Isabella Valamar Collection Island Resort

“Good for families”

We spent a nice weekend at Valamar Isabella island resort Arrival experience is smooth and fast. It you travel by car, you are directed to a Valamar dedicated parking area close to the peer. It cost 5 euro to leave the car there. Once parked, they transfer you and your loggage to the peer. It ta... more

We spent a nice weekend at Valamar Isabella island resort Arrival experience is smooth and fast. It you travel by car, you are directed to a Valamar dedicated parking area close to the peer. It cost 5 euro to leave the car there. Once parked, they transfer you and your loggage to the peer. It takes you 3min by boat to get to the island. Your luggage is dropped off directly in your room. We stayed in isabella villas. Valling it Villas is a bit of an overstatement🙂 It is basically a small building with 3 or 5 separate rooms. It looks nice but the room is a bit small for a family of 4. On the upside, they are clean and well maintained. The biggest surprise for me was the ambient of the whole island. Every detail is well maintained and crafted. From beautiful bushes, flowers and trees to cleand and well lit paths around the island. Almost the whole island is dedicated to families (there are a few adults only zones). It means you have multiple family activities: sport activities, mini golf, water sports and video games. The best part for kids is the magical forest with tree houses. I have been at several hotels in Croatia across the Adriatic coastline and I can easily say this resort offers the best experience in terms of hospitality and staff friendliness. Everyone meets you with a smile and is willing to make your stay as pleasant as possible. Even the cook making my breakfas omlette was chatting with me and making sure she makes my omlette to my liking. All in all a really nice resort to spend a few days in.

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“We would return again”

We went for 7 days in early September expecting that the children had returned to school after the summer break. We were very wrong ! The German schools were still off so it was busy with young children. The pool area was very much for them but that kept the beach areas pretty much for the adults... more

We went for 7 days in early September expecting that the children had returned to school after the summer break. We were very wrong ! The German schools were still off so it was busy with young children. The pool area was very much for them but that kept the beach areas pretty much for the adults which worked well. It did get a bit silly at the buffet breakfast and dinner with kids darting about with plates helping themselves. There is an adults only room but it lacked atmosphere, it was just like a spare room on the side. You still had to join in the melee to get your food though. The buffet was good and most of the time the food was actually piping hot. The desserts were poor though , cakes , tiramisu , fruit etc but if you went after 8 the kids had decimated it anyway. We ate at the 5* side one night , swapping our buffet for a voucher. This was excellent. Located by the 5* pool with a beautiful sunset. The service was also excellent . We stayed in a bungalow with part sea view . It was ok but should and could have been better. The bed was terribly soft. Coffee is supplied but no milk and no tea ???? You can get it from the restaurant but that’s not what you expect. No face cloths in the bathroom and the shampoos etc are screwed to the wall in big bottles which was a bit Premier Inn like. The AC is a pain in that it is preset to 23 and can’t be adjusted ……. We had to move after 3 nights due to party noise from the mainland which was incredibly loud until 5am. Swapping was very smooth and our second room was nice and quiet. Couldn’t help but feel that the room service was minimal and the quicker the better. We had bay poo on our veranda for 3 days which was missed as were several other things. The 2nd room again was better on this. The weather was fantastic, we love swimming and that was in abundance around the island. Overall the service was good but with a buffet you do feel it’s like a canteen and lacks the personal touch There is a free boat to mainland throughout the day and it is only a few minutes each way. We hired bikes and segways plus a boat trip to Rovinj. We would love to return again but not at the height of summer as it gets very hot.

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“Superb for Families with Children.... Not for mature adult couples.....”

