Pula

Pula’s pitch is unusually simple for a Croatian city break: a 1st-century Roman amphitheatre, near-complete and big enough to seat 20,000, sitting right at the edge of the old town. You walk inside it, not past it, and down into the underground passages where there’s an exhibition on Roman olive-oil and wine production. The rest of the centre fills in the picture — the Forum square, the columned Temple of Augustus, the Arch of the Sergii — and all of it packs into a few walkable streets, so the sightseeing core is genuinely a half-day rather than a marathon.

That compactness is why Pula works best as a two- to three-night trip rather than a week parked in one hotel. Stay in the old town if the ruins and walkable dinners are the point; move out to the Verudela or Stoja peninsulas if you’d rather wake up by a beach and a pool. The airport is tiny and only about 6km out, so arrivals are quick and cheap whichever you choose.

The bigger decision is whether to treat Pula as the destination or the doorway. Istria’s best bits — Rovinj’s old harbour about 40 minutes away, the car-free Brijuni islands reached by ferry from Fazana, the wild swimming coves of Cape Kamenjak to the south — are all close but awkward without your own wheels. Hire a car and Pula becomes a base for one of the most rewarding corners of the Adriatic. The structured planning below — where to stay, what the Arena actually costs, how to get in from the airport, and a realistic budget in pounds — picks up from here.