Building Future Trips – Piran, Slovenia

Following our two-week adventure with the Cain family in Italy, we’re scouting in Slovenia and Croatia for the next week or so, building itineraries for 2012 and the future in these undiscovered (at least by European Focus) places. They sure aren’t “undiscovered” by the Germans. We feel as if we are in Little Germany in Piran, where our hotel, the “Tartini,” is full of German families and couples. The same in the seacoast towns we’ve dipped into so far in Croatia. German license plates are almost on a par with those from Llubljana. Why? Perhaps it’s because the German economy remains strong and the Germans, even in the best of economic times, love a bargain and they love the sun. Croatia and Slovenia mix the two perfectly.

We spent the first two nights of our scouting trip in the perfect little medieval town of Piran. Well, almost perfect. What Piran needs is a good hotel. Not just a “good enough” one, but a really good one. Opportunity knocks for someone with a suitcase full of Euros and a vision. We booked ahead at the Tartini and while it was OK, it would not pass inspection for our clients. Yes, we enjoyed the view from the tiny balcony of our room, but we didn’t enjoy the chicken-wire fence separating us from our neighbors and the total lack of privacy. The 70s disco music from the rooftop hotel bar about 100 meters to our right didn’t help the mood, either.

In any case, we had a lovely meal at a seaside restaurant with some so-so house wine. (We’re already missing the excellent “Vino Rosso di Tavola” of Italy) and today, we drove through some interesting places on our way to our overnight stop in Rovinj, Croatia. More tomorrow after we’ve explored Rovinj, where our mission is to find a hotel where we can anchor for a few nights next September.