During our interrail in July 2023, we stayed three days in Rijeka by the coast in Croatia. We had three summer days where we went swimming in the sea, visited historical museums and explored the surrounding area of Rijeka and Trsat.
We arrived at the train station in Rijeka in the afternoon and continued by public bus to our Hotel Continental close to the harbor. It was a grand, historical building and our room had a balcony just on top of the corner cafe with a vibrant vibe in the evenings.
Did you know that Rijeka (also known as Fiume) used to be an independent state – just like Venice?
From visiting two large museums in Rijeka we learned so much about the fascinating and harsh history of Rijeka, which has been through many nationalities.
Table of contents:
- City life in Rijeka: Dining and bars
- Museums in Rijeka: Peeking into the past culture and history
- Beaches in Rijeka: Where to go for a swim
- A great walk to the castle above Rijeka – visiting Trsat Castle
- Transport in and around Rijeka
- Conclusion
City life in Rijeka: Dining and bars
We found that Rijeka had a good dining scene. We ate at some modern places for lunches and dinners, while we also had fast-food at the Tower Mall. There were cute cafes in the more relaxing town called Trsat in walking distance north of Rijeka, read more about the area later in this post.
We had a snack and some local cocktails at GRAD kavana&bistro just by the sea (look for it on Google Maps) – we would really recommend that place!
If you’re looking for good ice-cream head to the desert cafe Cacao (Cacao Riva) – also by the sea. We found them in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and learned it was high-quality ice-cream!
In general I was positively surprised by the ice-cream quality in Croatia. When I later in the year visited Trogir near Split, I learned that Croatia makes really nice lavender flavor ice-cream. You should give it a try!
Museums in Rijeka: Peeking into the past culture and history
Rijeka, once named the Cultural City of the Year, has several good museums, all found in the city center. One of our days in Rijeka we designated our morning to visit Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Coast. Then, on our last day in Rijeka, we visited the Sugar Palace and Refinery in order to pass time before our train to Zagreb.
Rijeka City Museum – Sugar Refinery Palace
Located just across the main train station in Rijeka, you can find the Sugar Refinery Palace (Rijeka City Museum).
The museum showcased the once lucrative business of sugar trading in Rijeka. The recently restored palace had been transformed into the museum with old machines, curiosities, costumes (e.g. dresses) and classical art.
We were practically alone in the museum when we visited. It was a hot day in July, and I imagine that everyone else were hanging out on the beaches.
The Rijeka City Museum is definitely worth a visit! Here’s a link to the official website, where you can also read about the upcoming and previous temporary exhibitions. Furthermore, Wikipedia has an extended article about the history of Rijeka.
Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Coast
The Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Coast was the first museum we visited – and what a beautiful building to behold! While the Sugar Refinery Palace (Rijeka City Museum) is mostly focused on the grand past of Rijeka with all it’s glory, fame and trade, the Maritime and History museum is focused much more broadly on the history of Croatia.
After being part of communist Yugoslavia since the ending of World War II in 1945, Croatia became an independent country in 1991 after a bloody independence war (if you would like to catch up on some history, you can read more here on Wikipedia – but it is quite heavy reading).
Thus, Croatia is a very ‘young’ country – but the Croatian roots go way back – as you will learn at the Maritime and History Museum in Rijeka! I was glowing with information from visiting the history museum, and honestly the past 100 years of history in Europe is super overwhelming. Therefore, I like to focus on the ancient times up until the 1800’s.
There are history lessons for any taste at the History Museum, and there are lots of little gimmicks which will make your visit fun 🙂
Beaches in Rijeka: Where to go for a swim
We found one beach within reasonable walking distance from hotel Continental. All things considered, we would have liked to try different beaches.
But we went to Sablićevo Beach twice and it was packed to the limit with beach-goers! There was a good vibe, and since it was a hot summer day not an inch of the beach was free! We had so little space that we could only sit, i.e. not lie down on our towels. But the water was mostly clear, and there was a changing room and a decent beach bar selling ice-creams and beer.
After swimming on Sablićevo Beach, head to the mall Tower Center Rijeka for perhaps the greatest view at a low price for a meal! Go to the top floor with the cinema and fast food shop and sit in front of the large panorama windows.
Other beaches near Rijeka, that we did not visit
Plaža Ploče, Villa Nora Beach and Plaža Kantrida are other beach options if you take the bus west of Rijeka City Center. From Google Maps they seem more spacious than Sablićevo Beach, the latter being a narrow beach squeezed in by two cliffs. As you may already know, Croatia is not famous for ‘white sandy beaches’, as they have quite the rocky coastline.
A great walk to the castle above Rijeka – visiting Trsat Castle
We went for a good walk up the hills behind Rijeka in a small town called Trsat. This recommended walk begins by the bottom of Petar Kružić Stairway, close by the historical Hotel Continental in the right side of the city center. From Trsat Castle there is a great view of the mountains and of the city.
In Trsat we walked in the small park surrounding the church, and we walked a bit around the castle Trsat, which has free entrance. This is probably due to the castle is being used as a cafe! It was both weird and fancy at the same time.
We did not sit at the fancy cafe in the castle, but we had a refreshment near the church before we walked back to Rijeka.
Transport in and around Rijeka
Since we were on a three week interrail, we arrived by train at the main station. At the train station it is possible to store luggage if you arrive early to the train station. From the train station we took the bus to our hotel. It is possible to pay by cash in the busses. How convenient!
We arrived to Rijeka from Ljubljana in Slovenia. This part of the journey was smooth. But when traveling from Rijeka to Zagreb, we had a bad meeting with the public transport of Croatia. But hey- they are working to improve it 🙂 Read more about this experience in my general interrail post here.
My apologies for the poor image quality of most of the photos in this post.. I did not use my nice camera that much when I was in Rijeka!
Conclusion
This is my overall experience about my stay in Rijeka
Overall we had a pleasant three-day stay in Rijeka, Croatia. You could probably stay only for two days if you are short on time and have other stops in Croatia.
Rijeka, the third largest city in Croatia, seemed to have everything a bigger city needs. We found Rijeka lacked green spaces such as parks, as the city was largely filled with stores and housing facilities. The green spaces are however found in the mountains above Rijeka, where it is possible to go for hikes when the weather is pleasant. The smaller town Trsat is within walking distance of Rijeka and offers good views and green parks for some nice walks.
We learned that the train infrastructure in Croatia is being improved, but it means that at the moment the train connections to Split and further on to Dubrovnik are rather slow and therefore time-consuming. If your interrail trip is more long term than ours, it makes okay sense to continue by train, otherwise you can try Flixbus, which for obvious reasons are not included in the eurrail interrail pass.
*None of the mentioned places or experiences in this post were sponsored.
© All photos are my own unless stated and may not be used without permission.
Traveling Female Ornithologist 