Rovinj nightlife, bar and café guide

A fashionable terrace adds a touch of class to this busy corner of the harbour and draws a sizeable, mixed crowd. The spacious, dramatic black-and-white interior is dedicated to great films, with stills from old classics and a life-sized Alfred Hitchcock doing his cameo in the bathroom mirror. Behind the long bar is an oversized clock and, most often, a smiling face serving drinks. Music, ranging from pop to electronic to hip hop, generally has a fast beat. A fun spot.

Opened in 2018, Steel is Rovinj's premier nightclub, a much-needed attraction servicing the large amount of visitors to the city. It holds music concerts, as well as DJ-led nights and the music ranges from house and techno to Latin, rock, pop and hip hop, depending on the event.

Possibly the one spot in town you should seek out for a drink, coffee or otherwise, in Rovinj. It is all about location. Sitting by the Cathedral atop the Old Town, it has fine views of the sea and sunset. Wicker chairs and wooden tables overlook a field, then the view dives straight into the water. XL serves Favorit on tap, house wines, cocktails and fruit juices such as mango or guava.

There’s a sign reading 'Irish Pub' over the arched alleyway that leads to this nugget of a bar, although everyone in Rovinj knows it as ‘Art’. A good place for a quiet drink on weekdays, when it fills up with customers from across the age spectrum, and good-naturedly rowdy come the weekends, it’s the kind of place that’s popular with locals all year round and pays little heed to the seasonal ebb and flow of that tourist trade. The recipe is very simple: Guinness and Kilkenny on draught, Irish whiskeys lined up behind the bar, live (usually acoustic) music on Thursdays, and DJ parties on Saturdays.

Popular with locals for morning coffee or the early evening drink, this bar has a terrace with a sunny southern exposure facing the busy harbourside square by the Hotel Adriatic. Although the neighbouring bars also share the same view, they’re never quite as full. Your coffee may take a minute longer, but it will arrive with a smile.

Grab a hold of the rope railing and walk gingerly down the marble steps just off Sv Križa and into this pricey cocktail bar set at the end of the harbour. It has fab outdoor seating on a terrace a few feet over the sea. Step off the street, lose the crowds and commune with nature, your cocktail and your companion.

Set in Veli trg, the main square when Rovinj was an island, Helena Trošt’s Piassa Grande is a wine bar, shop and café with the interior of a serious wine haunt. Under wooden beams with ceiling fans, her shelves are filled with 150 labels, 130 of them Istrian. All can be sampled on site, most by the glass, or taken home. Clai, Poletti and other top varieties can be found; a fifth of them are offered by the bottle. A small menu offers local cheeses, bruschetta and crostini, and truffle biscuits, truffle rakija and top-end olive oil are also sold, plus rarer beer brews such as Chimay Blue and Rochefort 8.

Big, loungey wicker chairs with bright red cushions surround low drinking tables on the terrace of this popular cocktail bar, the former Zanzibar, near a busy section of the harbour. At happy hour, tables fill with people here to gawp at people or the gorgeous sunsets over the sea. Inside, the DJs encourage you to hang around for the rest of the night, an enjoyable if somewhat pricey proposition with cocktails running at 60kn plus.