One of the main reasons people come to Croatia is the beautiful Adriatic sea and the stunning coastline. While most tourists known Croatia because of Dubrovnik or Split, the Istrian Peninsula is the most visited region in the country.
One of Istria’s most impressive coastal towns is Pula. This charming destination has the crystal-clear beaches with addition of rich Roman history that makes exploring this city a delight.
With 60,000 inhabitants, Pula isn’t a large city, so it’s easy to walk around the city center and enjoy the greenery and tranquil beauty.
Here are 10 things to do in Pula, one of the oldest cities in Croatia.
It would be a little bit strange if we would start the list with something else than this stunning monument.
The Pula Amphitheater (called Arena by the locals) is one of the six largest Roman amphitheaters in the world.
Designed to host gladiatorial contests and seating up to 20,000 spectators, it still serves the purpose and it is a venue for many cultural and musical events.
The Kamenjak Peninsula also known as the Peninsula of Premantura (Punta) is the southernmost cape of Istria. Kamenjak rugged coastline consist of numerous beaches including 11 unhabitated islands.
30 kilometer long coastline offers many places to swim, high water jump, drive a bike or enjoy walking. Once you get tired of swimming, you can stay in one of the many beach bars.
While cyclists and pedestrians have free entry to the nature park, a fee is payable for all motor vehicles: car, motorbike or van.
Pula Castle “Kaštel” is an old fortress built by the Venetians. It is situated on a hill in the city center. The Kastel fortress was built between 1630 and 1633, based on a design from Antonio De Villa, and it belongs to the French style. It served as an important defensive point for Venetian control of the Adriatic.
Today, it is place of Historical Museum of Istria in the castle, which has a collection of more than 75.000 objects of cultural, historical, political and military character.
Except roman Amphitheatar, Pula is unique in the world for it’s tunnel network. The underground tunnels of Pula, called Zerostrasse, stretch below almost entire Pula.
They were built during the WW1 for sheltering people in case of air raids. Entrances were carefully planned to provide a regular air flow, which temperature is between 14 – 18 degrees Celsius.
Did you know that Istrian olive oil is considered best in the world? Have you heard about “malvazija”, well known local sort of wine? Are you familiar with truffles, and fact that forest of Istria hide one of the most expensive white and black truffles?
If there is something not to be missed while in Pula, it is a gastronomic experience. It is up to you whether it will be in the form of a cooking course, food tour, private dinner, rent a chef, catering…
The most famous offer of gastronomic programs has Istria Cooking, and you can find more at the link. We highly recommend their private dinners, cooking classes and food tours.
The best restaurants in Pula have a long-standing reputation for producing amazing dishes. The culinary traditions of Istria have been influenced by the Italian, Venetian, and Austro-Hungarian overlords of the past.
No matter if you decide for fine dining, casual meal, pizza, daily offer or street food, there is many places in Pula you can enjoy everthing on the list.
Some of the best gastro experience includes places like Konoba Boccaporta, Zembie’s street food, casual restaurant Amfiteatar and pizzeria Jupiter.
If you are looking for a plant-based, vegan or vegetarian offer, then you simply cannot avoid the first such place in Istria, the Vegan House restaurant.
Last few years catapulted Pula as one of the best places for nightlife in this part of Croatia. Most offer consist of disco clubs, bars and pubs, but there is also many events and partyies that ads flavor to the Pula’s nightlife.
The nightlife usually beginns in one of the bars in the city center. The main concreation is on Giardini square
Most popular disco clubs are Pietas Julia and Uljanik.
Brijuni National Park is a large group of islands located on the western coast of Istria, just near small city of Fažana. The Brijuni archipelago consists of 14 islands situated on the surface of 744 hectares.
After the World War II, Brijuni island became part of Tito’s Yugoslavia. He used Brijuni as his base, setting up the Non-Aligned Movement with India and Egypt here in 1956 and inviting the rich and famous (JFK, Sophia Loren…). He was regularly presented with exotic animals; you can still see many of them in Safari park, including Lanka, one of two elephants presented by Indira Gandhi.
Today people visit national park because of nature beauty, a beautiful safari park, dinosaur footprints and the old olive trees.
To get to Brijuni National Park, you first need to travel to Fažana where you can leave your car. The only transport to Brijuni are boats and they do not transport cars.
If you like pebble or rocky beaches, Pula has probably the most beautiful ones in the whole Croatia. Best way to describe them would be: untouched nature and emerald colour of the sea.
If you love sand beaches, you should think of beach Valovine (Stoja) and Bijaca (Medulin).
Our reccomendation: Ambrella (one of the most popular beach), Banjole (great beach for families), Havajsko (tourist resort Verudella, popular among younger population), Galebove stijene (untouched nature with big rocks and open sea), Valovine (popular for kids and family).
Pula Aquarium is part of Fort Verudela, a former defence complex from the Austro-Hungarian times. The family-friendly centre displays hundreds of fish species from the Adriatic sea, along with several from all over the world.
Also you can expect to see marine creatures such as sharks and seahorses at the aquarium as well.
