Trg Marafor has terrace cafés, and Harbourfront maršala Tita is another main bar hub.

Thanks to a quality nightclub, Byblos, Poreč is bringing locals here rather than catering to mainstream tourists. The same team also runs the Paradiso Beach Bar, for pre-club or after-parties, depending on how you look at it – opening hours are 8am-8pm.

Elsewhere, the discos can feel part of a package tour. You’ll be mingling with fellow tourists and some nights you may not find a crowd unless you bring your own.

Byblos

Opened in 2007, this is the club that Istria has been waiting for. Quality sound system, quality cocktails and a quality agenda – David Guetta, Deep Dish and Roger Sanchez, for example. Mario Lucchi designed the huge interior, mainly black-and-white, simple but effective, with a beach lounge bar too. Ladies’ night is Thursdays, international DJs Fridays. You’ll find it near the Hotel Delfin.

Epoca

Good music, friendly staff and a sociable buzz set this place apart from the other harbourside bars. Near the tip of the peninsula that holds the Old Town, at the start of the busy strip of cafés and restaurants, Epoca offers a spacious interior with circular wooden bar and sea views, with wicker chairs and wooden tables outside. Bruschetta and other light bites are on offer, as are granita, frappés and ice-cream. Dancing might break out in the evening, though the crowd you’ll be schmoozing with will be mostly fellow travellers. Good cocktails.

Café del Mar

This glass-fronted cafe-bar sits on a jutting spur of harbourfront adjacent to the Palazzo Hotel, offering good strong coffee and a cabinet full of cakes and pastries. With tables set out on the stone jetty near the hydrofoil dock, it’s a sun-trap in the daytime and the place to watch crimson-hued skies in the evenings, when DJs set up their decks and the whole place assumes an animated cocktail-bar feel.

Yesterday

A Beatles theme bar, run by the son of an Oldham-born fan who gave Paul McCartney a loveheart necklace backstage in 1965. Two years later, Jackie Carnihan met a hotel receptionist while on holiday here, got married and had two children. Macca couldn’t have written it better. Unplugged local acts play on Fridays. Two terraces come into their own in summer.

Caffe Bar Mozart

This terrace and bar really shouldn’t be the busiest location in town. Not only is it set behind the bus station and Hotel Poreč, separated from the marina by a small park, they play dubious Italian pop on the stereo and the fashion channel on the TV. But it’s strangely popular and always packed with a loud young crowd that includes many locals – respite from the tourist hordes.

Parentino Wine Bar

Below the Valamar Hotel Riviera, this is a slick little wine bar with a terrace facing the yacht end of the marina in town. For holiday sailors, Parentino serves croissants and coffee in the morning; Stella and Slovene Union beers by day; and champagne and many wines after dark. Inside, it’s marble, glass and leather.