Hotel Kristal Reviews

Opatija is a resort that has rather lost its way! It used to attract a somewhat high class clientelle, but seems to have gone down market in recent years, however, it has too many middle europeans to make it attractive to the beer-swilling-clubbing-brits! There is a really good 'buzz' as people walk around in the early evening, but nowhere to really chill-out and relax during the day. There are no beaches in the way that beaches are understood in brit-land, only concrete platforms, generally with steps into the water.

We took the local bus a couple of times to the far end of the promenade - to Lovran - which is a much more pleasant village, and walked back both times to Opatija (taking the best part of a day over the walk - too many bars!) through Ika and Icici, both pleasant enough - but neither with beaches, only platforms.
The range of tours on offer is limited, but the two we took were good value (Istria tour and Plitvice lakes). Boat tours were not offered by our rep, but could be booked locally.

Prices are generally lower than UK - but as we have found on previous visits to Croatia - it is not a cheap country.
The Hotel Kristal is a perfectly adequate hotel, nothing special at all, but clean, and friendly. Get a sea front room, even if you have to pay the supplement, the alternative is to overlook the main road, and there's a lot of traffic (one way street, slow moving) with buses from 5am, and we did hear complaints of early morning delivery lorries. The sea view rooms get noise from the hotel / casino disco, but this shuts down at midnight *exacltly* and the double glazing is very effective (air-con as standard). The food is OK, but we took the opportunity to find some local grub (£26 for a three course meal for 2 with wine was typical).

There are a lot of Germans, Austrians, Italians and (of course) Croats holidaying in Opatija, English visitors were a minority, but English is almost universally spoken. Kuna is the only currency generally accepted (no Euros - suprising for such an internatioanl resort)

I love Croatia, but having been to Opatija, I don't feel the need to go back.