Whether you’re looking for destinations around Europe to visit during your European road trip, or you’re just looking for a quick city trip, chances are you might have considered Zagreb. Here’s why you should, or shouldn’t, go there.
Disclaimer: most of the images I’m sharing with you in this post are taken from my travel video, which is why they’re low quality. I’m sorry, I didn’t really take a lot of pictures, but I focused mostly on the video.
As you may or may not know, my family and I spent four days in Croatia last week. The main objective of our trip was to visit Plitvice, but we stayed in Zagreb for accommodation and to explore the city. Yes, I realize that strolling around in a foreign city for three days doesn’t really make me qualified to tell you why you should and shouldn’t visit – but I was able to get a pretty good understanding of Zagreb’s positive and less positive points.
Perk 1: Cleanliness
If you’re going to Zagreb, the chances of you finding some junk on the streets are incredibly slim. The city centre is ridiculously clean. Admittedly, this wasn’t something I was expecting from a big city in eastern Europe, but hey, no complaints here!
When I say the city is clean, I’m mostly talking about the streets and public places, though. Some of the buildings look a little rough around the edges, and at times even straight up unappealing. But I guess that’s the case in most, if not all, major cities around the world.
Perk 2: Central location
If you’re doing a road trip through eastern Europe, Zagreb is the perfect place to begin. For starters, Croatia is located fairly centrally within Europe. Most other European countries and major cities are easily accessible by plane, train or bus.
Besides, it’s easy(ish) to find a fairly cheap apartment or hostel in the city centre of Zagreb. That means you’re in the centre of the centre of the centre. Could it get any more central than this? (Spoiler alert: no)
Perk 3: Cheapness
Compared to other major European cities like Paris and Rome, Zagreb is a cheap place to travel to. You might pay a little more for your airplane ticket, but I guarantee you’ll make up for that lost money with the money you spend on food, drinks and shopping.
Quick tip: if you’re coming from a country other than Croatia, you’ll have to convert your cash. The official currency is the Croatian kuna (1 HRK = 0.13 EUR = 0.15 USD).
Perk 4: Friendliness
I’ve heard that the people in Zagreb have been called the Dubliners of the East. Both people possess the immeasurable quality of being friendly and open-minded toward strangers.
To continue the analogy with Paris and Rome, inhabitants of the big European cities will definitely give you weird looks when you take a picture of yourself, when you look on a map to see where you’re going or when you put on sunscreen. In Zagreb, people are accepting and accommodating of tourists and they don’t make a big fuss out of them.
Perk 5: English knowledge
Another thing that surprised me about the people in Zagreb is their knowledge of the English language. Obviously, most people in big cities have a basic understanding of English and know how to express themselves, but the Croatian people even have a great accent and can speak with ease and with a broad range of vocabulary. I must say, as an English major, I was impressed.
Drawback 1: Food quality
Now, on to the drawbacks of Zagreb. First – and foremost – the food. Croatian cuisine isn’t really something you should incorporate into a culinary road trip. I mean, there are obviously worse things to survive on than schnitzel and French fries, but it’s not something I would travel across Europe for.
Drawback 2: Instagram-worthy spots
Opposite to what Perk 1 would have you believe, there are very few sincerely beautiful locations in Zagreb. Undoubtedly, someone living in Zagreb would tell you something else, but that’s just because they’re too proud to admit that they really don’t have that many things to see.
Keep in mind, I’m not saying that there’s no Croatian heritage and culture to be found in Zagreb. I’m only pointing out that the actual buildings and sites left much to be desired.
Drawback 3: Traffic
People from India, New York City or Italy might feel tempted to object, but I felt like the traffic in Zagreb was pretty crazy. There were traffic lights, but nobody cared whether they were on green or on red. People crossed the street whenever and wherever they saw fit, speed limits appeared to be relative and you can pass cars on the highway left or right.
To an experienced driver who is used to being in these traffic situations, it might not seem like much. But to me, a whimsy kid who doesn’t even have his license yet, it was a true sight to behold.
Conclusion: Zagreb is …
Zagreb is a decent city. I feel like it’s a good thing that I’ve seen it once, but I don’t feel the need to return to the Croatian capital any time soon – if ever.
You have to make the decision for yourself, and weigh out the benefits and the disadvantages of visiting Zagreb. If you want to visit a place where you can take loads of beautiful pictures to show off to your friends, I’m afraid Zagreb is not for you. If you want to explore Croatian culture and maybe take a day trip to Plitvice, go for it!
As always, thank you guys very much for reading!
-S
Marko
June 19, 2018 at 10:05 amSorry, but Croatian food is everything but bad. Not sure where you ate, but Croatia has plenty of local dishes that people mostly rave about. Schnitzel and french fries don’t fit the Croatian culinary map.
