Hotel Villa Donat in Sveti Filip and Vanilla Beach & Grill Bar in Sveti Petar, Croatia

While in Croatia this summer we stayed in Zadar for a few days and then moved to Sveti Filip I JaKov to the Hotel Villa Donat. The hotel is a short walk to the beach but if you prefer you can also swim in the outdoor pool. Rooms are quite modern but the hotel does have a bit of a former Eastern bloc atmosphere to it. This is most obvious in the restaurant which is a buffet with the bar being in the next room and requring guests to go over to get drinks while having dinner. The restaurant and the pool are ideal for families with little children and there were many such families there during our stay. Prices are very reasonable considering the offered room comfort. We took our bicycles to travel from Zadar to Sveti Filip and unfortunately the route was not very bicycle friendly apart from it being for the majority along roads with little traffic. As the distance between the 2 towns was short we got to Sveti Filip in the early afternoon, although bit later than we wanted to have lunch. Unfortunately we didn’t pass any interesting places to stop for lunch until we were close to our hotel in Sveti Petar and we stopped at the Vanilla Beach & Grill Bar. As the name suggests this restaurant is next to the beach, so you can go for a drink or ice cream there while staying at the beach. We had our lunch and went for burgers and some salads. Burgers were OK meat wise but had a bit too much sauce to my liking. The place was packed so we were lucky to get a table without having to wait for one. It took a bit of time to get our food because it was so busy but we could sit in the shade and enjoy some cold drinks while waiting for our food. It delivers what you can expect from this type of place, decent food and friendly staff, not much to offfer on the atmosphere front except the view over the beach and the sea.