A summer trip to Zagreb

Croatia's National Theatre

When to go

August and September are probably the best months to visit as you still get the benefit of the sunshine, but most tourists have gone home and its mainly other university/ gap year students who you’ll be sharing your precious bar time with. Getting there Croatia Airlines has direct flights from London for £200 upwards. If this is a little out of your price range you have two other options, you can either get a cheap Ryanair flight to Slovenia, Austria or Italy and then either get a bus or train to Zagreb.

We took a bus from Piran (on the coast of Slovenia) which leaves everyday at 5am for only £10. Alternatively, you can get the Eurostar http://www.eurostar.com across to Paris and then get the train through Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia.

This may sound like a mission, but the train journey is really beautiful and you could always stop off in one of the countries on the way in order to break up the journey a bit, and see new places!!

Where to stay

Being a bit of a planner we booked the first nights hostel in Zagreb before we left using Hostel Bookers. We stayed in the Ravince Youth Hostel which was only a 10 minute tram ride away from the city centre and train station, and a few minutes walk to the city zoo and park. The trams are very regular and cheap and definitely the easiest way to navigate the city.

Zagreb Cathedral

The hostel itself was lovely, we shared a four person room (two sets of bunk beds) with an older American lady who was lovely and insisted on making us breakfast every morning. The hostel had washing and drying facilities, a cafe, a television room and internet access. The only thing we thought was lacking was a pay phone, but there was one down the road so it didn’t matter too much! There were three other groups of English student travelers staying there and we soon teamed up to take on Zagreb. The family who run the hostel were very happy to give us any information we needed and were generally very friendly.

Prices start at £13.63 each per night if you don’t mind sharing.

What to do

There is plenty of things to do in Zagreb during the day. There are several museums and churches which are definite musts; however, you can easily spend your day wandering around the centre of the city it has many parks and historic buildings which are free to look in. The cathedral in particular is stunning as is the Croatian national theatre.

The shopping is a definite perk of Zagreb, I picked up a pair of stunning heel for £4.20 which I still can’t believe! Zagreb is very easy to navigate and the shops are all set on 3 main roads – which will help you find the bargains more quickly!

Zagreb zoo really took me by surprise. I'm usually quite anti zoos as I always feel sorry for the animals, but Zagreb zoo was lovely with big enclosures and loads of different animals. We ended up getting quite attached to an otter who followed us around his whole enclosure... we like to think its because he liked us, I suspect he just wanted feeding!

Plitvice Lakes

If you fancy a day trip out of the city, the Plitvice Lakes are only a few hours drive away. The lakes are huge with several different length walks signposted around them. The lakes are absolutely beautiful and even after doing two of the walks we did not want to leave! My advice would be to take some trainers or at least some pumps, as our flip flops didn’t quite cut it walking down the side of a waterfall!

Nightlife

The nightlife in Zagreb is very good in terms of lively bars. However, if you fancy a dance the options are very limited. On our first night we were informed that we could get a taxi to a place forty minutes away where there was a nightclub, but other than that our only option was a rock club a ten minutes walk away. We opted for the rock club to save money and ended up having a fab night.

Unfortunately by the third night we were bored of the rock club, so after a few bars ended back at the hostel just chatting to the people we’d met, which was nice, but Zagreb is not the place to go if you want a wild week of partying! Although, one benefit of going out in Zagreb is that trams run well into the night, we got one back to the hostel at 3am.

The bottom line

Zagreb is a beautiful city with lots to see and do on the cheap. However, if I were to go back to Croatia I’d probably opt for staying by the Plitvice lakes for a few days as the city can get a bit tiresome, especially as there is not much to do in the evenings.

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