Pula Airport ground transport

Pula's airport is small, seasonal and unusually well organised for its size. Two bus companies, Brioni and FILS, run the connections, and the timetable works differently from most airports: departures are set at roughly thirty minutes after each scheduled arrival rather than at fixed clock times, so the bus you want is tied to your flight number rather than to an hour. The city shuttle costs about €6 and takes twenty minutes into Pula. The Rovinj service — the one most arrivals actually need, since Rovinj takes more visitors than Pula itself — costs €15 booked online and €18 from the driver, and runs to the town's bus terminal in about an hour. Buying online is worth the three euros and the certainty of a seat in August. Istria is compact in a way the Dalmatian coast is not: Pula to Rovinj is forty minutes, Poreč an hour, Umag an hour and a quarter, and the whole peninsula fits inside a ninety-minute radius. That closeness is why a hire car changes the trip here more than at most airports — the interior is the half of Istria that buses do not reach at all. Motovun, Grožnjan and the hill villages above the Mirna valley have no useful service, and the truffle country around Livade is reached by road or not at all. On the coast, Rovinj and Poreč both close their old towns to traffic, so a car is for the days between rather than the arrival itself.