Location: Barban
Top Things to do in Barban
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The 10 Best Things to Do in Barban, Croatia
Barban in Croatia, from Europe region, is best know for Adrenaline & Extreme Tours. Discover best things to do in Barban with beautiful photos and great reviews from traveller around the world here!
Restaurants in Barban
1. Glavani Park
Overall Ratings
5 based on 281 reviews
Glavani Park, family adventures on the high ropes, low ropes and rural animal park. Enjoy your holiday in Glavani village and discover the biggest adventure park in Istria, Croatia. Whether you want high adrenaline exercises on the high wires, playing with your kids on all the children's adventure tree houses and kiddie games or just casual walks through beautiful Istrian countryside while visiting all the farm animals on your way, this is the fun day out for your family or group. New for 2016...We now have a fantastic 11 metre high swing with 3 metre free-fall to really push the heart rate up, an amazing suspension bridge with 12 metre high, 35 metre long unicycle ride, aerotrim antigravitational machine, arena for music and displays, table tennis tables and so much more! Real fun.
Reviewed By TonyDK - Copenhagen, Denmark
We had looked forward to visiting with our 3 kids, aged 11, 11 and 13.
And wauuuw - what a nice place. What an incredibly nice place.
Seconds after we arrived, we were greeted by Nigel and he introduced the park.
And 15 minutes later, we were on the training area of the park, being teached about security and how to move around in a very safe way.
I can assure you this - there is something for all ages / braveness - the security is top notch, and minutes after my 11 years old was stuck 10 meters up, an instructor was up there helping him.
We had soooo much fun in that park. The kids absolutely was challenged to the max, and it was cool to see how the park made them behave responsibly - but also to see them "grow" to the challenges ...
They have some serious ziplines - I believe the longest was 115 meters over a huge span ....
There are an area with shade to relax and have a cold one - around the park you also have shady trees, so you can follow your kids without getting a sun stroke :-)
Best part in the end, is that you actually just pay for what areas / things you try.
So me bailing out after trying the 2 meters training area, only costed me 50 kuna.
We had a blast there and recommend this to anyone seeking some adrenalin for a few hours.
2. Vielle ville de Labin
Overall Ratings
4 based on 147 reviews
Reviewed By NederbelgLanaken - Lanaken
Experiencing the coming to live of an ancient place in the late afternoon. Enjoy walking around, having great views, little places to enter and taste and explore the little shops in the old town. Take a Terrace and enjoy Italian style and crowding of the place. Parking is possible close to the town, but alsoo further away is great an there is a small train to take you to the old town. Stay for diner and have an nice relaxing evening.
3. Festinsko Kraljevstvo
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 39 reviews
Reviewed By Feenixwest
Exploring the interior of Istra, we found the Zminj Information Center and the woman referred us to Festinsko Kraljevstvo for a cave experience. This is a family-owned Enterprise with good guide who spoke English well. Tour is about a 1/2 hour and reasonably priced. Refreshments available for purchase.
4. Ranch Barba Tone
Overall Ratings
4 based on 7 reviews
Reviewed By Glavani - Glavani, Croatia
What a transformation for me. At 18 years I swore I would never ride a horse again after just one terrifying ten minute episode, at 48 years I rode again here at my local village Manjadvorci and saw the surrounding countryside with new eyes. I went with guests who were staying with me and they told me I would enjoy it. I was sure I wouldn't! The staff were very helpful and full of fun. The horses knew I was completely useless and looked after me. The training was easy and very well done before we left and while we were out walking. I did not get energetic or daring - just enjoying the woodland and open fields, but there are many options for everyone including camping out and swimming in the sea. This is a beautiful part of Istria, Croatia to go horse riding - believe me - and, from a horse riding novice, this is an exhilarating way to see it. I deserved the beer and rakia that I bought there when I returned!
5. Girandella Beach
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 53 reviews
Reviewed By chantal196 - Vacallo, Switzerland
If you want to see beautiful coulours of water, you just need to walk and see them. During the winter the visit is really Worth as you see the real nature! The best period to see this area must be in spring, practicing walking tours or by bike.
