Pula Airport to Rovinj
About 40 km north; the airport bus is €15 online or €18 on board and takes around an hour, leaving 30 minutes after each flight.
A Venetian fishing town built on a former island, its houses rising straight out of the water to a hilltop campanile modelled on the one in St Mark's Square.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Rovinj, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €55). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €15) 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 | €15 | €55 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €30 | €55 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €60 | €55 | Private transfer |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €15, 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
Bus / shuttle
Sets down at Rovinj bus terminal, a few minutes' walk from the harbour and the edge of the old town. In August the online booking is worth having — the coaches fill when two flights land together.
Where to catch it: The coach waits outside arrivals and leaves about half an hour after your flight is scheduled to land. Book online through FILS for €15; buying from the driver costs €18.
Best for solo & budget travellersPrivate transfer
Ask your accommodation where vehicles can reach — the streets inside the old town are steep, cobbled and stepped in places, and the difference between a good arrival and a bad one is knowing that beforehand.
Where to catch it: Forty minutes by road. Rovinj's old town is entirely pedestrian, so cars stop at the harbour edge or the Valdibora car park.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsTaxi
Four times the coach fare for a saving of twenty minutes, which makes sense for a family with cases and rarely otherwise.
Where to catch it: Available at the rank. Agree the fare before setting off.
Best for small groups in a hurryCar rental
Rovinj is a good base for Istria with a car — Poreč half an hour north, the Lim fjord fifteen minutes, and the hill towns an hour inland. Without one you are on the coastal buses.
Where to catch it: Short drive with paid car parks ringing the old town; nothing parks inside it.
Best for travellers who want to exploreRovinj & 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 Rovinj
Rovinj takes more visitors than Pula does, which is why the airport's most useful bus is not the one into the city. The Rovinj coach costs €15 booked online and €18 from the driver, and it leaves roughly thirty minutes after each scheduled arrival rather than at a fixed time — the departure is tied to your flight, not to a clock. About an hour to the Rovinj bus terminal.
Book it online, and not for the three euros
The saving is real but minor. The reason to book ahead is a seat: when two charter flights land within half an hour of each other in August, the coaches fill and the next one is an hour away. FILS and Brioni both run the route and both sell online.
A town built on an island
Rovinj was an island until 1763, when the channel separating it from the mainland was filled in. That explains the shape — houses rising straight out of the water on three sides, streets climbing to the church of St Euphemia at the top, and a campanile modelled deliberately on the one in St Mark's Square, because this was Venetian territory for five hundred years.
The old town is entirely pedestrian
Cars stop at the harbour edge or in the Valdibora car park to the north. Beyond that it is cobbled, steep and stepped in places, and the main street up to the church is polished stone that is genuinely slippery in rain. Ask your accommodation where vehicles reach and how far the walk is — the answer varies enormously between addresses two hundred metres apart.
St Euphemia
The saint's sarcophagus arrived, according to the story, by floating across the Adriatic from Constantinople in 800. The church at the top of the hill houses it, and the campanile can be climbed on a wooden staircase that feels less structural than one would prefer. The view takes in the whole coast and the offshore islands.
Grisia, and the painters
The steep street up to the church is lined with galleries, and on the second Sunday of August the whole thing becomes an open-air exhibition with work hung along the walls. It is genuinely old — the tradition dates from 1967 — and genuinely crowded.
Where people swim
Not really in the town. The Golden Cape — Zlatni Rt — is a forested park immediately south with rocky entries, pine shade and paths, reached on foot in twenty minutes from the centre. The islands of Sveta Katarina and Crveni Otok are short boat rides from the harbour and have proper swimming.
The Lim fjord
Fifteen minutes north, a ten-kilometre drowned valley that looks like a fjord and is not one. Oyster and mussel farms line it, boat trips run in from Rovinj, and the restaurants at its head serve what comes out of it.
Taxi versus coach
A taxi runs €60–85 against €15 for the bus, for a saving of twenty minutes. That makes sense for a family with cases arriving late and rarely otherwise — particularly since both end at roughly the same place, given that neither can enter the old town.
With a car
Rovinj is a good Istrian base: Poreč half an hour north, Pula forty minutes south, Motovun and the hill towns an hour inland. Parking is paid and rings the old town; nothing parks inside it. In August the lots fill by mid-morning.
When to come
June and September are warm, swimmable and considerably calmer. July and August fill the town to a degree that changes the experience — the main street becomes a slow queue between about eleven and four. Evenings are better in every month.
Getting back to the airport
The coaches run in reverse and are timed to departures. Book the return online too; the last services of the day are the ones that fill, and Pula's schedule is concentrated in the afternoon.
