Pula sits at the southern tip of Istria, which makes it a good base for the whole peninsula. Close to the city there is a national park on a group of islands, a protected cape with thirty kilometres of coves, and an old town full of saints' relics. Within an hour by road are Rovinj and the western coast, and further inland, the medieval towns on the hills above the Mirna valley. And from May to early October a fast boat runs from Pula to Venice.
This guide takes the trips in order of distance, with how to get to each one by car, bus or boat, and what to know before you go. Driving times are routed estimates from Pula Airport, on the north-east side of the city, in free-flowing traffic.
Brijuni National Park, from Fažana
The Brijuni islands lie off the west coast of Istria, separated from the mainland by the Fažana channel, and the Pula Tourist Board puts them about six kilometres from the city. The archipelago of fourteen islands and islets was declared a national park in 1983, and the only way in for most visitors is the park's own boat from the small harbour at Fažana.
The standard visit is a guided excursion to Veliki Brijun, the largest island, which the park says lasts about three and a half hours: a boat ride of about fifteen minutes, a one-hour ride on the tourist train, the safari park with its elephant, zebras and llamas, the Roman villa at Verige Bay and the museum exhibitions. Tickets are sold at the park office by the pier in Fažana and online, and the park advises buying ahead to secure a tour in your language. Organised trips from Pula land on the island too: Fissa-Brijuni sails from the Port of Pula to Veliki Brijun for the tourist train, a guide, the Roman villa at Verige Bay, the safari park and the museum.
For many visitors it is the day trip from Pula, and it has its own guide: the Brijuni National Park guide covers tickets, the tour, exploring on your own, and the rules on the islands.
Fažana itself
Fažana is worth more than a walk to the boat. It lies about eight kilometres north-west of Pula, and the Istria Tourist Board describes a fishing town with beaches, playgrounds and a seaside promenade where people come out for the sunset. In Roman times it had a workshop making amphorae for olive oil, owned, the Archaeological Museum of Istria records, by the consul Laecanius Bassus.
The fifteenth century church of Saints Cosmas and Damian stands by the sea with a bell tower about 27 metres high, and inside hangs a Last Supper painted by Giorgio Ventura in 1598. The tourist board notes the town's many restaurants, and the national park's boats to Brijuni leave from the jetty in the centre of town.
Pulapromet's suburban line from the centre of Pula, the Arena and the bus station runs to Fažana and on to Peroj and Barbariga, which makes the Brijuni trip possible without a car. By car it is a short drive north-west of the city.
Cape Kamenjak
At the other end of the peninsula, Cape Kamenjak is the southernmost part of Istria: a protected landscape of about 404 hectares south of the village of Premantura, with about 30 kilometres of coastline broken into coves, rocky beaches and pebble bays, and no hotels or campsites. The Kamenjak Public Institution manages it and says Premantura is about ten kilometres from Pula.
It makes a full day out. The institution's dinosaur trail at Cape Grakalovac leads to fossilised footprints about 98 million years old, and on the island of Fenoliga there are about 150 more, including a track of 39 footprints left by a long-necked sauropod. There is a farm near Polje Cove with boškarin, the native Istrian cattle, an educational trail, a coastal cycle trail and beach bars in several coves.
In summer, motor vehicles pay a fee to enter the lower cape, while cyclists and walkers go in free, and the institution recommends coming by bicycle. The currents around the cape are strong, especially between Cape Kršine and Fenoliga, and swimmers are asked to stay within 100 metres of the shore. The beaches guide has more on the coves.
Vodnjan
Vodnjan stands about ten kilometres north of Pula, which makes it an easy outing from the city. The Istria Tourist Board describes an old town of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings, and the historic core keeps its medieval layout of narrow, winding streets and stone facades. The Bettica family palace, built in 1300 and known locally as the castle, now houses the town museum.
The parish church of St Blaise is the landmark. Its bell tower, at 62 metres, is the tallest in Istria, and the church holds the reason many visitors come: the preserved bodies of saints and a large collection of relics, reliquaries and old books. Several smaller churches around the town hold medieval frescoes, among them St Margaret from the twelfth century and Our Lady Traversa from the thirteenth.
Many of its older residents still speak an Istriot dialect of their own, which they call Bumbaro. Pulapromet's suburban buses serve Vodnjan and neighbouring Galižana, and by car it is a short drive north from the city. Combine it with Fažana for a full day with the Brijuni boat in the middle.
Vodnjan is also wine and olive country. Babos, the family cellar of the Giacometti-Moscarda family in the old quarter that gives the wine its name, holds tastings of its wines, olive oils and homemade spirits, and Medea Winery pours its wines, grown on terra rossa near Pula and Medulin, at a tasting counter in a wine and olive oil shop in the town.
Nesactium
For anyone interested in what came before Roman Pula, the ruins of Nesactium stand on Vizače hill above Budava Cove, near Valtura and the airport, about ten kilometres from the city. The Roman historian Livy recorded it as the royal seat of the Histri, the people who gave Istria its name, and the Archaeological Museum of Istria, which manages the site, says the burials in its necropolis run from the eleventh century BC to the Roman conquest.
The Romans took the town after a siege in 177 BC, destroyed it and built a new one on the same hill, with a forum, three temples, baths and houses on the slopes. In the fifth century two Early Christian basilicas went up on the central plateau, and the town lasted until the incursions of the early seventh century. A votive altar to the emperor Gordian, inscribed Res Publica Nesactiensium, confirmed the identification in the early twentieth century.
