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Route · 14 days · round-tripYacht charter route · Istria

Punat via 14 Days.

Two weeks round-trip from Punat through Kvarner and Istria: Rab, Pag, Susak, Lošinj, Pula and Opatija, with real anchorages and konoba picks.

The route

Day-by-day route

Click any pin on the map or any day in the route summary below to see that day's stop, story and photos.

Lopar
Day 1

Punat → Lopar (Rab)

A gentle 18-mile shakedown south from Punat to Rab's Lopar peninsula, where the Adriatic hands you a rare stretch of real sand.

Distance

12 NM

Sailing

~2.4h at 5 kn

At a glance

Route at a glance

Best season

June – mid-September (peak Jul – Aug)

Duration

14 days

Departure

Punat

Sailing area

Istria

Route summary

Click any day to jump back to the map and see its photos, narrative and mooring tip.

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The full story

Day-by-day journey

Named anchorages, mooring notes and things to do for every leg of the week — the map follows along as you scroll.

Day 1 / 14
Lopar
1
Day 1

Punat → Lopar (Rab)

The first day is deliberately short, which is how a first day should be. You clear Marina Punat, turn south down the Krk coast, and by early afternoon the Lopar headland opens up ahead. This corner of Rab is unusual for the north Adriatic: proper sand, not pebble. Rajska plaža runs about a kilometre and a half and shelves so gently that kids can wade out fifty metres. West of it, the quieter Sahara coves draw the clothing-optional crowd. Ashore, the bakeries sell Rapska torta, a coiled almond cake the island has made for centuries. We usually anchor off San Marino bay and take the tender in. If the crew wants a proper town evening, Rab itself, with its four bell towers, is a short hop further.

Things to do

Wade out along Rajska plaža sand

Swim the quieter Sahara coves

Rapska torta from a Lopar bakery

Evening walk under Rab's four campaniles

Mooring tip

Anchor off San Marino (Crnika) bay on sand in 4–6 m, well held and shielded from the northeast. Skip the Lopar pier; it works for the ferries, and for a proper town berth you carry on to Rab.

Novalja
2
Day 2

Lopar → Novalja (Pag)

Pag looks like nowhere else on the coast. The bora scours its northeast flank bare, leaving pale rock and low sage where you expect pine. Sheep graze on salt-dusted herbs, and that is the whole secret of Paški sir, the hard, piquant cheese the Gligora dairy up in Kolan will happily let you taste through a dozen ages. Novalja fills up fast in July. Zrće beach, a short taxi north of the harbour, runs on a different clock; clubs like Papaya and Aquarius only warm up after midnight. If that is not your crew, the Lun peninsula at the island's tip hides a grove of wild olives, some of them over a thousand years old, and stays blissfully quiet. Provision here while you can; the supermarket near the quay is well stocked.

Things to do

Taste aged Paški sir at Gligora dairy

Night out at Papaya or Aquarius

Walk the ancient Lun olive grove

Provision at the Novalja quay market

Mooring tip

Novalja has a town quay plus a small marina, and both fill in summer, so call a day or two ahead. For a calm night, anchor in one of the coves just south of the entrance.

Susak
3
Day 3

Novalja → Susak

Leave early. Twenty-five miles is a full sailing day if the maestral fills in late, and you want to be anchored before it pipes up in the afternoon. Susak stands alone off the western edge of the Lošinj group, piled up from wind-carried loess instead of the limestone every other island here is cut from, which is why its paths run soft and yellow underfoot and its hills roll instead of jut. The permanent population would fill a small café. On feast days the older women still turn out in the short, vivid skirts the island is known for, and šokol, the local cured meat, lands on most tables. There is no glamour here, and that is the point. Swim off the shallow Bok bay beach, walk up to the lighthouse, and watch a sunset with almost no one else around.