Sander
June 19, 2018 at 10:10 pmHey Marko! First of all, thanks for your comment. I definitely didn’t mean to imply that Croatian food is bad. I was only saying that what I ate wasn’t very impressive compared to the food in countries like France or Italy. Then again, we might have just picked the wrong places to eat. Looks like I’ll have to come back and taste again. 😉
Aurelio
August 14, 2018 at 8:09 amI found your review to be mostly well balanced but two things pop out that didn’t really make sense:
Saying that food quality is bad in Croatia is just funny, especially since you mentioned Italy as having good food and it’s a well known fact that Croatian cuisine is heavily influenced by Italian. It looks to me like you opted to eat generic food (wiener schnitzel and french fries indeed lol) in generic restaurants, maybe next time going out and trying actual Croatian food would be the way to go? 🙂 Obviously štrukli, turkey with mlinci, čobanac, carp on wooden forks, fiš paprikaš, pig roast, presnac, potato pole, masnica, cicvara, lički lonac, plum strudel, pljukanci, maneštra, fuži, peka dishes (that can include lamb, fish, vegetables, calamari etc), pašticada, soparnik, pasta fažol, rožata and many other dishes didn’t really come into equation when you were deciding where to eat out. Excusable, but I think you missed out on a lot of interesting things.
Second thing is the Eastern Europe theme you’ve got going in your post.
By any metric Croatia most def isn’t an Eastern European country neither culturally nor historically or even geographically (which, funnily enough, you also concluded by saying it’s located centrally within Europe) XD
Anyway, as I said, you gave a solid, mostly well balanced review all things considered, hope you do come back someday and try some of or real food
Sander
August 14, 2018 at 9:08 amHi there Aurelio!
Thank you very much for your comment and honest ‘review’ of my blog post. I appreciate it a lot.
As I said in another comment, we didn’t really look into typical Croatian dishes we wanted to try before heading to Zagreb (which is probably why we ended up eating the generic food, as you suggested). If I come back to Croatia some time, I’ll definitely keep your list of Croatian foods in mind.
Secondly, I only called Croatia an Eastern European country because, to me, everything to the east of Germany/Austria/Italy is Eastern Europe.
Thanks again for your comment!
global treats
May 21, 2020 at 3:20 pmI feel you missed out a bit. The upper town of Zabreb is very beautiful. And the night life in Zagreb is also excelllent with many wonderful bars. Also, you never mentioned the street art which is among the best in the world. I spent some time in Zagreb just before christmas 2019 and I loved it.
Sander
May 21, 2020 at 3:55 pmHi there! Thanks for commenting. Some other people have also told me that my experience in Zagreb was far from the full picture, so I guess I’ll have to go back and check out everything that was recommended to me since I was last in Zagreb. By no means am I implying that my experiences are universal, it’s just that I personally didn’t feel like Zagreb was all that interesting. Thanks again for sharing your concerns with me!
Zagreb tourist
March 22, 2022 at 11:57 pmI’ll sum it up… Awful food and 90% miserable people. (In general, and this is in Zagreb, I’ve heard other places are totally different). Half the people seem like they couldn’t crack a smile if they tried.
And yes, you’d think chicken schnitzel was the national dish, although unfortunately it’s usually the best thing on the menu.
Anyone that says otherwise is trying to make the place sound good (and I understand why some would).
The food can be somewhat overlooked, the foul unfriendliness of a lot (obviously not all!) of the people… not so much.
Anyone that says otherwise is either delusional, not well travelled or just talking nonsense.
Cheer up Zagreb!
Peter
April 15, 2023 at 11:35 pmZagreb is one of the least interesting European capitals I’ve visited.
People are nice and very friendly – that’s probably the best thing about the city.
Buildings are a bit ugly. Food is so so, prices are reasonable though. Landscape is mostly boring, there’s no striking characteristic about the city.
Zagreb doesn’t have many tourists and it can be seen as positive, but then again we can wonder why so few visitors?!
One or two full days in Zagreb are enough if you’re visiting it.
Diana
August 31, 2023 at 8:56 pmAs a croat who was born in Australia, I can say the food in the whole of Croatia is awful compared to the rest of Europe. I have visited different parts for over 20 years and is doesn’t improve!
Bad pizza is everywhere and cevapcici, small salty sausage things. The lack of variety, quality and imagination is astounding. And service is appalling as well in most places. Only people who will disagree with me will be the Croats!
Connie Yates
January 27, 2024 at 2:38 pmI am happy to give this post my celebrity endorsement.
Matej
April 16, 2024 at 10:19 amYou have a huge lake – Zagreb sea. You have a beautiful mountain in Zagreb.