How far is Pula to Rovinj by car?
Pula to Rovinj is 41 km by road from Pula Airport, a drive of 55 min. Times are without traffic or stops; summer queues and toll plazas add to them. The drive starts where you collect a hire car at Pula Airport, the first pick-up place in the form.
The drive takes the A9 motorway north for about 12 km, leaves it south of the Kanfanar junction, and follows the D75 west-coast road for about 8 km towards Bale before a local road from Krmed runs down into Rovinj. From the airport itself, the D401 is a 1.5 km spur to the D66 at Valtura, which joins the motorway at Pula.
Drivers arriving from Slovenia, Italy or Zagreb use a different line: they leave the motorway at the Kanfanar interchange and go on via Putini. From Pula the drive turns off the A9 before that interchange.
| To | Road km | Drive time |
|---|---|---|
| Pula (Arena) | 8 km | 20 min |
| Rovinj | 41 km | 55 min |
| Poreč | 58 km | 1 h 00 |
Where do I hire a car for Rovinj?
At Pula Airport. Pula is the pick-up city the search gives for Istria, and the bookable cars it lists for October and November 2026 and February and May 2027 are all based at the airport (PUY). A car for a stay in Rovinj is collected there and driven the 41 km up the coast.
Each car shows its own deposit, card rule, mileage limit and free-cancellation mark before you pay, while what standard insurance leaves out is set by the rental conditions for Croatia and is the same on every car. The minimum charge is 24 hours, the car goes back with the fuel it left with, and the minimum age and driving experience are set per car and can differ between similar models (clauses 1, 3 and 13 of the rental conditions).
Search cars at Pula Airport
Search carsWhere do I park a car in Rovinj?
All of Rovinj’s paid parking, gated and open, is run by Komunalni servis d.o.o., a company majority-owned by the City of Rovinj-Rovigno, under a council decision last amended on 28 May 2026. The barrier car parks are Velika Valdibora, Mala Valdibora, Boksiti, Nova Hladnjača, Obala Nona, Fra Pavla Pellizzera and the Grand Park Hotel garage. Entry and exit run through terminals and barriers, you pay at an automatic machine or a staffed booth, and they charge 24 hours a day in every season, for each started hour, with a 5-minute tolerance.
The open car parks and streets are paid at meters and split into coloured zones: Zone 1 red, Zone 2 yellow, Zone 3 blue, Zone 4 grey, and Zone 5 green, reserved for buses, campers and trucks. Zone 1 has a 180-minute maximum stay. Blue means something different in Pula, where it marks the residents’ old-town zone, so read the sign in each town.
The zones are charged from 1 November to 31 March between 06:00 and 20:00, with Sundays and public holidays free, and from 1 April to 31 October between 06:00 and 23:00 every day, with a higher tariff from 1 June to 30 September. The table gives the prices in force on 10 September 2026; they change, so check the sign before you pay.
| Car park or zone | 1 Nov to 31 Mar | April, May, October | 1 Jun to 30 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Velika and Mala Valdibora, Boksiti | 0.50 an hour | 2.00 an hour | 3.50 an hour |
| Obala Nona, Fra Pavla Pellizzera | 0.50 an hour | 2.00 an hour | 3.00 an hour |
| Nova Hladnjača | 0.50 an hour | 2.00 an hour | 6.00 an hour |
| Zones 2 and 3 | 0.50 an hour | 2.00 an hour | 3.00 an hour |
| Zone 1, 180 min at most | 0.50 for the first 30 min, then 1.00 for each 30 min | ||
How do I pay for parking in Rovinj on a foreign phone?
Pay at the meter, by scanning the QR code on the meter or sign and paying by card, in the Bmove or Aircash app, at the Valdibora car park’s payment office, or at a Tisak, iNovine or Azzurro kiosk. Text-message parking is for customers of the three Croatian networks, A1, T-Mobile Hrvatska and Telemach Hrvatska.
A car left unpaid, over its time, or with its paper ticket out of sight behind the windscreen is treated as having taken the daily parking ticket, and the order to pay is left under the wiper. The person liable is the vehicle’s registered owner, which for a hire car is the rental company. Parking and fines are the renter’s to pay, and a fine the company receives after your hire, with its administrative costs, is charged to the deposit, which some companies hold for 30 to 45 days (clauses 12 and 17).
Can I drive into Rovinj old town?
The whole historic core is a pedestrian zone, from the old cold store along Obala palih boraca round to Trg brodogradilišta, and barriers with controlled entry points keep motor traffic out. Residents, suppliers in set hours and permit holders open them by card, and the few vehicles allowed inside keep to 10 km/h. Bringing a guest to a hotel inside the zone needs the city department’s approval.
So park in one of the city car parks outside the zone and walk in. If your accommodation is inside the old town, ask it about access before you arrive rather than driving up to the barrier.
What should I know about the drive from Pula to Rovinj?
The A9 is part of the Istrian Y, a 141 km motorway run by the concessionaire Bina Istra, and it is tolled, with toll stations at Pula, Vodnjan jug, Vodnjan sjever and Kanfanar among others. Pay at the plaza in cash, by bank card or INA card, or with an ENC tag that Bina Istra has encoded, and check the vehicle class and amount on the lane screen first. Tolls are the renter’s cost. Croatia plans a barrier-free toll system on the whole network, the Istrian Y included, from 1 March 2027.
The default limits for driving in Istria are 130 km/h on the motorway, 90 km/h on the D75 and other roads outside towns, and 50 km/h in Bale, Rovinj and every other built-up area, and signs can set lower ones. Dipped headlights or daytime running lights are compulsory in daylight from 1 November to 31 March. Works to duplicate the Limska Draga viaduct, on the A9 north of the Kanfanar junction, were under way on 25 September 2026; the drive to Rovinj leaves the motorway before it.