Why do so few crews who charter in Istria head north? Instead, they usually head south to the Croatian islands in a long caravan. But a cruise in the sea area between Croatia, Slovenia and Italy is one of the most varied things crews can discover in the Adriatic. Firstly, there is the fantastic metropolis of Trieste. The old border town is the cultural centre of the region, historically a heavyweight, and the beautiful old town has been experiencing a steady boom for years.
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Then there are such wonderful small-town gems as Piran or Izola in Slovenia. Old fortress walls, winding alleyways and historic town centres whose beauty you can't get enough of. In the north towards Italy, you can sail right past the foot of old castles such as Castello Miramare, which can even be visited. The Adriatic Sea, which becomes increasingly shallow in the north, offers a great contrast with the lagoons, such as that of Grado.
Cultural, gastronomic or historical cruise
The old fishing village on a branch canal is a quaint destination. At high tide, you can take a short detour into the wondrous world of the shallow lagoon, where tiny islands with small fishermen's houses are scattered around the fairway. The tour of the Adriatic is an ideal cultural, gastronomic or historical cruise. There are so many exciting things to discover. However, crews looking for a relaxed bathing trip with a stroll around the bays won't really get their money's worth here. Although it is possible to anchor at some spots off the coast for a swim in the area, which is often light windy in summer and autumn, these are generally not suitable for overnight stays. Those who sail here often have to live with thermal winds that build up during the day. The Bora from the north-east, which can also occur in summer, brings a stormy change from time to time. However, it is well forecast and can usually be easily recognised by a dense cloud cap over the mountains.
The northern Adriatic is not for mileage hounds. It's never really more than ten miles to the next interesting stop. Only those who sail the 45 miles or so to Venice or Croatia after the detour into the lagoon can or must sail 20 or 30 miles at a time. You won't have much more than 100 miles on your log after the trip. But now to the tips for the tour. If you want to start right in the heart of the sailing area, charter a yacht in Slovenia. Portoroz or the nearby Izolawhere some of the region's few charter fleets are based. Our tips describe the cruise through the northern Adriatic in an anti-clockwise direction, but there is nothing to stop you travelling in a different direction.
Most beautiful city harbours on the Adriatic: Piran
One of the most beautiful town harbours on the Adriatic lies at the foot of the hill, surrounded by the mighty fortress wall: Piran. From here, sailors can explore the winding alleyways. Since Croatia finally joined the Schengen area two years ago, there is no longer the hassle of clearing in and out when crossing the border to Slovenia or Italy on a yacht from there.
The best place for crews to moor in Piran is on mooring lines at the western pier; the harbour master usually helps with mooring. The picturesque town stretches up the hill, the slopes are covered in greenery, a great setting for a mooring sip in the cockpit. You are not a stone's throw away from the marvellous Tartini Plaza with cafés and bars, which forms the heart of Piran. The crew should definitely tackle a climb up the mountain directly behind it, to the old fortress wall Obzidije. Situated at the top of a ridge, it offers a fantastic view over the old town that should not be missed (admission 3 euros, open from 8 am to 8 pm).
If the climb was hot and sweaty, you can then join the bathing day visitors on the long pier to the west of the harbour. This is also where the restaurant mile with a view of the water begins, which ends just before the small defence tower at the tip of the peninsula. Piran's front row. There are less crowded alternatives in the old town. Our tip: The Fritolin Cantini. A quaint family restaurant where you order and collect fish dishes at a serving window. Only drinks are served at the tables in front on the very pretty 1st of May square. Down-to-earth, cheap and good.
Trieste gets a facelift
If you set sail from Piran in the morning, you can make a nice anchor stop for a swim along the coast between Piran and Izola in front of the pretty cliffs, especially if the thermals are still weak in the morning. Depending on how the breeze develops, you can sail on to Trieste or, alternatively, to the harbour just a stone's throw away. Izola maybe even just for lunch.
A cruise between Croatia, Slovenia and Italy is one of the most varied things crews can discover in the Adriatic.
The pretty little harbour town is a nice destination with cosy bars, cafés and restaurants around the harbour and the promenade with a small beach. You can either moor close to the town in the municipal harbour or a little further west in the large, fully serviced Izola Marina. To the west is a large outdoor swimming pool with beach and bar. The town does not have the same charm as Piran, but is still worth a stop. It is only around eleven nautical miles from Piran towards the eastern end of the northern Adriatic.
If you approach TriesteFrom a distance, the silhouette is dominated by the loading cranes, docks and chimneys of the huge transhipment harbour, leaving you in doubt as to what to expect. But just before you reach the best guest harbour, the Marina di Sani Giustothey disappear behind the headland. A marinero briefly announces his arrival by radio (VHF channel 77), guides waiting yachts and their crews to the berth and takes the lines.
