Pula Transportation

You can get to Pula by your own or rented boat. There are two big marinas in the town, one in a huge harbour of Pula (see the picture), and another in the area of Verudela called Bunarina. Both marinas are very well equiped, offering to nautic tourists everything they need.

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How to get Pula:
by airplane
there is an international airport in close outskirts of the town (5km)
by train
there is direct connection to Trieste, Ljubljana and Zagreb
by bus
there are everyday connections from Trieste (Italy), Rijeka, Ljubljana (Slovenia), Zagreb, Split ....
by car
by motorway, so called Istrian Ypsilon
by boat
only in the summer season

I do not recommend the train because the only connection from Zagreb to Pula goes through Slovenia, and it takes too much time to get Pula. The bus is more convinient.

On this drawing of the city of Premantura, the blue arrow shows where is the Fra-Kat Restaurant. For more details on that restaurant, look at Restaurants tip which will show the two landmarks not to miss, the bell tower and the church.

On this aerial photography of the Premantura peninsula, you can see the road from Pula at the bottom, arriving in Premantura city center where there are several restaurants and particularly the Fra-Kat (look at Restaurants tip).

If you want to visit the peninsulas south and south-east to Pula, with the cities of Medulin, Premantura, Banjole, Pjescana Uvala and Pomer, it is better to be on your own, driving or cycling. The roads are good but often narrow. As there are so many peninsulas, it is sometimes difficult to figure out how they are connected. Of course, the map shows it but this drawing, taken from a leaflet issued by the Tourist office shows it even more clearly.

I was here for 1 month and I flew into Venice, rented a car and drove down to Porec myself. This was the best option for me since I needed a car and if you are gonna do this, than do the same as I did. The same car in Croatia will cost you much more and you will have a harder time getting it. You can also rent a motorcycle.

If you don't need a car, you can come here by bus and leave any time you want as well There is regular service from Porec to Rijeka, Zagreb, Kopar...and around. Rovinj is actually even more popular with bus connections, even to Belgrade, and is not too far away.

The closest rail station is Kanfanar, a small town almost halfway to Pula...but still very close. Another one is in Pula itself.

You can come by BOAT from Venice as well.

Anyhow, whatever you do...there are tons of cops driving around, especially at night, and the $$ you have to put out for speeding ....uf!
And yes, don't be stupid (or be verrrry careful) if you get cought drinking and driving - bye, bye licence.

One more thing - in US and Canada, we tend to drive out to clubs, get hammered and than take a cab home and leave our cars wherever to wait for us until the next day. Don't do this here, the locals don't dare do something like this...so make sure you leave it or drive it home.

We arrived by train from Ljubljana...ironically it was the hottest day, and not one we wanted to spend in a railway carriage, but still...that's luck, I suppose. From Ljubljana, you have to make sure you are in the right carriage, as at a junction, the carriages split, some heading to Rijeka, some to Trieste, and just one to Pula. Leaving, we took a boat to Venezia...the proper ferry wasn't running on the day we wanted to go, so we took one of the many excursion boats going there for one day, and it worked out cheaper and faster than the ferry...plus the company offered free transfers between accommodation and port. There are many travel agencies in the old city offering similar trips.
Most of the hotels and the youth hostel are located a few kilometres south of the centre, so bus is the only sensible way of getting around. You can pick up good maps of the town at travel agencies and at the tourist office, which are fairly close to the station...handy if you've just arrived. Be warned that many of the streets marked on the map don't correspond with the streetnames in reality!

We got there by bus. I was 18 at that time so didn't mind to sit for quite a long time as it was the cheapest way to get there.
And what happened?...Our bus broke down. So we had to wait outside the bus, in the afternoon when it was so damn hot, till they came to repair our bus. And later we found out we were just a few miles away from the camping!!
We didn't do many day trips as we spend most of the time at the beach. But a few times we travelled by bus what was a good thing to do.