Pula is the cheapest base in Istria, and most of the saving is in small choices: how you arrive, where you park, and what you eat. Here are the real numbers from the city, so you can build a daily budget instead of guessing.
Getting in from the airport
The airport shuttle to the centre is €6 and takes about 15 minutes, timed to flight arrivals. A metered taxi is roughly €15 to €20, so the shuttle saves you €10 each way for almost the same trip. If you are staying several days, that single choice pays for a lunch.
Getting around and parking
A city bus single ticket is about €2.50 on board and cheaper at kiosks, and lines 2 and 3 run to the Verudela beaches. For a car, Zone 3 parking is €1 an hour and €13.30 for the day, while Zone 1 by the centre is €3 an hour with a two hour cap. Park once in Zone 3 and walk, and your daily parking is about €13 rather than the €30 a day Zone 2 would cost.
Eating
A lunch at the market hall, the Tržnica, is the best cheap meal in the city: produce downstairs, fish upstairs, grills at the counters. A waterfront dinner on the Forum costs the most in the city for the same plate. The gap between the two is roughly a factor of two or three, so eating lunch out and dinner simple is the budget move. Our where to eat guide covers the kitchens.
A daily budget range
Assume a couple, self catering breakfast, one market lunch, one simple dinner, buses only, and one paid sight: about €70 to €110 a day in shoulder season (June or September), rising to about €110 to €160 in August once accommodation and the waterfront markups are in. It assumes no car hire and no big concert tickets. The getting to and around Pula guide has the transport detail, and the Pula travel guide frames the season choices.
