Rijeka and Pula in Croatia

We've spent a week in Croatia with my girlfriend, visiting cities Rijeka and Pula. Overall it was very pleasant experience.

If you are in the central europe, I can recommend taking Regiojet trains to Croatia. There is a direct line from Prague to Rijeka. You will probably not get lower price for the same comfort. We've booked the whole coupe for ourselves. It comes with a cost, but the coupe is available up to 4 people normally and I probably wouldn't like to share it with strangers. It might get crowded. There are also non-bed seats if you are looking to save money.

We had some hiccups along the way (electricity went off) which ended up with us arriving to Rijeka 3 hours later than planned. Otherwise, the sleeping experience was great.

Rijeka

Rijeka is a port city in Croatia. It's very industrial and I have to say it has none of the typical charm of other mediterranean coastal cities. Lots of buildings are in bad shape and many seemed abandoned. There's a giant pier Mololongo which has a nice view of the city but the open sea side is seperated by a wall. It's mainly built for cranes to operate over boats. This pier kinda ruins the view from the city on the open sea. When it's actually possible because huge chunk is taken also by the port for container ships. The horizon of the city is dominated by prefab buildings among green hills. Which doesn't help the overall impression.

Beaches

The beaches are split by the center of the city on the west side and east side. We visited only the east side, so I can't comment on the west.

We went first to Sablićevo beach. This beach is small and it has a bar. It was very crowded and there was music blasting from the bar. I wouldn't recommend for anyone looking for a quiet place.

Second beach was Glavanovo. This one is a bit further away from the city center, and it's a bit bigger. It's also quieter and there's no bar. It's not a long way from Sablićevo thou so if you want some piece and quiet, I'd recommend going here.

There's also very small beach next to the Borik Tavern. Which I can recommend stopping by for food if you are in the area.

All the beaches were mix of pebbles and concrete. I didn't see any sandy beaches in Rijeka. All the beaches also had showers. Fair warning - they are also all accessible only by stairs (or swimming). I believe the ones on the west side have better accessibility.

There are also few further away from the city, but we didn't visit them.

Activities

We've visited the Trsat Castle. It's a nice castle with a great view of the city. It's a bit of a hike to get there, but it's worth it. There is also a restaurant there.

What I can highly recommend is visiting Peek&Poke computer museum. It's a small museum with lots of old computers and consoles. It's a great place to visit if you are into retro computers. You can also play old school console games there, yey.

The main street is called Korzo. It has everything you need, and it's pleasant to walk through. But nothing fascinating.

Food was great everywhere we went. I can recommend Pizze Galileo for some great pizza and Submarine Burger Rijeka for some good burgers (they have vegan options as well).

If we were planning it again, we wouldn't probably spend more than 1-2 days in Rijeka thou. As we found out, the city of Pula is only about 1-2 hours by bus away and has a much nicer atmosphere. What's more Opatija, that is about 30 minutes by bus from Rijeka, seemed much nicer to stay in as well. Saw it only from bus on our way to Pula, so I can't comment on it more.

Pula

Pula is a city in Istria, Croatia. It's a very nice city with lots of history. It has its own colosseum, which is smaller than the one in Rome, but it's still impressive.

Almost immediately we both agreed that it has much better mediterranean atmosphere than Rijeka. Our first steps led to the Arena Stoja and we took a kayak tour from there. The tour took us to Jamica Beach and Pidgeon Cave and we can highly recommend it.

We've also visited Pula Aquarium. It's amazing. It's build in an old fortress which is in itself nice to see. But it mixes some modern naval history museum with the aquarium and it comes together in great experience.

We didn't get much time in Pula, but just walking in the city was very pleasant. In our opinion the vibes were much nicer than Rijeka overall.

Notes

Lead Photo by Ozren Cuculic on Unsplash