As the mercury drops with the onset of autumn, Karen Yates enjoys sea, sports, spa and sunsets on the Adriatic coast…
I’m in the heated swimming pool of the five-star, adults-only Hotel & Spa Iadera, part of the Falkensteiner Resort on Croatia’s Punta Skala peninsula. I have the pool to myself and swim to the (also heated) outside area of the pool, which is bathed in bright sunshine. At the end I turn around and look back at the hotel with a view of the majestic Velebit mountains to my left and right. At sunset that same view of the Adriatic and the mountains turns an intense red; the sunset from nearby Zadar was described by Alfred Hitchcock as the most beautiful in the world.
In the 6,000sq m Acquapura Spa and wellness area where the pool is situated you can also have a massage – I detangled earlier with a blissful relaxing back and neck massage – and there is a sauna, a Turkish hammam and you can even experience an aufguss ritual, which takes place two or three times a day in the Earth Sauna. Here the room is heated up to 90C and an aufguss master wafts towels and pours water infused with essential oils on coals to increase the heat further. You stay there for about 15 minutes while listening to music and then plunge into cold water or the sea and feel energised afterwards.
My early morning 45-minute vinyasa flow class with teacher Mladen is in the large yoga studio at Fortis club, a five-minute walk from Iadera. Mladen guides us through a hip-opening sequence of asanas as we focus on our breathing and take in a different view of the Velebit mountains. My friends opted for the simultaneous personal training class in the 800sq m gym. The Fortis club also has a large area that can be used for conferences, a gaming zone, and the Strike Bar for, um, disco bowling. It’s actually a thing. A DJ plays disco music (he takes requests) while players throw bowls at skittles in a bowling alley. Somehow, incredibly, I won, which just shows that anyone can do it.
The reason to tell you about all these activities is that while you can happily spend the day sunbathing and splashing around in the Adriatic – just a couple of minutes’ walk from the hotel to a private beach – there is much more to enjoy at the resort. Other facilities here include seven clay tennis courts, padel, basketball, football, handball, beach volleyball, badminton and horse riding. Back at the hotel there are also art classes – our teacher Alma patiently guided us through an acrylic painting. Turns out I’m better at disco bowling than painting and Alma kindly rescued my canvas.
Many of these sports and classes are included in the room rate; a timetable of daily activities including yoga, Pilates, circuits, toning, HIIT, sauna and the aufguss ritual is available at reception.
As for everyone’s other favourite activities – eating and drinking – the options here are also plenteous. We began every evening with cocktails at the elegant Sotto Voce bar on the ground floor. The margaritas and espresso Martinis were particularly popular with our party, and we sipped them in the private booths or outside watching the glorious red sunsets.
Evening meals can be eaten in Jadran restaurant, next to Sotto Voce bar. You can start with the extensive buffet that includes salads, smoked salmon, soups and so on or order both starter and main course à la carte. Breakfast also takes place at Jadran. At the door you’re offered an appetising juice shot with turmeric and inside you can help yourself to everything from freshly cooked eggs, mushrooms and vegetables to croissants, pain au chocolate, cereals, smoked salmon, cheeses and salads.
Other options for dining at the hotel include spa restaurant Spice. I started with salmon sashimi then tucked into a deliciously fresh seabass salad. Lovers of sashimi and sushi can also order sushi made at Spice to be delivered to your room – we tucked into generous amounts of some of the freshest sushi I’ve ever tasted in the well-appointed and stylish luxury villas, which can sleep seven and have their own private pools.
For more casual dining there’s Planika steak restaurant. We tried the goulash soup, burrata with tomatoes and steak and potatoes – it’s fair to say that along with fresh seafood Croatians love their meat.
Bracera restaurant is a short walk from the hotel and offers spectacular sea views. It’s known for its seafood and holds two Falstaff forks. The seafood salads are superb, as is the seafood risotto and the fresh seabass. All these dishes work well with wines from the local boutique Degarra winery.
Should you wish to leave all the activities and restaurants at the hotel in search of good food and local wine elsewhere, I’d recommend the nearby Kraljevski Vinogradi winery and restaurant. Here we sampled unique Croatian grape varieties pošip, plavac mali and crljenak with local cheeses and prosciutto followed by a huge meat platter with grilled vegetables.
Another excursion is to Zadar, Croatia’s oldest city, dating back to 9BC and colonised by the Romans in 1BC. The city is 15km from the hotel and we arrived by speedboat, available to hire from the hotel with one or two days’ notice. It’s a fascinating city – evidence of development through the centuries can be seen in the Old Town, with remains of Croatia’s largest Roman forum and churches from the middles ages as well as fortifications added during Venetian rule.
But the most moving element of the city is the mesmeric public art installations Sea Organ and the adjacent solar-powered Greetings to the Sun by Nikola Bašić on the western embankment. Sea Organ sounds like whale song and is created by 35 pipes fitted into the pavement – the otherworldly sounds are powered by the waves and it really does feel and sound like the sea is singing to you. When we visited people were simply hanging around listening to Sea Organ’s haunting melodies and waiting for the sunset Hitchcock considered so beautiful.
All this sightseeing made us hungry, so we headed to recently opened Labrax fish restaurant and wine bar. We sat outside while chef Saša Began created excellent seafood dishes for us to enjoy with wine made with the local pošip grape from the aforementioned Kraljevski Vinogradi winery before catching a cab back to the hotel.
As well as speedboats, e-bikes can be hired from Iadera, and we rode ours into nearby Nin, stopping on the way to walk around Solana Nin, where salt has been produced for generations. Nin itself, just five minutes from the salt flats, is situated in a picturesque lagoon and surrounded by small boats. It’s reached by walking over one of two 16th-century bridges. We wandered around the Old Town and soaked in the atmosphere in one of many cafés. History lovers can explore the ruins of Rimski Hram Roman temple and there’s also an archaeological museum.
Back at the hotel, I return to my double deluxe sea view room. The colour scheme throughout the whole hotel, an endorphin-boosting aquamarine, continues here. There is a large roll-top bath, where you can soak while looking out to the mountains, a walk-in shower with spa products, a Nespresso machine, a very comfy bed and a large balcony where you can sit and contemplate which of Iadera’s many activities you might choose for the following day while you take in the sunset over the Adriatic and the Velebit mountains. Hitchcock had a point: the sunsets here are truly memorable.
A Deluxe Sea View Room starts from €220 per night based on two adults sharing and includes breakfast (three night minimum). For more information, and for bookings, please visit Falkensteiner.com/en,
Zadar Airport is a 30-minute drive from the resort. Ryanair offers direct flights to Zadar from the UK. For more information, please visit zadar.travel.
