Nearby Medulin 39 km · Premantura / Kamenjak (Stupice) 39 km · Umag 40 km · straight-line distance
Maestral
14:00 · 17:00
Afternoon on summer Maestral days; the local windsurf school books its lessons between 14:00 and 17:00 and keeps the Maestral for advanced practice.
The marks are the clock times the record names, laid on a 24-hour day. The bar between the first and the last covers those hours; it is not a promise of wind.
The wind
locals call it Maestral; also Bora/Bura and Jugo/Scirocco on synoptic days
Direction
Kite sizes
metres · typical quiver highlighted
Character
mixed
fills in: Afternoon on summer Maestral days; the local windsurf school books its lessons between 14:00 and 17:00 and keeps the Maestral for advanced practice.
Typical strength
10-20 kt is the regional summer Maestral range. The Rovinj-only historical average is 5 kt, which on its own is not a kite spot.
Also on record
5
The quiver, in words
No measured local range exists. On the 10-20 kt summer Maestral a 75-85 kg rider is on 9-12 m, with a 14 m or a foil for the weak end; indicative from the regional Maestral range, not a local measurement. A 14 m has been used in the light thermal at Palud nearby.
Dominant direction
NW and W on the summer Maestral; SE shows up in the old annual statistics; NNE-ENE is the best direction at Palud/Cisterna nearby.
Forecast
Month by month
- Jan16
- Feb14
- Mar24
- Apr15
- May15
- Jun, riders' month13
- Jul, riders' month5
- Aug, riders' month5
- Sep, riders' month22
- Oct29
- Nov23
- Dec16
windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+)
Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep.
- 16%Jan14°
- 14%Feb12°
- 24%Mar13°
- 15%Apr15°
- 15%May18°
- 13%Jun23°
- 5%Jul27°
- 5%Aug27°
- 22%Sep25°
- 29%Oct21°
- 23%Nov18°
- 16%Dec15°
windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+) · water °C below · season highlighted
| Month | Windy days | Force 4+ | 12 kn or more | Knots | From | Peaks at | Air | Water | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 16% | 39% | 29% | 10.3 kt | E | 13:00 | 7.2°C | 13.5°C | 62 |
| Feb | 14% | 25% | 23% | 9.2 kt | NW | 14:00 | 8.9°C | 12°C | 57 |
| Mar | 24% | 34% | 31% | 11.1 kt | SSE | 14:00 | 10.3°C | 12.6°C | 62 |
| Apr | 15% | 43% | 30% | 10.7 kt | SSE | 13:00 | 13.2°C | 14.7°C | 60 |
| May | 15% | 34% | 24% | 10.2 kt | WNW | 14:00 | 18.2°C | 18.2°C | 62 |
| Jun | 13% | 28% | 22% | 9.9 kt | WNW | 13:00 | 23°C | 23.4°C | 60 |
| Jul | 5% | 27% | 19% | 10 kt | WNW | 14:00 | 26°C | 27°C | 62 |
| Aug | 5% | 23% | 15% | 9.9 kt | WNW | 14:00 | 25.8°C | 27.3°C | 62 |
| Sep | 22% | 45% | 30% | 10.9 kt | ENE | 14:00 | 21.3°C | 24.7°C | 60 |
| Oct | 29% | 37% | 32% | 10.8 kt | NW | 14:00 | 17.1°C | 21.3°C | 62 |
| Nov | 23% | 38% | 30% | 10.8 kt | SW | 13:00 | 12.1°C | 18°C | 60 |
| Dec | 16% | 26% | 23% | 9.5 kt | ENE | 14:00 | 8.9°C | 14.9°C | 62 |
modelled
A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.
Modelled from the operational forecast archive at 1.5–7 km (2023-2024), daylight hours only, not a ground station: it resolves thermal, lake and valley winds far better than coarse reanalysis but still tends to understate a strong local thermal. A windy day has at least three consecutive daylight hours at 12 knots or more. The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.