6. Istra Adventure
Overall Ratings
5 based on 21 reviews
Experience a new and unforgettable experience! Explore Istria on a completely different way! In our new programs we offer unforgettable Quad adventures that leave no one indifferent. Possibility of organizing three hours, half-day and full-day programs. Enjoy quad driving, exploring intact nature, with the professional organization. Our programs does not leave anyone indifferent and require only a desire for adrenaline and a good time!
Reviewed By Daria U - Pula, Istarska, Croatia
I had a really great time with a great people! Organisation was perfect! Service is great! I enjoyed being there with my colleagues and business partners! My recommendation to everyone if you want to spend a wonderful time in the nature, driving through Istria! Visit...MoreThank you for a great review, we are very happy that you enjoyed our program! Kind regards from us all. :)
7. Art Gastro Galerie Im Palast Negri
Overall Ratings
5 based on 26 reviews
Reviewed By Monimouse
We stumbled over this tasting, and were bemused by the idea of tasting olive oil. It was fantastic and our host also was an absolute expert and interesting on the topic. We left happliy with many bottles of sampled wine. As non cooking travelers we had to sadly give the olive oil a miss!
8. Movie Lounge Bar
Overall Ratings
4 based on 80 reviews
Perfect place to chill during the day and the best place to party during night. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are reserved for live and DJ Performances.Our special offers are normal and XXL cocktails, finest Croatian/Istrian wines & spirits, Smoothies...We have free high speed WiFi for our guests.
Reviewed By JohnnyBad11
nice bar to hang out with friendly staff, but take care if you drink long island, they make it super strong so id recommend the lighter drinks. when i was there a guy did some live music which was great.Thank you for those beautifull words. We will take care of the quantity of alcohol in cocktails, but better more than less:) Thank you once again.
9. Konjicki Klub Capall Hrboki
Overall Ratings
3.5 based on 3 reviews
Horse Club Capall Hrboki is all around the year horse experience center. Situated in the beautiful Istrian country with almost intact nature overlooking Raski zaljev and just a few kilometers from the sea. We can offer numerous horse based activities for the ones that ride and for the ones that just want to enjoy the presence of horses grazing in the pasture. Trekking, hacking, riding in arena, ponies for the youngest, swimming with the horses, riding school are only a part of our offer. Special offer is our two day multi challenge trekking combining riding, sleeping in nature, canoeing and adventure park adrenalin experience. Also, as we are endurance sport club, we can tailor personalised trainings in this sport discipline according to your level of experience.
Reviewed By Julia H - Lakewood, Colorado
While there are aspects of this ride I very much enjoyed and appreciated very, very much, and am extremely grateful for, I first have to warn those of you who are advanced riders and who expect to be put with other advanced riders not to just automatically expect this.We had a couple of beginners, who while perfectly lovely and sweet people off the horse, on the trail they had a lot of fears. Fear of anything out of the ordinary, of an injured horse (and we had one badly injured) of a horse running extremely fast, or a stallion rushing our group- in other words anything that an advanced rider finds pretty easy to handle, these beginner riders found frightening, threatening, and out of control. Which if you're a beginner is perfectly understandable. Which is why you don't mix advanced and beginners. Now the good news is that they're funny, the bad news is that you can't laugh out loud because they tend to take it personally.
So suffice it to say that their complaints got, well, ludicrous. Such as nagging at me that MY horse wasn't going fast enough because they didn't have adequate skills to pick up these two leather thingies called reins and whisper this magical mystery word we use in horseback riding called WHOA which usually works to slow the animal down or stop it.....well. Their horse walks too fast, gets his nose into my horse's rear end, my horse kicks, naturally, and it's my fault. I don't come equipped with a rear view mirror, neither does my horse. Which is why you ride your horse, I ride mine. Because the horse ahead of me has the same problem when I get too close to her. Isobel will bark at me when her horse wallops Pharos in the nose. Or is this too complex a concept?
