Our annual holiday is in the Carribean in 5 star all inclusive hotels. So this year we decided to have shorter holiday, so with just a quick break needed we chose to go to Croatia (about 5 hours drive from our house). This is what we thought.

We have (2 adults , 2 children (13 & 2) just returned from the Belvedere in Vrsar, Croatia. We are English and live in Bavaria Germany. First thing to note was there were very few English in the resort (only saw 1 couple), mostly German. Good, quiet, respectful people. The hotel complex was immaculate. The rooms were first class (we stayed in an apartment for 4). The beaches were spotless and patrolled constantly by cleaners. The Blue Flag beach is perfect for all and the water is crystal clear. Gentle sloped beaches with water that was great for snorkelling and swimming out to the numerous very close by islands to walk around (take some beach shoes as the beaches are shingle). We had drove down to Vrsar expecting a nice relaxing 1 week holiday. It surpassed our expectations. The staff were friendly and helpful. The apartments were cleaned daily with towels also replaced. Our apartment looked directly onto the sea. The view was tremendous. The complex, beaches and the town (which is very pretty) were completely safe. No crowds of young people drunk / running around. Just people having a nice time enjoying the culture of the place.The harbour town (2 minutes from the complex) is really nice to walk around especially early in the morning if you fancy a trip into the old town. Very nice. Good choice of restraunts, two small supermarkets and plenty of fishermen working their boats. The food in the Belvedere was good. But we would recommend the bottom resteraunt for food not the full / half board one. It was superb and very reasonable. All in all we had a fantastic time. The children loved it and so did we. So much so we have booked to go again on 26 July 08. A perfect weeks holiday, in a beautiful country a short drive from were we live. Great place!

If you go, hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

We chose this hotel as our only holiday of the year. There was nothing really wrong with it but would only advise if you are looking for a hotel to accomodate children. Me and my boyfriend are in our mid 20s and can honestly say it was the most boring holiday I have ever been on. There is no night life, the 2 puubs in the village were only for the locals as there was no mixing whatsoever. There were also no other couples to speak to throughout our stay. The hotel is mainly a resort for Germans, Italians and Croatians. The breakfast was lovely but the dinner lacked any imagination whatsoever, overcooked vegetables, at a price way above any other restaurant in the area. I would not advise to eat in the hotel. The food in Vrsar is dodgy by any standards. Our first night we both got food poisoning from the one of the local restaurants and ate out at a different place every night as the food was just basic. However you can get 2 dinners and coffee for 20euros, taking into account that we ended up sick 3times between us during the 1 week.
The description of the hotel said that there were elevators to the beach, please note that if you are visiting this area, they are not sandy beaches and you will need to bring a spare pair of shoes to wear into the water.
The hotel advertised that they did hotel tranfers, THEY DONT. IT COSTS 50 EUROS EACH WAY TO THE AIRPORT IN PULA. PLEASE ADD THIS COST INTO YOUR CONSIDERATION.
Other than the above, the hotel is perfect for families with a kids club and plenty of children around. There are lovely ice cream bars (which you will end up living off of considering the quality of food) The pool is also lovely. However the town is just plain boring with nothing to do unless you have a car to get out of there.

We had an apartment for 6 with two bedrooms and a pretty large living room. The air-condition worked fine and the view was terrific. The town (Vrsar) was really nice and it had a lot of restaurants with good food to a low price.

Belvedere is beautiful as a resort, but we were so let down by the problems we ran into during our much needed and awaited holiday.
Problem 1: At first the escalator to our building did not work and was not fixed during our weeklong stay. With a 2 year old and a stroller it was hard to manage the steep hill leading to our building and then all the stairs up 3 floors. But OK, we didn't complain about that.
Problem 2 was when water started pouring from the ceiling in the kids' bedroom. The maintenance guy said something about "toilet water" so we decided to ask to move to another apartement.
Problem 3: After 2 days in the new apartement, we had a major flood of more toilet water in the bathroom. Water and brown stuff filled the entire room and did not smell very nice. The maintenance guy was called again, but we decided that was enough for us, and headed for the reception.
We were met by the manager on duty who did not speek English very well and only responded that they had no vacant apartements. We told him we wanted to leave and cancel our three remaining days, and demanded a deduction of the price as a compensation. He did not want to give us this, only smiled sarcasticly at us and said we could talk to the boss the morning after. The next day was my birthday and we did not want any more problems or surprises, and after a long discussion we were given 10 percent off. At that time we gave up arguing and accepted - and left.

The Belvedere is a quite new resort, nice and a good pool area. We had some problems with the AC which never went below 24 degrees, but other than that (and everything else...) it was ok. Our guess is that the plumbing system is not built to accommodate the number of people when the resort is full. Our building concisted only of large apartements and the toll on the plumbing (showers, dishwashing, toilet etc) was quite heavy. It is also a downside that there were no elevators for strollers and wheelchairs - and that the escalators worked on and off.

The biggest downside was however the treatment we were given from the staff. I can not seriously believe that their policy is to make the guests feel unwelcome and that they did nothing to make up for the difficulties we ran into. After all it is quite expensive and we should have been given a better service, not having to argue like we did.
We moved on to Hotel Diamant in Porec (4 star) and was given so much better service for less money. We will never return to Belvedere.