Guest House Riviera

The bones of this 1909 hotel are very fine. It was built on a grand scale during Pula’s heyday - when it was the base for the Austro-Hungarian navy. Very fine exterior and, inside, grand staircase and high ceilings. Rooms including windows are as they were built. Yes, the hotel is tired. Furniture in the rooms and in the ground floor reception area seemed mid-Tito period and there’s no air conditioning. That’s a particular issue on the hot fifth floor where the rooms have small windows - I’d suggest avoiding that floor in warm weather. (When I visited in June only rooms on the fourth and fifth floors were available - the fourth floor ones facing the sea are a good size with decent sized windows and have balconies). The wifi doesn’t extend above the first floor - although, as I discovered, staff were very accommodating about my using the wifi on the shady and cool breakfast/café terrace until midday, when it closed. Where the wifi was available, it worked well. Other positives were the excellent bathroom I had and free parking in the car park across from the hotel entrance. The buffet breakfast was fine. And the hotel’s position is terrific, next to the famous arena and within easy walking distance of all Pula’s other sights. (Be sure also to do the short walk from the hotel to Pula’s very pretty railway station, past handsome fin-de-siècle apartment buildings). Although it’s central, the position is quiet. It would be nice if one day the hotel could be improved. But it would be sad if it was so ruthlessly renovated that it lost its character and status as an important part of Pula’s history.