What I LOVED. Isobel allowed me to ride a fine fine fine fine horse named Pharos, two rungs above my pay grade, that is what we riders die for. Yes he got away from me at the gallop-twice- this horse was FAST and he absolutely lived to race- for about five seconds, I had him under control in about three or four more.. I had the time of my life learning how to get his magnificent, determined, huge, headstrong, gorgeous, powerful, immensely fantastic animal to obey me. Not without cost. I got two nasty whiplash injuries, the cost to my body was enormous. I had to get up at 4 am to do two hours of gentle yoga every day just to prepare. Daily migraines. Who cares. I have never been so fricken happy in my life. I'd sign up to do it all over in a heartbeat. You don't get to ride animals like this very often and you sure don't get to ride one that is tougher than you are, which you have to push yourself to master, who is trying to outwit you all day long. SIGN. ME.UP. I took more pain pills than healthy, wore more Roctape than professional cyclists, and couldn't lift my arms at the end of the day. Who gets the chance to do this? How lucky can a girl get? OMG. Heaven on earth. Riders know this feeling. But obey he did, and it was worth every single torn nail and aching back muscle.
To give you an idea, the fingers of both hands at the end of every day were so red, swollen, and blistered that not only could I not close them, the hot water of the shower was an agony. Hadda tape them up too. One strong damned horse. Everyone else showered first because I needed all the hot water to warm back up so that I could un-knot. I find this hilarious. This isn't supposed to be a walk in the park. This is supposed to be challenging.
Ivo and Isobel work hard to provide trails that wind through a rich variety of landscape, villages, ruins, a nice cold lake. Pharos, my horse, decided along with everyone else to get right to the cold lake water, but he also decided that he was going to take a bath in it, rider be damned. I suspect that only because I yelled NO!!!!! at him in German I saved my skinny butt from a cold wash.
Ivo dutifully provides a wonderful variety of cooked foods, fruits, local goodies every day all day, crusty breads and fresh vegetables, thick stews and fresh eggs. He does yeoman's work to make sure you're comfortable and the hotels you stay in are very comfy. You get to spend two nights in rooms provided for by a sixty-ish widow, a friend of Isobel's, who cooks from her own garden (I'm not making this up, yum to the nth degree) and who is very concerned for your comfort. Ivo sneaks in chocolate, and if he sees you enjoying it, there's twice as much the next night. You gotta love the guy. He's very sensitive to your likes and dislikes and that's so very endearing.
I am most grateful to Isobel for allowing me, at my request after the first day, to upgrade to Pharos, that absolutely made my trip, and also for providing me with competent tips and ideas that improved my riding. You never stop being a student, and I am no expert, but an advanced intermediate. So I want and need ideas and tips and feedback all the time. That said, who needs a beginner to go ballistic when I take out a camera to take shots of a lively stallion in a nearby walled off pasture that has rushed our group, because she's terrified that I'm being risky. It's her horse and everyone else's that went willy nilly, and bombproof Pharos who is stock still on the lane, quietly minding his own business. I think therein lies the best reason for separation, is that beginners are so damned busy riding other peoples' horses for them that they aren't riding their own, which makes them more of a danger than anyone, which is why I tend to avoid them where possible. But damn they are fun to watch, if not fun to listen to.
This is why I didn't give this outfit five stars. I heartily disagree with mixing beginners with advanced riders, There is so much hand and leg signaling going on that is subtle and quiet and constant between you and the horse. Beginners don't see this. They can't. You're not a sack of potatoes, leaving the reins on the withers, waiting for him to choose to eat when he wants which stops the trail in its tracks. That means that the group has to ride at the lowest common denominator to make sure everyone feels safe and comfy. We walked a great, great, great deal. There were a lot of gallops that could have been that did not happen. A beginner doesn't think about how their lack of skill affects the trip for the advanced person. But what we do is adapt because it's the right thing to do, and you keep your counsel. Because you're on this amazing ride on this amazing horse in this magnificent countryside and it all works out anyway. And when you're not so damned busy paying attention to other people's horses you're able to get terrific photos, enjoy the sunsets, feel this amazing creature that is willing to carry you and put up with you and tolerate you and bend his will to you. And your heart rises and rises and rises and absolutely nothing matters but you and the wind and the horse and the movement and the rhythm and the smell of him, and the intense and fabulous gratitude you feel for the right, the honor to ride such a beast. You, this puny human.
