Skyscanner has dropped its list of the most affordable air destinations for 2027, and Croatia's Istrian coast has a seat at the table. Pula came in seventh place, with the search engine predicting flights to the Adriatic city will cost around 20 percent less next year than in 2026.

The list is built entirely around airfares, which says a lot about how people are booking trips now. Travellers are increasingly weighing expected transport costs — not just hotels and meals — when choosing where to go. Spain's Bilbao tops the ranking with a projected 66 percent drop in ticket prices versus this year, followed by Wroclaw in Poland (down 47 percent) and Bordeaux in France (down 34 percent). Rounding out the top ten alongside Pula: Zurich, Ancona, Rhodes, Carcassonne, Fez and Krabi in Thailand.

For Pula, the placement matters more than the number. The city has long been a quieter alternative to Croatia's headline spots like Dubrovnik and Split, and cheaper flights could open it up to visitors who previously found it pricier or harder to reach. For Croatian tourism more broadly, air access is a direct lever on international competitiveness, so a spot on a list as widely read as Skyscanner's is a genuine win.

And Pula earns the attention on its own merits. The Roman amphitheatre standing at the heart of the city is one of the best-preserved in the world and hosts concerts and film festivals in summer. Add a working harbour, Austro-Hungarian architecture, beaches and coves along the indented coastline, and easy day trips to Rovinj, Motovun and the rest of Istria's hill towns and wineries — and you get a compact, rewarding coastal break without the crowds of the Dalmatian hotspots.

If airfares do fall as predicted, 2027 looks like a good year to book Istria on a budget. Worth noting: the same list has useful company nearby — Ancona across the Adriatic and Rhodes further south could pair into a wider Mediterranean trip, while Bilbao's 66 percent projected drop makes it arguably the standout bargain on the whole ranking.

Based on a report by Total Croatia.