Rijeka & the Kvarner Gulf: The North Coast Most Visitors Skip

Why we keep coming back to Kvarner

Most visitors fly into Split or Dubrovnik and never see this stretch of coast at all, which has always struck us as a shame — Kvarner is where the Adriatic starts, geographically and in a lot of ways culturally too. Rijeka itself is Croatia’s third-largest city and a real working port, not a town that exists for tourism, and that’s exactly what makes it worth a stop. You get the Adriatic scenery without the version of it that’s been smoothed down for cruise-ship crowds.

It’s also just a genuinely practical base. From Rijeka you’re within an hour or two of Istria, the Kvarner islands, and inland Croatia, which gives a trip here more variety than staying put in a single Dalmatian town further south.

Staying at the Hilton Rijeka Costabella Beach Resort & Spa

We based ourselves at the Hilton Rijeka Costabella Beach Resort & Spa, a resort property on the coast just outside the city center. Properties in this category typically give you direct or near-direct sea access, an outdoor pool deck, a spa, and a breakfast spread substantial enough to set you up for a full day of sightseeing without needing lunch until mid-afternoon. Expect the resort to lean into the coastal setting — terraces facing the water, a relaxed pace, and enough on-site amenities that you could spend a full rest day without leaving the grounds.

The trade-off with a resort just outside town is that you’ll want a car or will rely on taxis/rideshare to get into old Rijeka itself, since it’s not the kind of walk-everywhere setup you’d get from a hotel in the historic core. That’s a reasonable trade for the quieter, more spread-out resort grounds.

Good to know: if you’re a Hilton Honors member, resort properties like this one are exactly where points redemptions tend to shine, since cash rates for a full-service coastal resort run higher than a standard city hotel. Check both the points price and the cash rate before booking.

Getting there

Rijeka has its own airport (on the island of Krk, connected to the mainland by bridge), with a modest but workable schedule of European connections, particularly in summer. If your flights don’t line up well with Rijeka Airport, flying into Zagreb and driving is a solid backup — it’s roughly a two-hour drive down through the mountains to the coast, and the drive itself is scenic enough to be worth the rental car.

What to do while you’re there

Rijeka old town rewards a few hours of unhurried walking. The Habsburg-era architecture, the Korzo (the main pedestrian promenade), and the old city tower are all within easy reach of each other, and the waterfront gives you a good sense of the port-city character that separates Rijeka from the more polished tourist towns further south.

Opatija is a fifteen-to-twenty-minute drive (or a scenic bus ride) along the coast and worth a half-day on its own. It was the Austro-Hungarian empire’s answer to the French Riviera in the late 1800s, and the seaside promenade and belle époque villas still show it.

Krk and Cres, the two large islands anchoring the Kvarner Gulf, are both reachable by bridge or short ferry and make good full-day excursions if you want beach time and island villages without a multi-day commitment.

Plitvice Lakes National Park is the longer haul — roughly two hours inland — but if you have a rental car and a free day, the terraced lakes and waterfalls are worth it. Go early to beat both the crowds and the midday heat.

Best time to visit

June through September gives the most reliable weather and the fullest range of open restaurants and boat excursions, with July and August the busiest and warmest. Late May or September trades a few degrees of water temperature for noticeably thinner crowds and better hotel availability.

[Editor’s note: this is the spot to add what Rijeka and Kvarner actually mean to you both personally — family connections, childhood memories, what’s changed since you last saw it. Swap in your own photos from this trip too.]