Croatia · Primorje-Gorski Kotar County · Rijeka
Drenova, Rijeka — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Drenova is a neighbourhood of Rijeka on a plateau above the city, holding its largest park and cemetery grounds.
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Where to stay in Drenova
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
Drenova is a place to live. Rooms on the plateau are scarce, because this is a residential local board of Rijeka rather than a visitor quarter, and anyone staying here has usually chosen the height and the parkland over convenience. The city lies below.
Rijeka itself carries the beds, so the sensible pattern is to sleep down in the city and come up to Drenova for the park and the open ground rather than the other way round.
Find hotels in Drenova
Direct booking searches for these neighbourhoods.
Gornja Drenova
The upper of the two historic halves of Drenova, standing above Rijeka with the city's largest park area close by. Rooms are few around here — worth securing early.Find hotels in Gornja Drenovastays on the lower half of Drenova, nearer the descent into RijekaDonja Drenova
The lower of Drenova's two historic halves, closer to the drop down to Rijeka and to the neighbourhood's cemetery grounds. Lodging is scarce in this area; reserve in advance.Find hotels in Donja DrenovaHotel links are affiliate links: booking through them may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects how places are ranked. How this works
About Drenova
What are the main landmarks in Drenova?
The park is the landmark. Drenova holds the largest park area and the largest cemetery in Rijeka, and between them they account for much of the open ground on the plateau, which is what the local board means by calling the neighbourhood the green lung of the city. The plateau itself counts.
Height gives Drenova the rest of its interest, since a shelf of ground above Rijeka offers an outlook over the city that no landmark built up there could match.
What is the history of Drenova?
Drenova was two places. Gornja Drenova and Donja Drenova, the upper and lower halves, were historically distinct settlements on the plateau, and the pairing survives in the names long after the two were joined into a single neighbourhood of Rijeka. The present arrangement dates from 1997.
Since then Drenova has been administered as one unit of Rijeka rather than as an upper and a lower village, though the old division is still the easiest way to read the ground up there.
Where is Drenova?
Drenova occupies a plateau above Rijeka in Croatia, high enough to read as a separate shelf of ground rather than as part of the city below.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Drenova?
Gornja Drenova: quiet nights on the upper shelf of the Drenova plateau. Donja Drenova: stays on the lower half of Drenova, nearer the descent into Rijeka.
More areas in Rijeka
Updated September 2026