This is a resort for Families especially children and what it provides for them in equipment and activities is superb. If you are adult(s) without young children, then you may be disappointed. It appears common now that young children bring scooters with them on holiday including electric scoote... more

This is a resort for Families especially children and what it provides for them in equipment and activities is superb. If you are adult(s) without young children, then you may be disappointed. It appears common now that young children bring scooters with them on holiday including electric scooters. They race around the public areas including the outside bistro and bars and these things are a hazard to adults as you cannot hear them coming. Parents of course are oblivious to their children's behaviour and the noise of children in the inner bar lounges in the evening is a spoiler. I don’t want to watch young children fighting with pool cues, smashing the balls off the table onto the floor. My advice is after the evening meal, jump on the Hotel's Riveria boat (every 45 mins to and from) and head to mainland to find a bar in Porec for the evening. We avoided UK school holidays not realising the German school children were on holiday. There is a strong leaning with this resort to the German customer, don't bother with the room Tv's unless you speak German or want to watch European news in English. The breakfast and evening buffet choice is superb and no matter what country you come from you will find and excellent range and quality of food. There is an adult dining room thank God. As with most big Hotel buffets the rule 'Hot Food, Hot Plates' doesn't apply. By the time you get your hot food selection at the various sections over a huge buffet area your hot food will be warm or cool because there are no hot plates. I was unable to get a 'hot' coffee or tea anywhere in the hotel whether bar or buffet because it’s all produced by machines that are simply because of health and safety reasons only allowed to produce warm drinks. No English Breakfast Tea bags anywhere in the hotel just scented, fruit teas.... The bedroom was large, and we had twin washbasins for some reason. Good walk-in shower and large king size bed which had a thin, well used mattress which I found uncomfortable. The housekeeping staff were amazing, room spotless every day and so polite and friendly. The Hotel was always clean in every area and all staff we met were polite and friendly. We first visited this island 12 years ago before it was developed into a top-notch family resort. It is stunning and if I had brought my adult children and grandchildren they would have loved it. Not for adults unfortunately and we won’t be staying at the Island again.

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“Family stay at the Isabella”

We stayed at the Valamar Isabella as a family of 5, including three children aged 7,3,1. The resort is stunning as is the town on Porec just a boat ride away. However our trip we have given 3 stars for a number of reasons. Upon booking over the phone I asked if the room they were selecting for u... more

We stayed at the Valamar Isabella as a family of 5, including three children aged 7,3,1. The resort is stunning as is the town on Porec just a boat ride away. However our trip we have given 3 stars for a number of reasons. Upon booking over the phone I asked if the room they were selecting for us is within walking distance to all the amenities to which confidently they answered yes. We had a villa with seaview, please note this landscape of the resort if you are in villas is predominantly up hills, steep hills which with three young children can be a hard ask and I personally believe should be mentioned when booking. Along with this I asked if the room was suitable for 5 to which we were told “it fits 4” pushing again I said but we are 5 they said should be fine see how you find it on arrival. The room was really quite tight for the main bed, sofa bed and a cot, the resort were made aware of this, however only could move us on day 3/6 of our trip and to pack everything up to move to a villa which was slightly bigger but further walking distance didn’t seem justified. We appreciated their offer but kindly refused. The breakfast and dinner situation is quite busy at times and the food can be quite selective one thing I would hope they could improve on is having a children’s station of things like the pizza, burgers, chips, chicken nuggets and things like pancakes in the morning with the Nutella and sauce station separate as people found themselves queuing for up to 5-10 minutes just because children were piling Nutella on the pancakes which fell into the same queue as eggs and pastry’s. The resort is beautiful, the sunrises and sunsets are like something I’ve never seen before as are the views and if you are wanting to have a holiday totally driven towards children this is the place to go. The kids club is great the mini disco is also fun and the kids loved the magic show and the Waterslides creating endless fun for all ages , if I could compare this resort to anywhere it would be that of a European centre parcs. Now we have been and no what to expect we would return but for a long weekend only with it being a short flight and great weather. We were unfortunately hit by the air traffic control situation upon leaving and when calling the hotel to see if we could come back at the discounted rate they offered for extended stays we were told no as it didn’t stand any longer, we have been stuck in pula for the past 3 days and would have loved to have returned to the Isabella however hoped they would have been a bit more accommodating considering this extended stay discount was advertised at reception. Just want to call out Andrea on reception. Yasmin AM and the girls at the kids club thanks for a lovely trip and helping where you could

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