The other reason I did not give five stars is because Ivo and Isobel's relationship was a point of contention for the duration of this adventure. It is one thing to have good spirited word play. But the bickering and frustration that surfaced and the complaining about each other to the group behind the other's back was, and I'll be gentle about this, unnecessary. At points it was funny, which is fine, but at others, it was downright unpleasant. What goes on between the guides/owners is private and none of our business. I have no idea if that's because we were the last trip of the season, because we had two lame horses and a seriously injured one, whatever the cause, at some point as a customer I just don't want to hear it anymore. Individually terrific people. Ivo is a great storyteller. Very funny. Isobel is an excellent rider. A bit more harmony would have gone a long way. In addition, a bit of guidance to the beginners about how to ride in line would have been hugely helpful, since it's not my job as a guest to train, instruct, inform, guide or teach them how to tack up, ride, manage or do pretty much everything else around a large animal. Which is why this ride should be limited to advanced riders. When you as a guest start doing it, it's insulting to the guide, the beginners take umbrage (hey I would too). No.body needs a self important butthead trying to be second in command. You're expected to know what you're doing. If you don't, then don't be mad if someone is poking fun at you.
So you tolerate the complaints, people taking far far far too long to saddle up, because it ends up being part of the morning and lunchtime comedy show. Especially when two people try to help each other get saddled up and neither quite knows what to do. The bit ends up under the horse's chin. Um...you might wanna.... Sorry, that gets funny. And NO I did not laugh out loud then, but I can now, and I did. I was a beginner, I remember, and I spent plenty of time being an absolute putz. I just found it funny. Like the morning I was so immensely tired, exhausted and dead on my feet I literally did not see the shoe on Pharos' right hind leg. Right under my nose. I tell Isobel the shoe is missing. Sends me into the pasture. I spent twenty minutes looking for a nonexistent shoe, until Ivo yells "Shoe on foot Yulya! Is right here! Come see!" Now I'm sorry, that's funny. It was covered in clay, but all I had to do was put the damn thing down and see the nails. Tired, man, tired. Funny. Everyone else but Ivo, annoyed. I was still saddled up in six minutes and had to wait another fifteen for the Keystone Cops to get it together. You cannot write comedy any better than real life which is rich with it.
One last callout to Ivo, though. Due to the fact that my watch had the wrong date on it, the group left early to get to the airport to accommodate my earlier flight, only to find out that my watch was wrong. So I changed my flight, and with everyone leaving later, Ivo was kind enough (as befits his very generous nature) he took us to Split where we took walks through the market, got some pizza and I got a double ice cream, saw a huge castle, and enjoyed the ridiculous nearly 80 temps. I mean come on, man. While we got rained on for a couple of days on the ride, for the most part the weather gods gave us heartbreakingly lovely weather, which I blame on Ivo's sunny nature.
I do highly recommend this outfit, with the considerations given above. I would call ahead and vet the group beforehand if your expectation is to ride ONLY with advanced riders.Part of me wishes I had, if for no other reason to let that big black b----d run his heart out with me hanging on like a forest tick.Walter Farley fans, you know my heart. But ultimately, it all works out, because I'm the one writing a book, and this whole trip gave me a great deal of comedic material,most of it at my expense (as it should be) but a little elsewhere too. The frustrations are the essence of the comedy, and emotional maturity is the ability to see the funny in the moment. Which is why this trip was a joy.
10. M/S Duboka - Boat Tours
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 64 reviews
Reviewed By MyInterestingTrip - Bamberg, Germany
Our family of 6 travelled to Rabac and booked a Duboka" excursion. We all had originally emailed the Captain to spend a Wednesday on an excursion; however, it was supposed to rain on Wednesday, so the Captain let us on board that Sunday! Yay! The boat was about full when we arrived, so book ahead so you won't miss out! On the excursion, we saw nature showing off, so to speak. We saw Dolphins (Captain turned the boat so no one would miss the family of Dolphins :) ) and we saw Cres Island! We finally got to remove those water shoes on Cres Island! :) We also had some blow-up rings for our small children, so when it was time to jump with our guide to swim to the blue cave, all went smooth and was totally stress free. The blue cave...Wow! Just Wow! Dark inside but when you go in a little further, the cave has light reaching from under the cave which brings in a beautiful blue like lagoon light. I will never forget this wonderful family excursion, not to forget the food is served on board and there are bathrooms on board! The boat may not be the fastest, or the fanciest, but has the best captain, folks! Enjoy, and we totally recommend Duboka for all!
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