The Hotel Donat 1 (because there is a much more modern Donat 2, formerly called Puntamika, serving groups from Hungary and Slovakia) is frozen in time. I got a very small, single room, 133, at the first floor, and even if I do not mind Spartan accommodation (I was born in the 60s, I am used to bad hotels), there are a few drawbacks I have to list here:

1. No such thing as customer service. The only plus point was a fine young lady who spoke excellent Italian (my native language) at the reception desk. She looked and sounded quite martial, but that's ok, she listened and solved a problem I had with the water heating in my room.

2. No air conditioning except in the room, and totally inadequate in my room.

3. Old pillows, old linens, old blankets, old television set, no batteries in the remote.

4. The beach behind the hotel...well, I think it takes a flight of fantasy to call a concrete floor at the end of a dried lawn a beach. I have to reckon that Zadar is mainly piers, stoney beaches and concrete slabs though.

5. The only part of the room that was cleaned every day was the bathroom. Fortunately, because the bathroom was small and very Tito-style.

6. This does not apply to this specific hotel alone, but generally to all tourist hotels nowadays, but I have the feeling that solo travelers like me are considered second-class tourist, but we pay more for a room, generally, since most of the time we have to be in a double-bed room adapted for one. Not in this case, however, the room only had one bed with a spring box that made my army bunk bed seem a luxury in comparison. At the end of the trip my back ached a lot.

7. About the substantial breakfast at Donat 2, well, it is undoubtedly a lot of food, too bad that they had croissants the first day only and I could never find a coffee spoon.

In conclusion, if you are into masochism and want to taste a flavor of pure former Yugoslav discomfort, stay at the Donat 1, and book several months in advance as I did. For only EUR 68.19 a day for 5 days, you will be sure to never forget this experience and never come back.

Ah, I forgot, when I said goodbye, no one said goodbye in return.

Apart from that, Zadar is lovely, the food in restaurants is excellent and I was visiting my best friend, which is the only thing that really mattered to me.

Reasonably priced hotel for the area. It's a bit of the beaten track but the bus services are good and you can get there from the bus/ train station in about 20 mins. The location on the seafront is quite beautiful but as others have noted it's a rocky beach. The hotel itself us part of the 'borik' or 'fulmination' chain dotted around this holiday park. The Donat is certainly the poor cousin, it's drab a dated, the rooms are grubby and the Mosquitos are a bit of a nuisance. Dinner, breakfast and Bar to 10 pm were included in my rate. The dinner wasn't bad, for a one night stopover, but the breakfast was pretty inedible. All in all I'd rate this place average enough, more backpacker than sun vacation. It was better than some places in Laos or Cambodia if that's the Market they're after. Ps. Reviews below (June/July '11) were very helpful and pretty close to the mark.

I booked a hotel for 2wks. June 18-July2, 2011. Problems started the moment I stepped into that place. At the receiption I was told no rooms were ready yet and just to leave my luggage beside receiption desk and was assured that it was OK and safe and everybody does it and was sent across the road to Donat 2 where restaurant is to have lunch. Upon return (less then 1 hr.) all the luggage was gone including mine. Approached the same man and told him that my luggage was gone-his reply was what did I do with it? left it where you told me. At that moment it wasn,t his problem and it had nothing to do with him and I was totally ignored. There was another man standing beside him that only stared at me and left. I searched all around the lounge area but no luck and asked to speak to the receiption manager and requested that police be called. It turned out man staring at me without a word was manager and he was hesitant to call police I guess it would give them bad reputation and never mind that I was travelling there from Canada and that everything was gone including my toothbrush. I was lucky because my luggage ended up at the marina several kilometres south of Zadar and was brought back thank god and only comment said by receiption staff was lady got a bit upset . The receiption staff did not give a DAMN nor showed any concern. Few other people were complaining about the same man and his attitude but others weren't much better if anybody had a question they were annoyed to be disturbed. They SURE need improvement with their customer relations. And by the way there was never as much as sorry this happened - NO APPOLOGY AT ALL.

If you arrive at the Donat expecting five star luxuries in the lap of historic Zadar, expect to be disappointed. On the other hand if you want a decent bed for the night albeit a bit off the beaten trail, above par facilities and enough food to sink a battleship at breakfast and dinner, make a beeline for the Donat. The room was hardly large enough to swing a cat and the shower facilities had seen better days though proved perfectly adequate whilst the bed was comfy enough to ensure perfect rest and large enough to accommodate the larger frame. Location right on the shore, with an adequate beach was probably more aimed at the family crowd looking to spent most days swimming and sunbathing as the historic sights of Zadar itself are a good 30-40 minutes hike away though a bus stops quite close. What sells this hotel to me and ensures I'll be basing myself there on further visits is the magnificent spread at meals with a range of quality foodstuffs to rival the 5* Hiltons of this world and all the drinks you can drink. Oh and it is perfectly placed to luxuriate in Zadar's world-renowned sunsets with being swamped by crowds of tourists.