Pula Airport to Fažana (Brijuni)
About 15 km from PUL; a transfer is €30–45, and the national park boat leaves from Fažana harbour on a fixed timetable.
The small harbour from which the boats leave for the Brijuni islands — a national park that was Tito's summer residence, complete with Roman ruins, a safari park of diplomatic gifts and a golf course from the 1920s.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Fažana (Brijuni), a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €30). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €8) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €8 | €30 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €16 | €30 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €32 | €30 | Private transfer |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €8, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Private transfer
Boats to Brijuni run to a published timetable and the tickets include the crossing and the island tour. Book the boat before you plan the transfer — sailings are limited and sell out in high season.
Where to catch it: Twenty-five minutes up the coast to the harbour front, where the national park office and the jetty are.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsBus / shuttle
Cheap and workable for a day trip. Allow more time than the timetable suggests if you are catching a specific boat — the local bus is not built around the sailings.
Where to catch it: Shuttle into Pula, then the local bus north to Fažana; the stop is a short walk from the harbour.
Best for solo & budget travellersTaxi
Only the national park boats reach Brijuni — private vessels cannot land, and there is no other way across.
Where to catch it: Direct to the harbour; agree the fare first.
Best for small groups in a hurryCar rental
Cars stay on the mainland. On the island itself transport is a little electric train, bicycles or walking, and the whole visit runs about four hours.
Where to catch it: Parking at Fažana fills in summer; arrive early for a morning sailing.
Best for travellers who want to exploreFažana (Brijuni) & Pula in photos
Buying tickets in Pula
Pula's buses run on an unusual clock: departures are set at roughly 30 minutes after each scheduled arrival rather than at fixed times, so the coach you want is tied to your flight number. Two companies operate them, Brioni and FILS. The city shuttle into Pula bus station costs about €6 and takes 20 minutes. The Rovinj service — the one most arrivals need, since Rovinj takes more visitors than Pula does — is €15 booked online and €18 from the driver, about an hour to the Rovinj bus terminal. Booking online saves three euros and, more usefully, guarantees a seat when two flights land together in August. Everywhere else in Istria means changing at Pula or Rovinj onto an Autotrans coastal coach: Poreč about 90 minutes in total, Umag closer to three hours with two changes. The interior — Motovun, Grožnjan, the truffle villages — has no service worth the name.
Taxi scams & safety in Pula
This is a small, seasonal airport with few of the usual problems: fares are published, the coaches are run by established companies, and the taxi rank is straightforward. The thing to plan around is geography rather than money. Istria's old towns — Rovinj, Poreč, Motovun, Grožnjan — are all closed to vehicles, so whatever you arrive in stops at a car park or a gate, and Rovinj in particular is steep, cobbled and stepped once you are inside. Ask your accommodation where cars actually reach before choosing between a €15 coach and a €60 taxi; sometimes the answer makes the coach just as good. Two contractual points: Cape Kamenjak's tracks are unpaved and most rental agreements are unhappy about them, and if you plan to cross into Slovenia from Umag — twenty minutes away — that must be declared to the rental company rather than assumed. Note also that Trieste and Ljubljana airports are closer to northern Istria than Pula is.
Getting from PUL to Fažana (Brijuni)
Fažana is a small harbour fifteen kilometres from Pula Airport, and its entire significance is that the boats to Brijuni leave from it. The islands are a national park, they were Tito's summer residence for three decades, and you cannot reach them in your own vessel — the park's boats are the only way across, running to a published timetable from this quay.
Book the boat before the transfer
This is the order that matters. Sailings are limited, the ticket includes the crossing and the island tour, and they sell out in high season. Arranging a car to Fažana for a boat you have not booked is a common way to waste a morning.
Getting there
A transfer runs €30–45 and takes twenty-five minutes to the harbour front, where the national park office and jetty are. The cheap route is the airport shuttle into Pula and then Pulapromet line 21 north — around ten euros and fifty-five minutes, though the local bus is not built around the sailings, so allow margin.
What is on the islands
Roman villa remains at Verige bay, a Byzantine fortress, a fifteenth-century church, and a golf course laid out in the 1920s when Brijuni was an Austrian spa resort. Then the twentieth-century layer: Tito's residence, the photographs of the world leaders who visited, and a safari park stocked with animals they gave him as gifts.
The safari park, honestly
Zebras, an elephant, some antelope and cattle — the survivors and descendants of diplomatic presents. It is a strange, slightly melancholy thing to encounter on an Adriatic island, and it is genuinely part of the history rather than an attraction bolted on.
The dinosaurs
Brijuni has some of the best-preserved dinosaur footprints in the Mediterranean, in several locations on the main island, walkable on marked paths. They are Cretaceous, they are on the shoreline rock, and they are considerably less advertised than the safari park.
How a visit works
The standard ticket covers the crossing and a tour on the little electric train that loops the main island, taking about four hours in total. You can also stay overnight in the island hotels, which is a different experience — the day visitors leave and the place is almost empty.
Cars stay behind
No private vehicles cross. On the island it is the train, hired bicycles, electric buggies or walking. Parking at Fažana fills in summer, so an early sailing means an early arrival at the harbour.
Fažana itself
A working fishing village with a waterfront of restaurants, a small church and a pilchard-salting tradition it makes rather a lot of. It is pleasant for an hour before or after the boat and is not a reason to come in its own right.
The Roman quarry connection
Stone from the Brijuni quarries went into buildings across the Adriatic, including in Venice. The islands have been worked, farmed and occupied since antiquity, then abandoned to malaria in the nineteenth century until an Austrian industrialist drained them and built the resort.
Timing and weather
Crossings are cancelled in rough conditions, which happens more often outside summer. The park operates year-round on a reduced timetable and the winter visit — no crowds, no heat, everything closed — has its own appeal for some.
Combining it
Fažana is twenty minutes from Pula and half an hour from Rovinj, so Brijuni fits naturally as a day from either. It works less well as an arrival-day activity, given that the boats run to a timetable and your flight does not.
What it cost to build
Paul Kupelwieser bought the islands in 1893 when they were malarial and worthless, brought in Robert Koch to eradicate the mosquitoes, and turned them into a spa resort for Habsburg society within fifteen years. The hotels, the golf course and the harbour all date from that decade, and the layout of the main island is still essentially his.
Booking an overnight
The island hotels are run by the national park and there are only a few of them. Staying gives you the island in the evening after the last boat has gone, which is the version of Brijuni that people who return come back for. Book well ahead — capacity is small and fixed.
