The Top 10 Hotels Near Imperial Valamar Collection Hotel
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A hotel that's been around forever on the Croatian island of Rab, sitting between the old town and a city park as if it planned this all along. The original architecture stays intact while the rooms lean contemporary, a combination that works better than it sounds. Two pools, a poolside bar, the Nobilis restaurant spilling into the gardens, and a beach shuttle for when the strolling loses its charm.
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Stone villa turned boutique hotel, set among the family's own vineyards and olive groves just outside Novalja on Pag island. Rooms are named for local plants and finished with handmade details and natural materials, and the views stretch to the sea. There's a winery on the property and a Michelin-starred restaurant, so a quiet evening here can take a while. For travelers who find beach resorts exhausting, this is a different kind of Croatian summer.
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An old Austro-Hungarian villa on the limestone shore of Čikat cove, Boutique Hotel Alhambra has 36 rooms and 15 suites with furnished balconies over the Adriatic, deep soaking tubs, and mosaic stone bathrooms. The lounge bar runs retro-futuristic, the restaurant has a glass frontage that frames the sea, and the heated saltwater indoor pool anchors a proper spa. The private beach and bar are what most guests are quietly negotiating their schedules around.
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Orange and lemon trees grow inside the atrium, which sets the tone for a five-star wellness resort that takes its atmosphere more seriously than most. Rooms have sliding balcony doors and mood-controlled lighting, with the top suites adding hot tubs on the terrace. The spa runs to seawater pools, marble relaxation beds, a cryosauna, and several heat rooms. It sits on the edge of Čikat Bay, a short walk from the port of Mali Lošinj.
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A medieval clifftop town on the island of Krk makes an unlikely setting for a boutique hotel with an integrative medicine practice running multi-week health protocols. Verbenicum's 19 suites and rooms lean into the surroundings with herringbone parquet and charcoal linens, while a heated outdoor pool overlooks the Mediterranean garden. The library is stocked with world literature, for when the doctor prescribes reading.
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The Adriatic blue used throughout the rooms will one day rival Santorini's signature whitewash as a color worth traveling for, or so one hopes. This large, modern luxury resort sits on the Punta Skala peninsula minutes from Zadar, with spacious balconied rooms, a monumental spa with four pools and hammam, beachfront restaurants serving Dalmatian cooking, and a coastline that makes the whole setup feel less like a hotel and more like a reasonable argument for Croatia.
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Sixteen rooms and suites on the Opatija Riviera, in a resort town most of Croatia's foreign visitors somehow skip. The hotel leans Art Deco throughout, with Hermès products in the bathrooms and espresso machines in the rooms, and several suites have terraces over the Adriatic. The spa, a fine-dining restaurant, and a poolside lounge mean you never have to leave, though Opatija proper is only minutes down the coast when you do.
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Fifty feet from the Adriatic, this eleven-room boutique hotel sits in a quiet bay on the edge of Pula, and most of the rooms look straight out to sea. The owners designed the whole thing themselves, which gives it an eclectic, slightly personal feel you don't get from a chain. A heated pool shares the view, a small spa handles the wellness side, and two bars, one poolside and one on the beach, pour drinks and light bites all day.
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