We have spent only 1 night in this lovely place 25-26 May 2008, and wished we could have stayed more!
It was an amazing experience and we highly recommend this hotel. The staff were very kind and helpful. When we arrived, and it was 6 of us with 2 small children, it felt like they were just waiting just for us. We have got 2 apartments and the view from ours, (it was the top floor), was breathtaking. We have had little kitchen, living room and another bedroom and a huge bathroom. The suite was very clean and spacious. The location is great too, only 5 min from Arena and shopping. Breakfast room was great, lots of choices and again, very friendly waiters and receptionist.
They truly made us feel welcome and like at home. Thank you!

For our first night in Croatia we looked for a hotel situated in the town centre of Pula. We booked a triple room for one night, and when we arrived at the hotel they said they were full (even if we had made our reservation 3 months in advance), and that they had accomodation for us in a nearby hotel. This new hotel was actually situated in the suburbs of the city, and we had to pay for the taxi that took us there. When asked, the receptionist told us that the Galija Hotel used to send people to their hotel when they were full. I definitively wouldn´t recommend Galija Hotel!

We stayed at Hotel Galija in October.

On the upside: the room was fairly basic but very clean and a decent size - it had a minibar and satellite TV, but only two English stations. When we arrived to check-in staff were pleasant, as was the waitress on duty the first morning.

On the downside: if you want to be shouted at (twice) across a breakfastroom full of guests for requesting a cup of tea, then Boyana is the woman! Admittedly, she was under pressure covering both reception and breakfast alone that morning and the tea/coffee machine was broken (as it remaind all week), but Boyana took rudeness to a quite shocking level. I was extremely embarrassed at the way I was barked at - other guests remarked upon it also. She remained surly towards us for the rest of our stay. As I say, the other staff were either pleasant or indifferent, but Boyana was gobsmackingly rude and should not work in a service industry. We will not be going back.

Note: There was major construction going on in the courtyard, but during daylight hours. Off-season is probably the best time for them to do this and it didn't impact on our stay too much.

We checked into the Hotel Galija on the recommendation of the receptionist of another hotel in a small town 15 km from Pula called Medulin. We'd had problems being based in Medulin at this time of year (Oct) because everything was closed and we'd had to travel to Pula by bus each day anyway.

The Hotel Galija was extremely central which was a definite plus since we were travelling with 2 children aged 6 and 10. The room was spacious enough with a double bed in one room and 2 sofa beds in the 'living room' but these had been made up as beds and this greatly reduced the size of the room. The kids loved them, though.

The Hotel breakfast was much better than in our previous hotel and plentiful, though quite basic.

The hotel staff were very helpful and spoke quite good English. One lady in particular, Boyana, was really nice and booked taxis and a tour to Brijuni Island for us. She was also brilliant when my husband got tonsilitis and had to see a Doctor, phoning ahead and acting as interpreter by phone.

The only problem with the Hotel Galija -and it was a big one when there are 4 people travelling together - was a fact that has been mentioned before on this site. I phoned reception on the first night to find out how long it would take to get hot water for a bath or shower and was told it would be about 10 minutes from the time I switched the heating system on. I waited 2 hours and even then only got enough hot water for one person to have a very quick shower so we were forced to work out a strict shower rota. We never had enough hot water to enjoy the jacuzzi bath I saw advertsed on the hotel website when I got back.

We were in room 20 in the annex and perhaps this is not a problem in the other rooms. I only know that had it not been for the inconvenience of having to work our schedule around a hotel's availability of hot water, I would have given the Hotel Galija a much more favourable review.