We stayed at the Zagreb hotel for 3 nights in June. The staff were very helpful. We stayed full board and the food was very good. The position of the hotel was excellent about a 10 minute walk to the centre of Porec.

The room was quite spacious and comfortable with a lovely view of the pool and sea. We stayed with our 10 year old daughter who also loved the hotel and location. Lovely swimming pool and grounds.

Great hotel and staff. Incredibly large buffer with delicious food. Walking distance to town. Porec is a lovely place.

**Read this first if you are thinking of staying here! If you are thinking of staying at this hotel and you are booking the hotel independently (and not as part of a package) then email Valamar first. They will arrange a free private return taxi transfer for you if you are booking a stay of 3 nights or more - we had found cheap flights to Pula but the transfers came in at £200 which seemed ridiculous, so this saved a lot of hassle!**

This was our first visit to Croatia and owing to both the location and the hotel we will definitely be going back. The journey from Pula airport brings you in through a very commercialised part of Porec and your first impression of both Porec and the Hotel Zagreb will be that neither of them are very pretty. Do not let this first impression disappoint you!

The hotel itself is definitely not pretty from the outside, but it is in a fantastic location with lovely views (especially if you have a pool side room which means you look right out over the bay to the old town - see the pictures.) The reception area is light and pleasant, with the reception desk, a smaller reception desk for booking excursions through Gulliver Travel (which I believe are part of the TUI group,) seating areas, stairs to the restaurant and the lobby bar, which in turn leads out onto a veranda area by the pool.

We had a room on the fourth flour looking out onto the pool (and over the bay.) The rooms are small and basic, the upshot of this is that with two of you in the room you have to keep your stuff organised and tidy as there is little room to move about. This wasn't a problem for us as we weren't there to spend the day sitting in our room. Everything you could need is there however and there is plenty of useable storage space. We had a room with a french bed, which was very comfortable, and a nice departure from the usual European two single beds shoved together offering. The bathroom doesn't have a bath if this is a problem for you - just a shower, which was small but perfectly adequate (but as someone mentioned earlier, there is no shelf in the shower for your shampoo and things - a minor point, but a bit of an inconvenience which could be easily rectified.) There was always hot water any time of day. The rooms were cleaned everyday - you can choose how often you would like your towels and bedding changed (although I think we got new towels and bath mat every day without asking!)

The main drawback as far as the rooms are concerned is the lack of aircon. The temperature was around 30 degrees everyday so there was no denying that the room got very warm. There are shutters covering the entirity of the doors and windows though so you can pull these over and this does help slightly. We slept with the balcony door and windows open each night - which was fine, but meant you couldn't shut out the noise from the pool or bar areas. There was entertainment most nights until around half 11 / 12 o'clock which was not a problem, but, one night a large group staying in the hotel came back from a night out around 4am and decided to hang out by the pool instead of going to bed - they were very loud and nothing was done about this - not great when you were leaving at 7am the next morning on a day trip!

Food - the food at this hotel is excellent! We tend to go self catering and eat out on holiday but felt we got better value going half board here and we were definitely not disappointed! Even the fussiest of eaters would do just fine here. As someone mentioned before, its standard 3* fare, and not haute cuisine... but then thats what you've paid for! There was soup, a pasta and pizza selection each night, plenty of different fish to choose from, a selection of cooked meats, ie grilled pork, chicken or beef steaks, a local offering (always a meat dish, like beef stroganof or similar) which was always the tastiest, different potato and vegetable accompaniments (yes, chips were available every night for the non adventurous amongst you!) and every variety of salad dishes imaginable. There was a cooked pudding each night which was always really good, and everything from ice cream to trifle to mousse. Breakfast was also just as good, all of the usual cereal, toast and cooked breakfast offerings as well as a vast continental selection, but, the best reason to come to this hotel (especially I imagine if you have kids!) is that they make fresh pancakes and doughnuts all the way through the breakfast service! We never once had to wait for a table or for dishes to be restocked at either breakfast or dinner, and the restaurant and kitchen staff are fantastic, especially Marjia who was just lovely.

The pool is not huge and this may be a problem when the hotel is full. Most of the sunloungers and parasols are gone by mid morning (the perpetual chuck your towel onto a sun lounger before breakfast regardless of whether you are going to use it or not is unfortunately an issue here too.) Having said this, the beach is only a few hundred yards in front of the hotel, and although this is mostly either pebble or stone bathing areas, it goes on for miles and there are loads of areas with sun loungers, and despite a number of disappointed reviewers, it is a nice area to go sit by. There are designated areas for swimming in the sea (which is beautifully clear) and there are steps and walkways so you do not have to walk over rocks to get into the water. There are loads of activities to entertain young and old alike along the sea front (we took a jet ski out around the bay and highly recommend it!)

The location of the hotel is fantastic - it has the best of being near enough the beach whilst still being a pleasant walk into town. The walk even at a leisurely pace takes no more than 10 minutes, and then you can wander round the old town and its beautiful streets or around the marina, where you can sit and watch the sun set. There are plenty of bars and clubs in town for anyone looking for something a bit more lively. If you don't fancy the walk, there is a tourist train which runs from the beach front into the town.

We spent a lot of our time around the old town - a visit to the Euphrasian Basilica is totally worth it for the views out over the town, but we also went on two day trips. Will review each of these seperately, but in short we booked with Kompass for a day trip to Venice on the Prince of Venice catamaran. This was a great trip - Kompass gave us the best price (299 Kuna) but then they try to add on loads of extras once you get on the boat - don't feel you need to do any of these, there are alternatives once you arrive! We also booked a trip to Slovenia with Gulliver Travel which took in the Postojna Caves (fantastic, definitely worth going to see!) and the Lipca Lipizanner stud, which was also really good (but go on a Tuesday, Friday or Sunday when they do classical riding school performances.)

The only real concern I have over the Zagreb may be unfounded, but might be worth checking if it is an issue for you - to get to both the restaurant and to the lifts you have to go up a short flight of steps. Twice we saw people in wheelchairs having to go up or down these steps - I'm not sure if there was an alternative to this so might be worth enquiring about before hand.

In all, I'd absolutely reccommend the Zagreb Hotel and indeed the Valamar chain. I'd highly recommend Porec as a destination - I know I will definitely be back there!

first trip to porec, croatia. will go back again and stay in the zegreb, good friendly staff, good food, did not like their sausages but that just me, a short walk to town (about 3/4 mile max ), but road train passes just outside grounds of hotel. room was cleaned every day, no air con or fan. but when we there it was not to hot so no prob,