Oprna Bay Krk and Zaglav Beach

After our hike around Baška beach, we went to Oprna Bay. Oprna Beach was often mentioned online and people were bragging about how beautiful it was. So we had to go see it for ourselves! And they weren’t wrong! We added Oprna Bay to our best beaches of Krk island, as our number one!

Parking at Oprna Bay

When you want to visit Oprna Bay, you have to park your car right next to the road. Half of your car would even still be on the road. There was actually no proper parking space to visit Oprna Bay. On one side there were high rocks, so you couldn’t drive too close to them. And on the other side, there were guardrails on the entire street. So the best place you could park was right next to the road. 

Now Oprna Beach is actually located right next to a pretty sharp bend… So it sometimes was a bit surprising for cars passing by that the street was covered with parked cars. I’m very glad no accidents happened when we were there because I definitely didn’t think this was a safe place to park our car.

Oprna Beach Area

To get to Oprna Bay, you just had to climb the guardrail and descend to the beaches in front of you. There were 2 big beaches where you could go for a swim. The actual beach of Oprna Bay was the biggest one and there were umbrellas and deck chairs on the beach.

The other popular one is Zaglav Beach. There also were some smaller beaches in the area.

We noticed that it was still pretty busy when we got to the street where we needed to park our car. We had to park our car pretty close to the back, meaning it was also pretty close to that bend! I was a little worried that people wouldn’t notice the parked cars, but I’m just not used to being able to park your car wherever you want to 😉.

Our First Visit – Zaglav Beach

We saw a lot of people hiking to Oprna Bay, so we decided to go to Zaglav Beach first. 

This beach didn’t have any beach umbrellas, but it also only had 4 other beach guests. 

We walked down to the beach and decided to go for a swim. The water was very enjoyable as usual. The rays of sunshine were still quite strong, so we could really use the refreshing dive in the water.

After our swim, we decided to go for a walk to check out Oprna Beach and all those smaller beaches nearby. We walked on the ridge and saw Oprna Bay from a distance. It looked like a very convenient beach with easy access to the water. We decided to walk around on the ridge some more, but we didn’t descend to the beach anymore. Oprna Bay was already almost completely in the shade. So we just enjoyed the views on the beach and the sea, and after that, we went back home!

We did decide in the car that we would come back to Oprna Bay when the beach was still sunny. And that is exactly what we did the day after!

Our Second Visit to Oprna Bay

As mentioned, we decided we hadn’t seen Oprna Bay in its full glory. So we wanted to go there again the day after. Right after breakfast we packed our stuff and set off. 

When we were making breakfast in our apartment, we opened our front door to set the table outside. I immediately felt a heavy wind slamming the door shut again. When I got outside, the wind was really whooshing. It was a very strong wind and a rather cold one as well. I had put our wet swimming clothes out to dry on our drying rack, but the entire rack had fallen to the ground. The amount of wind reminded us of our hiking trip in Northern Velebit National Park, 3 years ago. This much wind was, in our experience, quite rare in Croatia. We were hoping it was something local and hoped that in other places, the wind would have eased off already. 

We ate inside that morning because I didn’t want any yogurt in my hair 😉 We packed our swimming gear and headed off to Oprna Beach.

When we got to Oprna Bay, there was only one car parked there. What a huge difference this was from yesterday! That could only mean one thing… The wind was as bad as in Punat. I opened my door and the door immediately slammed shut again. Steven and I looked at each other a little worried. It was a real exercise to get our doors open because it seemed like the wind clearly wanted us to stay in the car.

A Windy Day at the Beach

We still had a small hope that it would be better on the beach, as the beach was in between mountains. So we got out of the car and did the 10-minute descent to the beach of Oprna Bay.

The wind was really crazy! I had to put on my sunglasses because otherwise, my contact lenses would just dry up in a minute! When we were walking to the ridge, we saw that the sea was really wild. You could see waves crashing on rocks. It was an incredible sight!

Even when we were walking slowly, you could feel the wind trying to tip you over. In some places, the wind was so bad, that you just couldn’t breathe because of it! I had to keep my hands over my mouth in order to breathe.

Immediately I had a flashback to my childhood when I was on the back of a motorcycle and I opened my visor on my helmet when we were at a high speed. I used to think that was cool…

It was already pretty obvious that we wouldn’t be swimming today. We did descend to Oprna Bay because we did still want to see the sunlit beach and take a few pictures 😉. Oprna Bay is indeed a very beautiful beach, but it was just a tad little less charming with the wind howling.

Sea Urchin at Beach Oprna Bay

The walk on Oprna Beach was very scenic. A wild sea is also something you do not see every day! We decided to also go take a look at the small beach next to Oprna Beach. We had to climb some rocks to get to that beach, so we were already in a very good mood. It’s always more rewarding when you have to “work a little” for the great view. 

When we got to the small beach, we noticed something black on the beach. We couldn’t immediately tell what it was, so we got a little closer. “Ieuw”, I yelled! “That’s one of those nasty sea urchins!”

Steven decided to take a picture of the nasty thing so we would always remember what it looked like upfront. I must admit, I do not want that thing piercing my foot!

We walked back to Oprna Beach and decided to go back to our car after that. The wind was still as present as it was when we got there. So we were craving a nice cup of hot coffee and a place where you couldn’t hear the wind roaring in your ears anymore.

Changing the plans

When we had finished our coffee, we decided to go to Punat Beach again in the afternoon. Punat Beach was really close by, so we could go check if the wind had decreased. And if it hadn’t we could just go back to our apartment and wait a little longer! Fortunately for us, at Punat beach, there was a lot less wind because it’s in an inlet of the island Krk.

This was the first time the weather hadn’t been in our favor in Croatia. We were happy we still got to see Oprna Beach. At least we had a lot of good pictures of the Beach without anyone in the shot 😉.