Zagreb
Croatia
A Habsburg capital of cafés, trams and markets, two and a half hours from the nearest beach
Photo by Kristijan Arsov on Unsplash
Photos by Aleksandar Vučin, martin bennie, Tomislav Dodig and Davor Denkovski on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Croatia
May to June, September to October, and December for Advent
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 95mm in Jun
Where it is
45.81°N, 15.98°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Go to Dolac before ten, while the stalls are full
- Sit out the Saturday špica, the late-morning coffee parade around Flower Square
- Walk Mirogoj in the afternoon light
- Come in Advent, when the city stays out in the cold until late
- Use it as a base for Plitvice and the hills of the north rather than for the sea
- Skip August, when half the city has gone to the coast and plenty of places close
Zagreb travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Croatia
Mid-rangeEuro since 2023. Zagreb is priced for the people who live in it rather than for visitors, and a coffee on a terrace costs noticeably less than it does on the coast.
ATMs & cards
Use Zagrebačka banka, PBZ, Erste or OTP machines. The Euronet machines around Ban Jelačić Square and the station are the expensive ones. Decline conversion.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- machines around Ban Jelačić Square and the stations
Use these instead
- Zagrebačka banka
- PBZ
- Erste
- OTP
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Croatia
Very safeA very safe capital. The things that catch visitors are ordinary: pickpockets in the Advent crowds on the main square, trams that are quiet and have right of way, and icy pavements in a winter that is continental, not Mediterranean. The cathedral is still being repaired after the 2020 earthquake, so check what is open before planning around it.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Ban Jelačić Square — and the Advent stalls on December weekends, where the crowds bring pickpockets
- the tram tracks in the Lower Town — the trams are quiet and have right of way, and visitors step out in front of them
- pavements and the Upper Town steps in winter — ice, in a city that gets real frost
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Croatia visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Croatia
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for inland forest areas
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Coastal towns have clinics geared to the tourist season; islands are thinner, and serious cases go to Split or Zagreb.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodŠtrukli — dough wrapped round fresh cheese, boiled or baked with cream — is the Zagreb dish, and worth seeking out where it is the speciality. Turkey with mlinci is the Sunday lunch. Buy cheese and cream from the women at Dolac in the morning, and eat kremšnita, the custard slice, which the town of Samobor claims.
Travel tipsNightlife
A real capital’s evening: café-bars full of locals rather than visitors, a summer club scene by the lake, and Advent turning the squares into an open-air party in December.
- Tkalčićeva — one long street of bars below the Upper Town
- Flower Square and Bogovićeva — terraces in the Lower Town
- Jarun — the lake, for the summer clubs on the shore
Closing: Café-bars around midnight, later at weekends; the clubs go on until five or six.
Getting around
Easy- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- From the airport
- Split airport to the town €30–40, Zagreb airport to the centre €20–30
- Against a taxi
- Well under the street taxis, which is why the taxi drivers protested about it for years.
On the islands supply collapses out of season — in November a car may be twenty minutes away or nowhere.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Zagreb — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Croatia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Croatian
- HelloDobar danDO-bar dan
- PleaseMolimMO-leem
- Thank youHvalaHVA-la
- Yes / NoDa / Neda / neh
4 more phrases
- Excuse meOprostiteo-PROS-ti-teh
- How much is it?Koliko košta?KO-li-ko KOSH-ta
- The bill, pleaseRačun, molimRA-choon
- Cheers!Živjeli!ZHIV-yeh-li
Religion
Catholic
Strongly Catholic, particularly along the coast and in Dalmatia. Sunday Mass fills churches that are otherwise full of tourists.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Cover shoulders and knees to enter churches
- Greet with dobar dan on entering shops and restaurants
- Take coffee slowly — a kava can last an hour and that is the point
- Try the local wine rather than defaulting to Italian
Don't
- Do not call Croatia part of the Balkans casually, and avoid glib talk about the 1990s war
- Do not wear swimwear away from the beach; several coastal towns fine it
- Do not tip more than rounding up
- Do not compare Croatian to Serbian in company
Where to stay in Zagreb
No Holistay rentals in Zagreb yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Zagreb on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Zagreb Franjo Tuđman ZAG
30 minfrom the airport· 10 km as the crow flies
Shuttle bus to the main bus station, 30 min.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