Things to do

Swim the shallow Bok bay shelf

Walk the soft loess footpaths

Try šokol with the islanders

Sunset from the Susak lighthouse

Mooring tip

The village harbour holds only a handful of boats, so most crews anchor in Bok bay on sand in 4–6 m. It shelters you from the jugo but stays open to the bora and the afternoon maestral, so watch the forecast.

Mali Lošinj
4
Day 4

Susak → Mali Lošinj

After Susak's stillness, Mali Lošinj feels like a city. The deep bay funnels you past pastel captains' houses to one of the north Adriatic's busiest waterfronts. Give the morning to the Apoxyomenos museum in the old Kvarner Palace: one room, one exhibit, a life-size bronze of an athlete scraping oil from his skin, hauled from the seabed in 1999 and worth every minute. Lošinj sells itself as the island of vitality, a claim the pine-scented air at Čikat has backed up since Habsburg doctors began sending patients here in the 1890s. Walk the aromatic trail there in the late afternoon. Back on the riva, the fish restaurants know their trade; ask what came in that morning rather than reading the menu. Refuel and top up water while you have a proper marina.

Things to do

See the Apoxyomenos bronze up close

Walk the Čikat pine-scented trail

Dinner from the day's catch on the riva

Top up water and fuel in town

Mooring tip

ACI Marina Mali Lošinj and Marina Čikat both take charter boats, so book in high season. Note that anchoring in Čikat bay itself is not permitted; plan on a berth.

Unije
5
Day 5

Mali Lošinj → Unije

Unije is the sort of place that talks people into extending charters. No cars, one village of white houses above a small port, and a shoreline of olive terraces running down to the water. Most crews come for Maracol bay on the west side, where the sand is genuine and rare enough this far north to feel like a small event. The single road across the island doubles as a walking track through fig and rosemary. Time it right and you can eat brudet, the slow fisherman's stew, at one of the family konobas near the harbour while the light goes copper over the channel. Cover the leg in the morning; by lunch you can be swimming. It is a short day on purpose, and nobody complains.

Things to do

Swim the golden sand at Maracol

Walk the island's single cross-path

Brudet stew at a harbour konoba

Sunset over the Unije channel

Mooring tip

The little port takes a few boats first-come and can be full by evening. Anchoring in Maracol bay on sand in 4–6 m is the safer bet, well protected except from the west.

Pula
6
Day 6

Unije → Pula

This is the second long hop, and it changes the character of the trip. You leave the islands behind and close on the Istrian mainland, with Pula's skyline announced from miles out by the pale ring of its arena. The amphitheatre is one of the best-preserved anywhere, still standing to its full height and still in use, film festival in July, concerts through the summer. Walk up from the harbour through the old town and you pass the Arch of the Sergii and the little Temple of Augustus almost in passing. Swim off the Verudela peninsula in the afternoon; the coves there are easy to reach by tender. Istrian cooking leans on truffle and the local Malvazija white, and plenty of inland konobas will run a taxi down to the marina for you.

Things to do

Tour the Roman arena in Pula

Find the Arch of the Sergii

Swim the Verudela peninsula coves

Truffle pasta with a Malvazija white

Mooring tip

Marina Veruda and Marina Pula are both full-service and the sensible overnight, so reserve in July and August. The city quay is for short daytime stops only.

Medulin
7
Day 7

Pula → Medulin

Medulin is a short reach around the southern tip of Istria, and the draw is the land more than the town. Cape Kamenjak, the reserve that ends the peninsula, is a tangle of low scrub, dirt tracks and small emerald coves like Kolombarica, with actual dinosaur footprints set in the rock near the shore. Rent bikes or just walk; the swimming is the reward. The evening belongs to Konoba Batelina over in Banjole, run by the Skoko fishing family and cooked by David Skoko from whatever the boat landed that day. It opens at five, takes cash only, closes on Sundays, and books out days ahead in season, so ring first. Order the offcuts and odd fish the menu barely names; that is where the kitchen shows off.