High-resolution weather model (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical forecast archive — best-match operational model (ICON-D2 / AROME / ICON-EU / GFS by region), not a ground station · 2023-2024
The water
Type
mixed
Standing depth
It depends entirely which shore you pick. The stone beaches in town drop away close in, and Skaraba and Baluota are both flagged as no place for a non-swimmer. Vestar, 5 km south, has a gently shelving sandy bottom you can walk out about 50 m on.Cisterna's entry is flat and the water calm. No tide changes any of it.
Tides
Tide-independent; the northern Adriatic has little practical tidal effect for kiting here.
Temperature
25°C summer · 10°C winter
Wetsuit
Summer: shorts or shorty/thin wetsuit; winter: thick full wetsuit.
Your level
The scene
What riders come here for
Launch and rules
three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you
With a school or a boat
No school names this spot
Nobody has been recorded teaching or running a boat here.
On your own
Room to launch: tight
Somewhere else
Medulin, 39 km
Every spot within 40 km is on the map at the top of this page, with its distance under it.
Rescue
VHF channel 16
Launch
Small stone or hard-shore launches around town; there is no sandy beach in Rovinj itself. Self-launching is not realistic, so bring a helper for launch and landing. Palud/Cisterna nearby has a stone beach just big enough to rig, a short walk from the parking.
Space
tight
Rules & access
Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.
Rider tips
- Wear water shoes: the shoreline is rock and pebble and the seabed has sea urchins.
- Do not plan on self-launching in town; bring someone who can launch and land you, or drive to a bigger launch.
- The Maestral comes NW/W in the afternoon; the windsurf school teaches 14:00 to 17:00 for that reason. Have a no-wind plan, because the only wind statistics for Rovinj average 5 kt and stop in 2009.
- Stay off the swimming beaches in July and August unless a local rider shows you a clear corridor.
- Palud/Cisterna is the alternative when the angle is wrong in town: NNE-ENE works there, but the stone beach is small and there are trees behind it.
- Fly to Pula (PUY), about 40 km away, and hire a car; the launches and the alternatives down the coast are not reachable any other way.
- Put 195 in your phone before you go. It is the free number for Croatia's national maritime rescue centre and works from a mobile; 112 and VHF 16 get you to the same place.
- If you want water you can stand up in, go south to Vestar, where about 50 m of sand shelves gently, rather than the stone beaches in town.
Getting there
Airport
Pula Airport (PUY), about 40 km from Rovinj; Trieste and Venice are farther alternatives.
Route
You want a car to reach the launches and the alternatives down the coast. Regional buses serve Rovinj, there is a summer ferry from Venice, and from Pula Airport it is a transfer, a bus or a taxi.
Transfer
40 min
Cost level
medium-high in July-August; lower outside peak summer
Staying
Resorts and hotels; apartments; a campsite. Porton Biondi (Porton Nature Hideouts) is on the sea with gravel and paved-stone beaches and water-sport rentals; the old town is more walkable and more touristy.
No-wind days
The old town; boat trips round the archipelago; kayak, SUP or a windsurf lesson; cycling or walking in Zlatni Rt/Golden Cape; the Palud bird reserve; Lim Bay; diving; Istrian food and wine inland.
Photos
FAQ
When is the best time to kitesurf at Rovinj?
The usable pattern is the summer NW/W Maestral, June to September, though the only local wind statistics are historical and average just 5 knots, so reliability should not be assumed.
Is Rovinj suitable for beginners?
No, one source calls it expert-only because of rocks and launch/land difficulty; self-launching is effectively not an option and a helper is needed.
What is the wind like at Rovinj?
Summer Maestral from NW/W is the usable pattern, typically an afternoon sea breeze; Bora and Jugo are stronger synoptic winds that should be treated as advanced conditions on this rocky coast.
What hazards are there at the launch?
The coast is mostly rock, stone and pebble with sea urchins reported, and launches are small and tight compared with Croatia's dedicated teaching spots.
Last updated: August 2026