Crikvenica is situated in the Kvarner bay of the Adriatic Sea, at a distance of 33 km from Rijeka, a major road and railway junction at the centre of the district of Primorje and Gorski kotar, also home to Crikvenica. The entire town of Crikvenica is in fact a Riviera with a row of almost connected small tourist resorts: Selce, Crikvenica, Dramalj and Jadranovo. The town spreads about 28 square kilometres in the coastal zone, which is about 15 km long and about 2 km wide, and is situated between the sea and the elongated littoral reef at an average height of about 300 m above sea level.

The nearby airport on the island Krk, the passenger and the cargo sea ports in Rijeka, as well as a good road and railway connection with Central Europe have contributed to the early development of tourism which has in the region of the present Riviera of Crikvenica a tradition of more than one hundred years.