Umag, Istria
At just 10km from the Slovenian border, Umag is at the beginning of our road trip through Istria.
The compact old town has attractive narrow, cobbled streets whilst its coastline is full of pretty little bays.
The town of Umag in Istria dates back to ancient times and the remnants of the medieval architecture can be seen in the city walls, Venetian villas and picturesque streets. The Old town is on a peninsula which was once an island. The oldest and best-preserved building is the west tower which now houses the cities museum. In the centre is a square with the church of the assumption of Mary which dates back to the 18th century.
As you approach the town you will see the roundabout decorated with huge tennis balls. This is because Umag is known for its tennis and has an international tennis stadium which hosts an ATP tournament each year. There is plenty of other sport going on. Sporting activities include football, golf, tennis, beach volleyball, diving, cycling and much more.
The accommodation in Umag consists of a selection of high quality, luxurious hotels on the resorts along with some small family hotels, apartments, bungalows, mobile homes and a few campsites. We stayed at the Laguna Stella Mars resort which we would highly recommend either for camping or the other accommodation.
There are several beautiful beaches located within the resort areas although, as with the whole of Croatia these are mainly concrete with rocks and pebbles. We found if you want to swim in the sea you need swimming shoes which are widely available in most of the seaside shops.
You can check out the events taking place in Umag while you are there on this link
We enjoyed cycling around the resorts looking at the different types of accommodation and what they had to offer before cycling into town. The resorts run a sightseeing tourist train into the town which is great fun.
From Umag, you can take a day trip by boat or bus to one of the other beautiful towns in Istria., for example, Novigrad, Porec, Vrsar, Rovinj, or Pula, Medulin. You can also visit the National Park Brijuni
Nightlife -Some of the most popular clubs are The Goldfish, Jimmy Woo, Garage, Gallery Bar and Disco-Planet
You will also find Umag’s Casino Elite on the promenade, located within the Hotel Melia Coral.
There are lots of opportunities to hire bikes and Umag has a Park & Ride bike rental system. Besides classic bikes, you can hire electric ones too.
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Further Info
Car Hire
There are so many amazing places to visit in Croatia that we sometimes hire a car.
We always find the cheapest and most reliable cars to hire while we are away with RentalCars.com here and we always take out a car hire excess insurance with insure4carhire
Getting to Umag
Umag is at the start of Istria and can be easily reached by car, bus, boat or plane. Buses to Umag are available from all major cities in Croatia. There is also a boat line from Venice to Umag.
Pula Airport, Istria – 54 min (82.5 km) via E751
Trieste Airport in Italy, – 1 h 13 min (89.5 km) via E70 There are direct buses to Umag from the main bus station. (Trieste might be a good alternative as you might find the flight connections are better and more frequent in the summer.
