Our 8 day trip to Croatia started from Pula. About why the choice fell on this city and how to see Croatia in 8 days, I tell in separate article. Here we will focus directly on Poole.
If you want to order a comprehensive planning of your trip to Croatia or, conversely, learn how to organize your own trips, then that way 🙂
Pula airport and how to get to the city
The airport in Pula is located just 6 km from the citybut here’s the problem – there is no public transport from the airport to the city center. At least not in 2019. There is vague information about some kind of bus that either runs or doesn’t run, and if it does, it’s not clear how.
Desperate to find any specific details, I contacted the owner of the apartment we had booked and found out that she could arrange a transfer for us for 15 euros. This, of course, is a lot for 6 km, but at the same time, quite a bit in order to get comfortably from the airport to the apartment without any transfers and walking with a suitcase in search of the right house. We stopped at this option.
In general, I can say that the airport is small, there are few flights, so all customs and passport procedures take about 15 minutes.
Where to stay in Pula
According to the program, we had 2 days in Pula. We arrived at about 17:00 and, given the proximity of the airport and an individual transfer, we planned to go around all the sights on the same day before dark. They wanted to spend the second day on the beach, take a car in the evening and leave for Split.
Therefore, I was looking for apartments in the old town of Pula, so that I could see everything on the first day.
Of all the options, we settled on luxury flats in city centerlocated in the building where the nuns used to live. I liked the apartments, even though they were quite small. Everything is new, clean, excellent bathroom, there is soap, shampoos, etc., there is also a kettle. Internet worked well. In general, I recommend.
If you need a beach hotel holiday, you can consider Valkane beach area or Zlatne Stijene area. Of course, you will have to take a decent walk to the center (we walked about 5 km from our apartments to the Sixt station in Zlatne Stijene), but the beaches will be at hand.
You can read about how I’m looking for travel accommodation here (there’s a discount there 😉 )
What to see in Pula
It will take an hour and a half to get around all the sights of Pula. The old town is very compact, so all the interesting places are literally a couple of hundred meters from each other.
In general, the territory of present-day Croatia at one time was part of the Roman Empirehence the feeling that you are walking not in Croatia, but in some town in Italy.
The top attractions are as follows:
- Amphitheater – the “younger brother” of the Roman Colosseum, built in the 1st century AD. To enter inside you need to buy a ticket for a small amount of money. With a ticket, you can not only walk through the inside of the amphitheater, but also go down to the dungeon, where a small exposition is presented.
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Pula amphitheater. Dungeon -
Pula Amphitheater
- Roman floor mosaic (Floor mosaic The Punishment of Dirce) – a small piece of well-preserved Roman mosaic, which is quite difficult to find among parking lots, buildings and garbage cans. There is one information board somewhere along the way.
- Chapel of St. Mary of Formosa – the once majestic Christian basilica.
- City Palace (Pula Communal Palace) – the building of the current government of Pula, built in 1296.
- Temple of Augustusbuilt in the 1st century AD.
- Triumphal Arch of Sergiev, erected in the 1st century. BC.
- Small Roman Theater. I advise you to climb up and climb around the neighborhood – the views from there are cool.
- Gate of Herculeserected in the 3rd c. BC. You can easily walk past them without even noticing.
- Twin Gates – they are already more noticeable.
That, in fact, is all. This is how the route looks on the map:
Given that we arrived late, we immediately went to the amphitheater in order to have time to see it before closing.
The beaches of Pula
As I noted above, the beaches are concentrated away from the Old Town. We wanted to spend the second day on a very small, almost secret beach Gortanova Uvala. But we were not lucky with the weather – it rained all day. Of course, we drove to the beach (after we took the car from the rental), but we could not swim and sunbathe. But at least they got their feet wet.
Where to rent a car in Pula
Pula is not a very touristy city, so there are few distributors there. From international companies represented Sixt. There are only two stations in the whole city – at the airport and in the Zlatne Stijene area.
We booked the most budget class car with delivery in the city, but we planned to rent it at the airport before departure. There was no booked car at the rental point, so they gave us a crossover.
At first we were glad that we would be driving around Croatia in a cool car, and then we got sad – we eat a lot, we eat diesel, which is more expensive than gasoline in Croatia, we can’t find parking.
I devoted a separate article to all the intricacies of renting a car abroad.
Where to eat in Pula
We really liked Pizzeria Jupiter Pula. The portions are large, the food is delicious, the service is good, the atmosphere is pleasant, the prices are reasonable. What else do you need? 🙂
After Pula, according to the plan, we bought tickets for Plitvice lakesbut I had to replay everything and go directly to Split. Why – I tell a complete overview of our travels in Croatia.