Trieste is getting more and more polished. Austrian-style coffee houses characterise the spacious squares.
Trieste has long been much more than Italy's busiest seaport, even ahead of Genoa. Everywhere, the protected historic buildings are being extensively renovated, and the city with its magnificent streets and buildings is being spruced up more and more. Austrian-style coffee houses characterise the spacious squares, lavish rows of tables in front of them. Evidence of the centuries in which their monarchs held the sceptre in their hands.
Italian food on every corner
Trieste's ideal strategic location once gave it a free harbour privilege from the Habsburgs, laying the foundations for the rapidly growing trading city and its subsequent prosperity. You should plan two days to explore all the cafés, restaurants, shops and the interesting Revoltella Art Museumwhich is located in a beautiful old palazzo belonging to the family of the same name. The Italian food shopping paradise Eatalyright next to the marina, where crews can stock up on local specialities, is a must.
Another visual highlight is the evening view of the Grand Canalwhich leads deep into the city and offers views of the Piazza Sant'Antonio including a magnificent church. What is pleasant about Trieste is that it is not as overrun with tourists and overpriced as Venice, which is not far away. If you want to learn all about the history of Trieste, you can climb the Castello di San Giustowhich houses the town museum, which presents the eventful history of the town.
Our Tip: A special experience is a cookery course with a regional chef in her private kitchen at home, which you can book via the Italian website cesarine.com (129 euros/person).
Rita Mazzoli teaches you how to make original Italian pasta and Trieste-style tiramisu in her beautiful flat with terrazzo floors and a huge kitchen in a chic Italian design. Afterwards, you'll sit down to a cosy four-course dinner with the chef. The cheerful, likeable ex-Roman knows a lot about the country and its people over a glass of wine and is a perfect guide to Italian cookery and lifestyle. Originally trained as a restaurateur, she is now also a cookery book author and knows better than anyone how to explain how "relaxed" pasta dough needs to be before it can be further processed.
A tip for regatta fans: every year on the second weekend in October, the largest regatta in the world takes place here, the Barcolana. Around 2,000 boats often start off Trieste for the day's regatta. Every sailor is probably familiar with the photos of the starting crowds at the line. But the sailing festival actually lasts a week, and the race on Sunday is just the finale. There are night races in the harbour in front of the old town under the spotlights, races for kids and lots and lots of entertainment on land. The city is bursting at the seams, just like the marinas because of the many participants. It is impossible to get a place without a reservation. If you want to see the event on land in the city, you should therefore look for a berth in nearby Slovenia and then drive over by hire car or taxi.
Landmark Castello di Miramare
After Trieste, it's time to sail northwards. After just one hour, another cultural highlight on a headland beckons, which you should definitely at least see from the water: the Castello di Miramare. The snow-white castle on a rocky cliff is simply too magical a spot to sail right past. Built between 1856 and 1860 for Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, it is a beautiful landmark that you can easily get close to except for a buoy barrier. If you like, you can also go into the small club marina just behind the headland, but it's not easy to find a place, you have to try to make arrangements with the locals from the local club.
The castle's extensive park is well worth a visit thanks to the fantastic view of the castle and the sea, and admission is free. A tour of the stately building costs twelve euros. No wonder the monarch wanted to reside here, given the view. But he never lived to see it. He died far from home in 1867 while attempting to become Emperor of Mexico. After a brief visit to the Castello di Miramare, you can sail along the coast just five miles further north. Here, crews will come across hundreds of buoys lying in the water, which in turn are marked with yellow buoys, impressively demonstrating that the shallow northern Adriatic is an excellent mussel farming area.
Contrasts on the Adriatic
They stretch for miles along the coast. So why sail along there? Because there is a truly extraordinary harbour to discover. The holiday development designed on the drawing board Portopiccolo was built into an enormously steep, amphitheatre-like slope. As you approach it, you might wonder what you are supposed to do here as a sailor. But that changes once you are in the harbour.
At the bottom, like a small lagoon, there is an integrated marina that offers very sheltered moorings in a unique setting. After registering via radio (VHF channel 74), there is a berth that feels like Abraham's bosom. Yachties can also use the holiday complex, including a new spa and a chic beach club with pool. There are good restaurants, a bakery, a small shop and cafés in the resort. If Portopiccolo is too touristy for you, you can switch to more unspoilt northern Italy: the lagoon fishing village is around 16 nautical miles to the south-west Grado. There it slowly but surely becomes shallower and shallower, the echo sounder sinks permanently below the ten metre mark, the water becomes cloudy due to the suspended matter that is stirred up by the river mouths in the delta.