Things to do

Hike Cape Kamenjak's coastal tracks

Find the dinosaur footprints in rock

Swim the emerald Kolombarica cove

Book dinner at Konoba Batelina

Mooring tip

Berth at Medulin's marina or nearby Marina Veruda; for a quiet night, anchor in Bijeca bay on sand in 3–5 m. Reserve Batelina before you arrive, not after.

Rabac
8
Day 8

Medulin → Rabac

Round the cape at Kamenjak and the coast turns green and steep. Rabac sits in a sheltered bay at the foot of Labin, its little harbour tucked behind a long natural breakwater that keeps the northerlies out. The village itself is holiday-bright, with a curving seafront path and pebble coves like Girandella good for an afternoon swim. What makes the anchorage memorable is the backdrop: Učka rises almost straight up behind, the tallest thing on this stretch of the Istrian coast. Spend an hour walking up to Labin, the old town on the hill above, all steep lanes and a view back down to your boat. Come evening, the seafront bars pour Istrian Malvazija, and the water in the bay usually flattens to glass once the day breeze drops.

Things to do

Swim the pebbles at Girandella cove

Climb to medieval Labin old town

Walk the curving Rabac seafront path

Malvazija on the harbour at dusk

Mooring tip

Rabac's small marina is the overnight option; the town quay is short-stay only. The bay is well shielded from north and east, but book a berth in peak weeks as space is tight.

Opatija
9
Day 9

Rabac → Opatija

Opatija was where Vienna came to take the sea air in the 1800s, and it still wears that inheritance: ornate villas, manicured parks, a promenade built for slow evening walks in good clothes. The Lungomare runs twelve kilometres along the water from the fishing quay at Volosko, through Opatija and Ičići, down to Lovran, and an hour of it before dinner is time well spent. Villa Angiolina and its botanical garden sit right above the front. The kitchens here take Istrian cooking a notch smarter than the island konobas; fuzi pasta with truffle is the thing to order on a terrace over the water. The marina at Ičići is a short walk or taxi from the centre, so it is easy to leave the boat and make a proper night of it ashore.

Things to do

Walk the Lungomare toward Lovran

Stroll Villa Angiolina's botanical garden

Fuzi with truffle on a seafront terrace

Evening drinks along the Opatija front

Mooring tip

ACI Marina Opatija sits in Ičići, a few minutes south of the centre and open year-round. It is the standard berth here; the Opatija town front is not set up for overnight charter stays.

Rijeka
10
Day 10

Opatija → Rijeka

Rijeka is a change of gear, and a welcome one after a week of small harbours. This is a real city, a container port with cranes and cargo ships, and a cultural streak it earned as European Capital of Culture in 2020. Climb to Trsat castle on the ridge above the river for the long view down over the rooftops and the water. Back at sea level, the Korzo is the pedestrian spine where the whole town seems to drink coffee at once. Head to the covered fish market near the centre for Kvarner scampi, the sweet local prawns that show up in half the kitchens along this coast. Rijeka rewards curiosity more than a checklist; give it an afternoon of wandering the side streets and reading the Austrian, Italian and Yugoslav layers in the facades.

Things to do

Climb to Trsat castle above the river

Coffee on the Korzo pedestrian street

Kvarner scampi at the covered fish market

Wander the layered old-town facades

Mooring tip

Central charter berthing in Rijeka is limited and sits inside a busy commercial port, so confirm space before you commit. Many crews instead run back to ACI Marina Opatija at Ičići for a calmer, protected night.

