Maistra Select Island Hotel Istra

"What a beautiful place to stay. The hotel was absolutely lovely. The island is beautiful. Downside for our experience was the restaurant and food situation. The restaurant was vey busy at times. We decided to dine late in an attempt eliminate the madness of it all. The food I ate was never very warm. In actual fact it is fair to say that only once over a six night stay I found something hot in temperature to eat! A tasty carbonara which had come straight out of the kitchens. I dropped lucky that evening!!! Because of this, my overall rating is marked down. The dining experience did not match the experience of our lovely stay on the island."

"This hotel is a wonderful place to stay, my partner and I stayed here for 10 nights and had absolutely no complaints. The staff were lovely, all common areas spotless and the room was perfectly fine. The ferry to Rovinj was always on time and we loved Rovinj. We will absolutely return."

"We are a family of two adults and one child aged 4. We spent 7 nights at Istra Island Hotel this July via TUI. Location Location is absolutely beautiful, scenic wherever you are on the islands. There are two small islands that you can walk between, one with the hotel and pools and the other with an additional restaurant. Not only are there gorgeous sea views and swimming on both but peaceful pine woodland. I enjoyed going for strolls around both and sitting peacefully to read my book. We liked spotting the lizards and swallows. You can only get to the hotel via ferry so this can be limiting if you are looking for more things to do however, the ferry does run every hour to the mainland. On the day we arrived it was stormy which meant that the ferry was delayed and once we got on it was extremely choppy (one person was injured). I believe that TUI had arranged alternative accommodation on the mainland in case we could not travel over. Amenities and entertainment There are a few pools outdoors and an indoor pool and jacuzzi. All were well maintained and there was plenty of space and loungers. There are no lifeguards on duty. You can access the beach/sea at various points around both islands. There are additional water activities you can pay for. There is a small gym. There was an animation programme, but I only really noticed aqua aerobics and drone flying lessons. There is a kids club for 4+ yrs where you can leave your kids. It was running 10-3pm during our stay but I think the hours vary depending on the amount of people staying. My daughter stayed at the kids club one morning on her own, she had no complaints. We didn’t see any entertainment, there was a mini disco for kids most evenings. I think there might’ve been a band one night and maybe we missed it. A lot of people seemed to go into Rovinj by ferry in the evening. Room The room was modern and well maintained. We didn’t feel the housekeeping was as good as it could’ve been. We only had 1 toilet roll for 3 people for a week and had to ask for more. There was no TV remote so we had to ask for that too. It was hit and miss with bed making and I actually cleaned the floor twice myself. We usually leave a tip at the end but didn’t this time. Food and dining The main restaurant is buffet style breakfast and lunch. As others say it can get extremely chaotic, with some people being quite aggressive with shovelling enormous food portions on their plates leaving nothing for others. The staff clearly work very hard to try their best but the cafeteria doesn’t seem able to accommodate everyone at peak times. That being said, we have stayed at similar places and as long as you can be equally pushy you’ll be fine. We are pretty good at standing our ground. My main gripe about the food is that I would not recommend staying here if you have allergies or dietary requirements. A lot of foods aren’t labelled at all or are labelled incorrectly. I mostly eat vegetarian food and don’t eat fish at all so it was quite challenging for me. I think my favourite instances were trying to get some ‘vegetable soup’ which had hot dog pieces floating in it and the ‘four cheese pasta’ which was spaghetti with ham pieces mixed in. Things aren’t really cooked separately either e.g. they’ll just put out the plain cheese pizza slices with meat and fish pizza slices on top of each other. I asked about some things being vegetarian but I don’t think the cooks understood me very well. The actual quality of the food was good though, if you like seafood then you’re on to a winner. You have to venture out to get lunch, I recommend the pizza/pasta restaurant as you can get a takeaway pizza to share. Overall The location is fantastic and if you want to take it slow and relax this is for you. I think some of the kids were bored, there were a lot of people there without children. I would’ve liked a more personal touch. We have stayed in other resort hotels and developed good relationships with certain staff at dinner or reception and it made our stays feel that bit more special - and made us tip more! I would stay again but as a couple. I imagine our sunset walks around the island would’ve been far more enjoyable!"