Then we enter the fairway that leads into the village, which lies at the end of a narrow channel. To the left and right, one fishing boat lies alongside the next. In the morning, the crews sort their catch on deck, mend the nets or chat over a coffee with a cigarette in the corner of their mouths. Guests are usually moored alongside. The simple town harbour is right in the middle of the action, but offers no infrastructure.
Grado as a starting point for excursions
Alternatively, before entering the city harbour, it goes into the Marina San Vitoa small but modern complex next to a hotel complex that offers all services and quiet spots. Grado is a simple but cosy Italian town with no major sights, just a long beach and many very good fish restaurants. A nice place for sunset with a view of the lagoon is the very good Restaurant of the Lega Navale sailing club a little to the west at the entrance to the city canal. As the club restaurant is very popular, you should book as early as possible (Tel.: +39 375 561 23 44).
Grado is also the ideal starting point for a short detour where you can experience a piece of historical lagoon heritage: The casoni. These are old, thatched fishermen's houses situated on tiny islands. They are used as a base for longer fishing trips. However, the trip is only suitable for yachts with a shallow draught, preferably less than 1.6 metres, and skippers who fancy a little tidal interlude. The delta tends to silt up, so you definitely have to stay in the buoyed main channels and set off two or three hours before high tide, then it will still run aground if you get stuck. It's only a mile or two to the quaint little islands with their thatched-roof cottages, after which you can turn round. If you feel like more sailing after many days of short distances, it's best to take a long trip south down the Croatian coast.
In the morning, the fishermen sort their catch, mend the nets or chat over a coffee with a fag in the corner of their mouths.
To Croatia
With a bit of luck, a nice clear course with the Maestrale behind you. One of the most beautiful destinations there is without question Porečwhose historic old town is definitely worth a visit. It is about 28 miles from there. There are two mooring options: either the marina at the head of the bay or the town pier, where you can tie up with mooring lines. Or you can go to one of the buoy fields.
In Poreč, you have the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the "gold of Istria": the truffle. The region around Motovunabout 40 kilometres inland, is one of the most famous truffle regions in Europe. In the old town centre, there is a store run by truffle merchant Karlić, who sells all kinds of products refined with the tuber (tip: wild boar salami!).
There is a small truffle museum on the Karlić estate and you can go truffle hunting with a truffle hunter and his dogs in the hills around Motovun. Still misunderstood by farmers in the 19th century as a "stinking potato", the precious mushroom developed into a sought-after delicacy towards the end of the century. Today, thousands of truffle hunters search for the precious tuber here. A three-course truffle menu is served afterwards. The tour costs 125 euros per person, but is only possible by booking, preferably a few days in advance (www.karlictartufi.hr).
Area information: northern Adriatic Sea
Charter
In the Slovenian Portoroz there is a partner base of the Austrian fleet operator Pitter Yachting. A fleet of Elan yachts is available on site. Information and booking: pitter-yachting.com. In Izola where Adriaservice Yachting operates a base. Alternatively, you can start in Croatia, but most of the large bases are located further south than Poreč.
Wind & Weather
The northern Adriatic tends to be a weak wind region, especially in summer, and the wind often blows Maestralea thermal wind from a north-westerly direction. It builds up slowly over the course of the day, reaching three to four Beaufort in the afternoon and often dies down towards the evening. A lot of wind is brought by the Boraa cold downslope wind from the mountains, from the north-east and the Jugo or Scirrocco from the south. Then it can also blow with six to seven or even more. However, the forecasts give reliable warnings. In late summer and autumn, some heavy thunderstorms due to approaching cold fronts.
Harbours & anchorages
Good, dense marina network with floating pontoons or mooring lines. In Italy in particular, it is customary to register by radio before entering the harbour and the berth will be allocated. The prices for a
36-foot boat are around 70-80 euros in the low season and around 100 in the high season. Anchorages are rare, there are hardly any islands or deep bays, and anchoring is usually free off the coast with little wind for short swimming stops. This only gradually changes south of Poreč in Croatia.
Navigation & Seamanship
Towards the north, the tides begin to have a stronger effect in the shallower water - one metre is about the average. Strong southerly winds lead to higher water levels there, longer bora to lower ones. Then the channels of the lagoons can also have currents of one to three knots. There is a large traffic separation area on the west-east approach to Trieste, but it is not exceptionally busy. However, you should keep an eye on the correct crossing.
Literature
- H. Breidenbach: The lagoons from Venice to GradoEdition Maritim, 19.90 euros.
- B. Müller/J. Strassburger: Coastal Handbook Croatia and SloveniaEdition Maritim, 39.90 euros.
