Pula (Pola in Italian) is a nice town at the tip of the Istrian peninsula, Croatia. Once a predominantly Italian city, Pola was occupied by Jugoslavia in 1945 and formamly annexed in 1947. At that time those Italians who had not already moved to Italy went into exile. Today there still is an italian minority and many locals speak Italian.

Get in

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Pula has its own international airport with direct services from many European cities including Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Oslo and Zurich. Ryanair operates direct flights from Dublin and London three times a week. Many flights to Pula are charter rather than scheduled, while other flights are seasonal (summer only). A taxi from the bus station to the city should be around 85 kuna in the low season and much higher in the summer.

There are buses from Rijeka, Trieste, and Venice. There is also a train station and a harbor.

If you are coming from Italy there are two buses daily from Venice leaving at 11am and 1:45pm going to Istria, with a final stop in Pula. They are operated by two different bus companies, but you can by tickets for both buses at the A.T.V.O bus office at the Venice bus station. The Venice office is around outside on the ground level across from where all the buses park. Both buses pick up at spot b15. It is roughtly a 5 hour bus ride, with stops in Trieste and Rovinj. You can also pick up the bus at the bus station in Mestre, fifteen minutes after the scheduled bus leaves Venice.

Hitchhiking from Zagreb works very well. In Zagreb start from the petrol station after the "Billa" supermarket on the southside of the Sava river. In Rijeka ask people to drop you off at the little SOS stop after a pretty sharp right bend of the motor way around Rijeka.

Get around

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For local transport the cheap taxis from CityTax (25/30 Kuna) can be a good alternative for the public buses (10 Kuna per person). (This taxi service my no longer be available.)

If you want to take a small backpack with you on an AUTOTRANS bus, first ask the driver if this is OK before buying the ticket. Otherwise you might be refused entry on the bus and your ticket will not be refunded, even if you have bought it off the driver just 2 minutes earlier. (The Brioni company seems OK - onboard small backpacks are allowed, but you have to insist.)

All buses have a luggage area. The service is charged separately from the ticket and it usually costs 7kn. Every ticket can be refunded at the ticket office (a fee will be charged).
There should be no problem taking a small backpack or a small suitcase on the bus as long as you can fit it in the overhead compartment (which is rather small) or under your seat/legs.

See

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The Arena, the 6th largest surviving Roman amphitheatre. Towering over the nearby buildings this huge structure was barely saved from destruction...