Easyjet. Once at Pula we took a taxi to Hotel Amarin which is only a 45 minute drive. It’s an easy journey and the drive is smooth – Croatia is a very well kept country with good roads.

Where we stayed

Family Hotel Amarin is designed for families to stay there, you would not visit as an adult only group. From the moment you step into the hotel it is designed to entertain the children which makes for a really relaxing holiday and I cannot recommend the hotel enough if you have young children. 

The hotel lobby has a net play area which keeps them entertained as you check in. Everywhere is buggy friendly with sloped floors to get up and down. There are four outdoor pools - a baby pool, a kids pool, lazy river and big pool – as well as indoor pools with spa facilities. There is a gymnastics room, a cinema room, evening entertainment and specialist sports clubs for kids (the list goes on!). The food is great and there are two restaurants included with full board, the main buffet restaurants which opens for three meals a day, and a beach side a la carte restaurant which opens for lunch. We ate at the beach every day as it’s nice to have a change from the main buffet. 

The beach is a pebble beach so bring water shoes. It is the best water is have swum in and because it is pebbles the water is super clear and you can see the bottom even when fully submerged. There are playgrounds everywhere and if you walk along the beach there are also some activities such as mini golf and an inflatable course in the sea.

The best thing about the hotel however is the kids club. It is open all day until 8pm closing just one hour for lunch. And the kids can use the club at any time for as long as you want without prebooking. You just turn up for as long or short a time as you want. They take babies from birth up to 12 years old. So parents can get a really good break and have some time to themselves to relax. They play games, do arts and crafts and have loads of toys. It a very safe environment and our children really enjoyed going there. 

How we spent our time

We spent a week at the Hotel Amarin on both occasions. There is so much to do in the hotel complex that we spent almost all our time there. The kids tended to go to the kids club after breakfast until lunchtime, and then in the afternoons we spent time together at the pool and the beach using all the hotel facilities. 

On one afternoon my husband took our son out on a kayak to a nearby island for an explore, we also took him on the sea inflatables which our daughter was too young for. The only time we left the area on both holidays was to visit Rovinj. Rovinj is a beautiful historic town across the water from the hotel. There is a water taxi which goes back and forth all day from the pier on the next door beach and it is a really nice short boat trip to get there. Rovinj is a great place for shopping, there is also a pretty church and some great restaurants.