Hotel Riviera - Pula, Croatia 

I stayed at this hotel for two nights at the end of a long trip. My room was a box with rather tired furniture, but it was clean and quiet. The exterior of the hotel is Austro-Hungarian faded glory (curlicues and dormer windows, painted Maria Theresia yellow), but the interior was remodeled badly in an effort to "modernize" it, and it hasn't been well maintained over the years: some of the hall carpets looked stained and moldy, and the (one small) elevator was creaky. The breakfast options were limited (plain rolls, generic cheese, cheap cold cuts) and the coffee wasn't very good, but there's a nice terrace where you can sit in good weather. I thought the location was great: it's an easy walk to the train and bus stations (I had no trouble making a 6 AM bus to Trieste), the Roman amphitheatre is a short distance away, and you can walk to the city center in about 15 minutes. But if you arrive with a car, the only parking is on the street or in a paid lot a block away; the hotel has no parking of its own. Another disadvantage is that there aren't any restaurants close by: there are a couple of nightclubs, but to get a meal you have to hike quite a distance. If someone was willing to put a lot of money into renovating and redecorating, this could be a terrific hotel -- but as it is now, its chief virtues are (1) location and (2) it's reasonably priced.

My partner and I stayed at Hotel Riviera for four nights. The room was very cheap at €31 ppn including breakfast, but remember you get what you pay for! The building itself is a wonderful Habsburg era landmark, situated about 5 minutes walk from the Arena, overlooking the harbour. We had a spectacular view from the balcony, it’s just a pity the room wasn’t equally as good. We arrived about 8.30pm and checked in quickly taking the lift to the fourth floor. Being used to modern hotels where they squeeze as many rooms into the smallest space, the lift opened out onto a large communal area on the return of the stairs leading onto wide corridors. The room doors still have the faux leather padded insert popular in the 1970s, and I almost expected to see the little boy from The Shining coming around the corner on his tricycle! Another review mentioned that film, so there could be a pattern here. The room itself was large, but had definitely seen better days, although the beds and bathroom were clean, we weren’t inclined to walk around the room in our bare feet. You will also see from the photos, the surprise we got one afternoon returning to the hotel, to find a length of timber holding up the light fitting, with a hand written note saying “don’t tuch” (sic) in three languages!! Croatian health and safety might not be that of Ireland. The breakfast is fairly miserable, the usual dried out cold meats and bread. Having said that it’s a buffet, so you can help yourself. Shop around the hotels in Pula. This place is very cheap and would be a wonderful hotel if someone would invest in it. It is falling down and in sore need of even just cosmetic work. It would be a terrible shame if such a wonderful building is left to rot, but you can do a lot better for places to stay. I didn’t mind staying here after all I wasn’t sitting around the room all day, but I wouldn’t stay again and I couldn’t recommend it to others.