It is an open-air site, surrounded by prehistoric ramparts and Roman walls, and the museum keeps it open to visitors all year, with guided tours on request. It pairs well with an arrival or departure day, given how close it is to the airport.
Rovinj
The Istria Tourist Board puts Rovinj about 40 kilometres from Pula, and a routed estimate from Pula Airport gives 41 kilometres and 55 minutes, leaving the A9 near Vodnjan and continuing by way of Bale and Krmed. The old town stands on what was an island until the channel was filled in 1763, and Venice governed it for five centuries. Balbi's Arch, one of the old town gates, dates from 1680, and the old town also holds the church of St Euphemia.
Its coast is protected: the tourist board says the whole shoreline, with its twenty-two islands, is protected natural heritage. Around the old harbour, the Casa della Batana, an ecomuseum of the town's traditional flat-bottomed fishing boat, is inscribed on UNESCO's Register of Good Safeguarding Practices.
Drivers should know that the whole historic core is a pedestrian zone closed to motor vehicles by barriers, and entry is by card for residents and permit holders. Park in one of the city car parks outside it and walk in. The car parks and street zones are run by Komunalni servis, a company majority-owned by the town, and on a foreign mobile number the reliable ways to pay are the meter, the QR code on the meters and signs, paid by card, or the Bmove and Aircash apps; paying by text message works only on Croatian numbers.
Without a car, Orion Travel sails from Pula to Rovinj for a full day, past the Brijuni islands, with a guided walk in the old town, lunch while cruising the Lim Fjord and a swim at Red Island, and Istria Tours, run by a licensed guide in Pula, builds private day tours that take in Rovinj, Bale and Vodnjan among its set itineraries.
Tours & Day Trips in Pula
Boat trips, day tours and skip-the-line tickets around the city and the Istrian coast, via GetYourGuide.
Venice by Boat from Pula
A boat across the Adriatic to Venice for the day, or a one-way crossing in either direction.
Check availability
Inner Istria Day: Poreč, Motovun, Grožnjan
A day from Pula to Poreč and its UNESCO basilica, the hill towns of Motovun and Grožnjan, and truffles.
Check availability
Brijuni Islands Cruise with Lunch and a Swim
A double-deck boat round the Brijuni islands, with lunch, drinks and a long swim stop at Fažana.
Check availability
Brijuni by Boat with a Swim on St Jerolim
A traditional boat round the Brijuni islands, with dinner aboard and time to swim on St Jerolim.
Check availabilityThe hill towns of central Istria
Inland Istria is a country of hilltop towns, and the best known sit above the valley of the Mirna, the longest river in Istria. A car is the practical way to see them, or a guided day: Istria Tours runs set itineraries through Beram, Draguć, Buzet and Hum, and through Grožnjan, Motovun and Pazin, and DUC Transfers offers excursions to Hum, Grožnjan and Motovun, with truffle hunting on request.
Motovun, the Istria Tourist Board says, is a walled medieval town on a hill 277 metres above sea level, with a thirteenth century Romanesque-Gothic bell tower beside the church of St Stephen and a Romanesque municipal palace on the main square, the largest secular building of its period in Istria. From its walls the view runs over the vineyards and the Motovun forest, known for its truffles. Grožnjan is a small town that becomes a summer school for music, art and drama, with academies and workshops from the start of May.
Hum, near the source of the Mirna, calls itself the smallest town in the world. It is entered through a double gate built in the twelfth century, and the whole of the town's public life, its loggia, church and houses, sits around one small square. Buzet, in the far north near the Slovenian border, is known as the City of Truffles for the forests along the Mirna. Završje, on a cliff across the valley from Motovun, and Oprtalj, whose loggia looks out over the surrounding countryside, are two more.
The guided itineraries show that three or four of the towns fit into a single day, and the Istria Tourist Board presents them as a trip for every season, not only the summer.
Venice by fast boat
The Pula Tourist Board lists a passenger line from Pula to Venice and back, run by Adriatic Lines with the Prince of Venice. The operator sells day returns and one-way tickets from May to early October and puts the crossing at about three hours. Boats leave Istria in the morning and dock at the San Basilio terminal in Venice, with about five hours ashore before the return in the afternoon, and the operator says a passport or EU identity card is required.
Check the operator's timetable for sailings from Pula before planning around a date; the same boats also serve Rovinj, Poreč, Umag and Piran in Slovenia. Venice also charges an access fee on set days for day visitors over 14 entering the historic city; in 2026 it applied on 60 days between April and July, and the calendar is set each year, so look it up before booking.
Driving is possible but harder work. The routed estimate from Pula Airport to Piazzale Roma is 283 kilometres and three hours 35 minutes, through Slovenia and past Trieste. Cars cannot go further than Piazzale Roma or Tronchetto, where the city's car parks are, and a hire car needs the rental company's permission to leave Croatia. For a day, the boat is the more practical choice.
Planning your day trips
Brijuni, Fažana and Vodnjan can all be reached without a car on Pulapromet's suburban buses and the park boat, and its line to Premantura gets walkers and cyclists within reach of Kamenjak. Rovinj and the hill towns are easier by car, although boat trips to Rovinj and the Lim channel also leave from Pula, and Venice is best by boat.
Season matters. The Brijuni park is open every day except in January and February, when visits are for groups by arrangement. The Venice boat runs only from May to early October. Kamenjak is at its best, by the Kamenjak institution's own account, in late spring and early autumn.
For somewhere to stay that suits the day trips you have in mind, the where to stay guide compares Pula's districts with Fažana, Medulin and Premantura.
