Rabac

Rabac sits on Kvarner Bay on the eastern coast of the Istrian peninsula, at the foot of the hill town of Labin and about five kilometres from it — and roughly 40 kilometres from Pula, on the opposite side of the peninsula. The 2021 census counted 1,257 residents, a fall of nearly 10% from a decade earlier.

Until the 19th century Rabac was little more than a fishing hamlet serving as Labin's port. It gained wider attention after the British explorer and writer Richard Francis Burton visited in 1876, and its first hotel, the Quarnaro, opened on 11 June 1889. Large-scale tourist development, however, only arrived in the 1970s, when the resort complexes that still dominate the seafront — Santa Andrea, Maslinica and Girandella — were built.

Today Rabac hosts the annual Rabac Festival, an electronic music event, and has produced two well-known Croatian musicians, Franka Batelić and Elis Lovrić. Its sheltered bay and pebble beaches are part of why many gulet cruises in Croatia call in here.