Where to stay in Croatia and Slovenia

In 2019, my sister and I took a tour of Croatia and Slovenia through Gate One Travel, (see Thoughts on choosing a tour group, airline or place to staypost).  While there were aspects of the tour I didn’t like, over all we saw some beautiful places and the Gate One Hotels were good.  

Grand Hotel Adriatic, Opatija

This looks to be a 70’s or 80’s era hotel, at least from the outside. The reception area is a 2-3 story atrium with a bar, several seating areas, and, oddly enough,  an aquarium.  The staff did make a restaurant reservation for us our second evening but I would  not describe them as the warmest staff I’ve ever met.  The buffet (both breakfast and dinner) was mediocre at best (with the exception of made to order omelets.) I don’t remember much about our room except that it seemed huge and modern after our tiny, cold and dreary room in Venice.

view from Grand Hotel Adriatick  The hotel sits fairly high above Opatija’s promenade and has a beautiful view of the Adriatic as you can see in the picture.

 

 

 

Briig Hotel, Split

This was probably my favorite hotel of the trip.  As you can see from the picture in the right hand corner of the gallery, the exterior is a very odd looking cube that doesn’t fit its setting but it was either brand new or recently renovated because the rooms were huge and modern; my only complaint being the fact that the shower door only went half way across the shower and when I turned on the water it blasted into the rest of the bathroom soaking my clothes.

There is a huge dining room/bar and I liked that there was fresh coffee in the morning plus a lovely terrace which we enjoyed that  night.  I would definitely go back.

Hotel Argosy, Dubrovnik

The Argosy probably had the most beautiful grounds of any of our hotels plus a lovely terrace and nice bar.  It also had a surprisingly good buffet, both for dinner and breakfast with an amazing variety of food, some of which was cooked fresh. Plus the wait staff brought fresh coffee and hot milk to your table at breakfast–unlike many hotels which just have coffee machines.

Our room was comfortable but in a really odd location.  It was in the last room on the lower level and we had to walk through multiple twisting and turning hallways.  My sister didn’t like the fact that there was an exterior door right next to our room, leading out to the grounds.  Again, I’d consider returning to this hotel, if I wanted to stay outside the city.

Amadria Park, Sibenik

This was our fourth hotel and I can’t remember anything about our room other than the hair dryer was bolted into a drawer and you had to be a circus performer to use it.  The dinner and breakfast buffets were mediocre at best and our wine was extremely odd.

The best part of the hotel was a lovely terrace outside the dining room.

Terrace of Hotel Amadria
outside Hotel Amadria Park Sibenik

We took our glasses of Freixenet out to the terrace and listened to an excellent band.  Here’s a video of the band.

Westin Zagreb

By the time we got to the Westin, the hotels were pretty much a blur. I do recall that the common areas were tired and needed updating. But our room was fine and I loved the breakfast buffet with fresh omelets. It was also on the tram line and a 15 minute walk along the botanical gardens to a nice restaurant. We sat outside briefly after dinner and were somewhat taken aback at what seemed to be some business travelers having a rather loud and off color conversation.

Kompas Hotel, Bled

Hotel Kompas

While our room was adequate, the common areas were run down and not very clean.  And the staff was less than pleasant and helpful, especially when I was trying to get through to our transfer service to Venice. Still we enjoyed the terrace (despite the damp and chilly weather) as well as our small balcony, taking lots of pictures from the latter.

 

 

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