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City · Croatia

Zagreb

Central Europe, with a coffee that lasts two hours

Continental Croatia·Nearest airport: Zagreb (ZAG)
When to go
October 13° · 8 rainy days
Per day
~21 · 77 · 91 €budget · mid · comfort, per person · checked 15 Sep 2026
How many days
2days
For you
6 questions →
Nearest airport
11 km Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb · Nick Savchenko from Kiev, Ukraine, CC BY-SA 2.0

Zagreb rarely makes the list of people heading to the coast, and that is the biggest planning mistake in a Croatian holiday. The city looks Austro-Hungarian and behaves Mediterranean: Saturday coffee on Cvjetni trg lasts as long as it lasts, and it is an institution that sightseeing does not interrupt.

The Upper Town is the part you tour: St Mark's church with its tiled roof, the Stone Gate with a chapel inside the passage, and the Museum of Broken Relationships, which turned one idea into the 2011 award for Europe's most innovative museum. From the Lower Town a funicular 66 metres long runs up to it.

Zagreb
Zagreb

The Lower Town is the nineteenth century on a grid, with a chain of parks known as Lenuci's Horseshoe. Dolac, the market above the main square, opens daily at 6.30 and runs until 4pm on weekdays; it is the fastest way to see what this part of Croatia actually eats. Mirogoj, the arcaded cemetery north of the centre, is worth the fifteen-minute bus ride even if cemeteries are not your thing.

What to see

What to see in Zagreb

  • The Upper Town

    St Mark's church, the Stone Gate and narrow streets above the centre. Reached on foot or by the funicular from Tomićeva Street.

    free

  • Dolac

    The market above the main square, red umbrellas, open daily from 6.30. Vegetables on the upper level, dairy and meat below.

    free

  • The Museum of Broken Relationships

    A collection of objects from failed relationships, each with its story. The idea started in Zagreb and travelled from here.

    €9 (€7 reduced)

  • Lenuci's Horseshoe

    A chain of nineteenth-century parks and squares forming a green U through the Lower Town. The best way to walk with no plan.

    free

  • Mirogoj

    A cemetery of arcades and domes designed by Hermann Bollé. Fifteen minutes by bus, and quieter than anything else in the city.

    free

  • Medvednica

    The mountain above the city, with trails and Sljeme at the top. Bus and cable car go up; in winter people ski there.

    free (trails); Sljeme cable car €10 (return)

Did you know

Two things you probably did not know

Art

The Museum of Broken Relationships grew out of objects people sent in after breakups, each with a short story. It began as a travelling exhibition by two former partners and won the European award for the most innovative museum in 2011.

Geography

The funicular linking the lower and upper town is sixty-six metres long and the ride takes half a minute. It has run since 1890 and is one of the shortest passenger funiculars in the world.

All the facts →

Plan the trip

Ready for Zagreb?

Where next

Within reach from here

Places sorted by straight-line distance from Zagreb — day trips or weekends.

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On the map

Within reach from here: Plitvice Lakes, Graz and Klagenfurt

See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Zagreb if you have been.

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Photo credits and licences (21)

All photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and are used under the licence stated beside each one.