Crikvenica
11
Day 11

Rijeka → Crikvenica

Crikvenica has a gentle, unhurried feel after the port bustle of Rijeka. The Vinodol valley opens behind it, a strip of vineyards and citrus worked since the middle ages; the 1288 Vinodol charter signed nearby is one of the oldest legal texts written in Croatian. Off the Kaštel headland, the submerged Roman settlement of Ad Turres still shows on the seabed in a few metres of clear water, an easy snorkel if the day is calm. The town beaches shelve slowly and suit a lazy afternoon. Ashore, order škampi na buzaru, prawns simmered in white wine, garlic and tomato, with bread to mop the pan. It is the kind of stop that lowers everyone's pulse before the more exposed run down to Senj tomorrow.

Things to do

Snorkel the sunken Ad Turres ruins

Visit a Vinodol valley winery

Škampi na buzaru at a harbour konoba

Slow afternoon on the town beach

Mooring tip

Crikvenica's marina is small, so book ahead in summer. In settled, light air you can lie at anchor off the town, but move inside or push on if any jugo is forecast.

Senj
12
Day 12

Crikvenica → Senj

Read the forecast carefully before this one. Senj sits at the mouth of the Velebit channel, the single most bura-prone stretch of the whole Adriatic, where cold air pours off the mountains and can go from calm to fifty knots in an hour. On a settled day the run down is fine and the town is worth it. Nehaj fortress, a square stone keep built in 1558, stands on the hill above the harbour; from its walls the Uskok raiders once watched for Ottoman and Venetian ships. Inside is a small museum that tells their story well. The old lanes below are made for slow wandering, and the konobas serve maneštra, a thick bean-and-vegetable stew that suits a cool evening under the Velebit wall. Keep the boat ready to move if the wind shifts.

Things to do

Tour the Nehaj fortress museum

Wander Senj's medieval stone lanes

Maneštra bean stew at a konoba

Read the bura forecast twice

Mooring tip

Senj's harbour quay is really only for short daytime stops and offers little protection once the bura fills in. For a secure night, plan a marina at Stinica or back at Crikvenica, and never sit here through a bura warning.

Baska
13
Day 13

Senj → Baška (Krk)

Crossing back toward Krk, the scenery softens again. Baška sits in a wide bay on the island's southern shore, closed in by bare hills that catch the evening light. Its beach, Vela plaža, runs close to two kilometres of fine pebble and is one of the longest on the Adriatic, so even a busy day rarely feels crowded. Behind the town, marked trails climb onto the stony Moon plateau, where medieval hermits left Glagolitic inscriptions carved into the rock. The Baška tablet, one of the earliest records of the Croatian language, was found in the little church of St Lucy at nearby Jurandvor; a copy stands where the original once did. Eat lamb here, ideally slow-cooked under the peka, and pair it with Žlahtina, the crisp white from Vrbnik across the island.

Things to do

Walk the long Vela plaža pebbles

Hike the Glagolitic Moon plateau trail

See the Baška tablet copy at Jurandvor

Lamb under the peka with Žlahtina

Mooring tip

Baška has a small marina and a town quay, so reserve in peak weeks. Anchoring off the beach works only in light air, since the bay lies open to the south and southeast and gets rolly fast.

Rab
14
Day 14

Baška → Punat

Two weeks aboard end where they started, but there is no need to rush the last morning. Most crews swing past Rab for a final sandy swim near Lopar and a walk under the town's four bell towers before the run home. From there it is a straightforward passage back toward Krk. Punat lies inside one of the largest natural harbours on the Adriatic, a near-enclosed bay with the wooded islet of Košljun and its Franciscan monastery sitting in the middle of it. Marina Punat, the base you left on day one, is among the oldest and biggest in the country, working since 1964, with its own boatyard and fuel quay. Fit in a last toast of Žlahtina from Vrbnik before the handover, then leave the cleaning to tomorrow.

Things to do

Final sandy swim off Rab's Lopar

Walk under Rab's four bell towers

Pass the Košljun islet monastery

Žlahtina toast before the Punat handover

Mooring tip

Marina Punat is full-service with its own boatyard and fuel dock. Request your fuel slot about a day ahead and confirm the return berth before your final approach, since the marina is large and busy.

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