Things to Do in Zagreb: Local Experiences and Day Trips

Zagreb is the Croatian city most visitors underrate. They land, sleep one night and race for the coast, and miss a capital that is walkable, green, cheap by European standards and, above all, lived in - a place where the Saturday morning coffee on the main square is a social institution, the market is still where people actually shop, and the Upper Town looks the way it did two centuries ago. Give it a full day, ideally two: one for the city itself, one for the lakes and rivers that start an hour south of it.

This page collects what you can book in Zagreb through Ventoro - small, local things run by people who live here - plus the day trips that use the city as a base. Every listing has live availability, instant confirmation and free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start.

The city in a day

Start at Ban Jelačić square, the meeting point of the whole city, and walk up to Dolac, the open-air market that supplies Zagreb's kitchens from the red umbrellas every morning until about two in the afternoon. From there the funicular - the shortest in the world at 66 metres - or the steps take you to the Upper Town: St Mark's church with its tiled coat-of-arms roof, the Stone Gate shrine, the Lotrščak tower that fires a cannon at noon every day, and the view over the red roofs from the Strossmayer promenade. The Museum of Broken Relationships is up here too and is better than it sounds. Come down through Tkalčićeva street, the cafe-and-bar strip where the city spends its evenings, and you have seen the heart of Zagreb on foot in half a day.

Croatian folklore, two hundred metres from the square

Five minutes from the main square, a preserved traditional Croatian house hosts the live folklore show: an hour of dances and music from the different regions of the country performed in authentic costume, with a guided tour of the house, a glass of homemade rakija and time for photos and questions with the performers. It runs every evening at 17:00, which makes it the perfect bridge between sightseeing and dinner. The same house runs a hands-on workshop where you decorate your own licitar heart - the red gingerbread heart that is a UNESCO-listed Croatian tradition - and paint a wooden toy from the Zagorje region, both of which you take home. It is the best souvenir in Zagreb because you made it.

For families and rainy days

Zagreb gets real rain, and when it does, the HaHaHouse, the Museum of Laughter, is where the city's families go: an interactive house of installations in the centre, with sumo suits, a voice-changing karaoke, an entrance slide and a hamster wheel, built to make adults as silly as their children. Tickets are cheap, children under five go free, and it is a two-minute walk from the square. The licitar workshop above is also a strong rainy-day pick for kids who like to make things.

Day trips from Zagreb

The reason most travellers come through Zagreb at all is Plitvice Lakes, two hours south. The guided day tour with the park ticket, boat ride and Rastoke included leaves the centre at 07:45, beats the crowds to the Great Waterfall, walks the boardwalks with a guide and has you back by early evening. Our Plitvice Lakes guide covers tickets, entrances, seasons and the rivers nearby in detail.

For a day that nobody else on your flight will have had, the private Tesla and transparent-kayak tour heads into the Lika highlands: the Nikola Tesla Memorial Center in his birthplace Smiljan, the glass-clear springs of the Gacka river where the old watermills still turn, a paddle in a see-through kayak, and lunch in a village konoba. Ninety minutes south-west of the city, the Mrežnica river kayaking trip is the active option: emerald pools, small waterfalls and swim stops in a canyon most Croatians have never seen.

When to come and practical notes

Zagreb works in every season. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant for walking; summer is hot but the city empties out as locals head for the coast, so it is quieter than you would expect; and December brings Advent, the Christmas market voted Europe's best three years running, when the whole centre turns into one long stroll of lights, mulled wine and food stalls. The airport is thirty minutes from the centre by bus, the city is flat apart from the Upper Town, and trams cover everything else. Try štrukli, the baked cheese pastry, at least once.

Everything on this page is run by local hosts who work with Ventoro directly. If you are heading to the coast afterwards, our destinations overview covers Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia.