Bluesun Holiday Village Alan

Nice hotel, right at the waterfront, just adjacent to a national park. Amazing service!!!! Very attentive staff. All-inclusive is quite a good deal for the money (five meals a day + open bar). Ideal for families with small kids: outdoors pool, children entertainment activities twice a day (two hours each). Hotel beach is some 100 meters away. Decent gym. Good food, with occasional nice surprise. Nice selection of fish. Interesting choice of local liqueurs. Convenience store on site. Pharmacy just a walk away. Free parking provided. Lot of field trip options. Limitations. Rooms are quite basic (okay if you are with kids). There are only two (small) elevators serving the hotel and you should expect to queue for up to 15 mins during peak hours. Indoors pool is just a marketing teaser, so be careful (minors not allowed; admission fee most likely applies, unless explicitly stated otherwise at the time of booking). Popular destination for retirees.

This a a large, bustling hotel in a fairly small town, convenient for mountain activities in Paklenica National Park but with a very different ambience. It seems especially popular with families, who enjoy the large pool area and many organized activities. You can purchase an all-inclusive package that includes all meals (a decent large buffet), free drinks, activities for kids, and discounts on other things. That might be overkill for couples with lower expectations.

My wife and I traveled around Croatia during a week and stayed in 4 hotels while seeing all the site. We found Hotel Alan a good stop off for the National Parks of Plitvice. The hotel is 3 Star so wasn't expecting anything more. It was exactly that. If your expecting 4/5 star luxury this isn't the hotel for you. But you want a good stop over with pool, beach, games and all inclusive buffet and drinks then I would recommend. Personally there were too many kids for us but that was expected. I would recommend to family's. All in all one of the best 3 stars. To note we stayed in 5 star Le Merdien in Split...and 5 Star Falkensteiner in Zadar so can offer a good comparison. Blue Alan is a very good 3 star!

We lived in Croatia for three years in the mid 2000's. During those years hotels were not a good option for families...we learned to stay in apartments which is still a great way to go but may be a little strange for North Americans. We normally vacation in condo-style facilities in other parts of the world. We were just quickly passing through the region and stayed at Bluesun. They placed us in one of their apartments that could sleep 6 (two bedrooms plus a pull-out in the living room). This provides a similar scenario to the condos we normally stay in...difficult to find in Croatia. Stari Grad was a favourite place for us while living in Croatia for hiking in Paklenica, being on the sea and visiting nearby Zadar and Pag.