We stayed for a week at Laguna Bellevue, booked a 1 bedroom apartment with half board at the Hotel Mediteran (for 2 adults). The apartment was located on the 2nd floor, well equipped and surprisingly had two balconies, both with partial views to the laguna. Definately better choice than staying in a ground floor studio!

Because the apartments are located on a hill, walking up and down the long stairs several times a day is mandatory. The reception, bistros, pools, beach, mini-markets and also the waterbus & mini-train stops are all located either on the top or the bottom of the hill. Also, the Hotel Mediteran, where the buffet breakfast & dinner (70-90€/week/person incl. drinks) is served, is on the opposite side of the hill.

We learned that this week was the last of the season in Bellevue, which made the place very peaceful and quiet indeed. The downfall of that is that at the end of the season some services like waterbus and restaurants may suddenly close with no prior warning.

Just returned today from this massive resort, these apartments are 4star and part of a whole range of hotels and accomodation in and around the southern edges of Porec.-consisting of a series of rocky coves and headlands, lots of pine and oak trees everywhere. They are all run by the same company, but our experience has shown that they seem to strive to be separate - not a hint of lateral thinking from the parent company here!
We are a family of five, kids are teenagers, and the best bit was the great snorkelling and sea swimming. We had a day in Porec, a faded quaint sort of place with a lot of little shops trying to get your attention. Nice boats moored. Shoes were good choice and reasonable, however looking at shoes and clothes for 3 seconds and they'll be onto you in no time, "What size please?" You must see the rivalry of two ice cream vendors chucking balls of ice cream up and down in the air, unfortunately they are opposite each other!
Booking was difficult as prev. mentioned, when the confirmation email arrived they wanted a bank draft of 100EURo into their bank in Rijeka, to cost me £35 with my bank! No Thanks! But put this in an email to the head office who accepted the booking without deposit. If you go with an tour operator this won't be a problem of course. They will accept visa as final departure payment, but couldn't accept over the phone beforehand or any other way, which in this day and age is very surprising. The whole area seems very popular with Germans, Italians, their dogs, and to a lesser extent English, Dutch, Hungarian. Staff have just enough English to help you, they are better at German.
The apartment, like most of the others is at the top of a hill. Ours was meant for 6, 2 x twin, ( one ensuite) and using the sofa. We were lucky to have a very spacoius double balcony with very solid wooden furniture, and air con. The beds are very comfortable and the linen, bedding, towels etc white and pristine. They left a small tray of cakes as a welcome gift, and two bottles of water in the fridge. You are given a kitchen with coffee maker and microwave, 4 ring hob, 2 clean tea towels and ample ( very clean ) crockery, cutlery, tools and pans -minus side was minimal preparation space, in fact worktop space was exactly a tray size.Therefore take the tray outside and use it elsewhere if you plan to feed the family. If you like ground coffe bring your own blend,as the Croatian coffee is foul, or drink "Illy" out. We took the half-board option at the Hotel Mediteran, so I did little cooking. Clean towels arrived every day with a roll of loo paper!
Each hotel, village complex has it's own small shop, and sports kiosk. We brought our own tennis and table tennis equipment, and a basketball. Courts are clay, and tennis tables are concrete and outdoors. They will charge you to use them unlike in Slovenia, we found activities were included.They are tennis crazy it seems as there are many courts, mostly in Zelena Laguna ( 16!) two of us did the tennis coaching which cost 350 Kuna (£35, 250 for the coach, 50 for the court, 50 for the raquets and balls which were better than ours! Now when the kids wanted an hour on a court , or concrete table tennis...it cost 50 Kuna (£5) YOu'd think they'd not charge for a spot of basketball on a concrete court with your own ball, but it's show us your cash. again. We would have liked to use these facilities and charge to our room. Beauty and hairdresser, cash only, shop cash only. There is one cash machine in Plava Laguna, and two at Zelena Laguna where we were NOT staying. Ther "tourist train" as it is known, does the rounds of all the hotels and heads off into Porec center as it's circuit. One day we ran out of money, as is easy to do,and the cash machine had died for the whole day. No one knew when it would come to life again. So had to walk it to Zelena ( 1 hour round trip) as the train is £5 for all of us, for one stop, one way . (Children -50% under 10yrs) Round trip to Porec from Zelena Laguna for 5 adults is £20 or 200 Kuna. Please note Visa is NOT widely accepted in this part of the world, neither can do conveniently charge a round of drinks taken in the hotel to your bill, or even use the very nice pizza restaurant opposite reception, and charge a lunch to your bill. So again bring in the cash!
A note about the environment: In these apts. lots of steep steps to keep you fit, no sandy beaches, but the Croatians have "tamed" the shoreline with crazy paving, the concrete platforms are fine for getting in but bring swim shoes especially if you have children, it's all sharp pebbles and the odd sharp boulder. The water is wonderful though, and great when you are in, clear clean etc. You will need more than a towel to get horizontal and comfortable, sunbeds are £2/day which is ok, everyone seems to have bought padded mats at the shop for £5 - £7.50, (and you could see them bringing them home as hand luggage at the airport! added bulk or leave them behind) There is the odd crab, but we saw a cuttle fish posing as a rock ( they sting) and my husband brought it way out from the beach. There are ample playgrounds and sand pits for the young and they are free! A bonus to see are the red and red/black squirrels, scampering lizards, jays, if you like wildlife and birds, you will enjoy Plava Laguna. However, I was met last night by a thin black snake at the front door of our apartment, which I didn't appreciate and don't know if it would have bitten or was dangerous, it was over 2ft and it curled up zig-zag style when I approached. Would it have jumped at me? Dunno, but I soon made a noise much to the amusement of the family, and it slithered off.
As I said we did half board at the Mediteran and will write a different review for this as eating there is quite an experience!

Apartment was spacious, clean with a good sized kitchenette, terrace and bathroom.

Clay tennis 2 minutes walk away at £5/hour, swimming pool large and clean but got busy from 9am onwards.

We enjoyed the 20 minute walk along the coast to Porec every evening for dinner, and found a fabulous cocktail bar (Colonia) conveniently situated half way between the town and the apartments.

Porec is rather overun with German and Italian tourists, and we avoided the direct centre for eating out. I strongly recommend the Sofora (sea front), the restaurant in the 6th C tower, Ulixes and Paradiso (both just off the central square)

The basilica (and museum attached) in Porec is beautiful. Also recommend the aquarium and a glass bottomed boat trip.

We used buses (reliable about 80% of the time!) to travel to Pazin, Rovinj and Pula. Baredine caves also definitley should not be missed. Trip to Venice and Brijuni also highly recommended.

Have a wonderful time!

Just returned from an absolutely brilliant holiday and as my title suggests there IS something for everyne from the sporty and lively to the relaxing and lazing types. Everywhere is spotlessly clean and everyone is so friendly regardless of nationality. Restuarents applenty with wide and varied menus, basically something for everyone. Lots of interesting places to tour arround Istra and so much to see. Would definatley recomend a holiday here especially for families with early to mid teenage family. We found the local prices to be very similar to the UK but the service levels far exceed home. Special mention must go to bistro antonio for the superb meals and service throughout our holiday. Could go on and on but it might look like i am an employee of plava laguna. Please try as you will not be disapointed.