20 great things to do in Zagreb

1. Visit Zagreb's newest museum

The largest museum ever built in Croatia and the first to be built in Zagreb for 125 years, the Museum of Contemporary Art opened its doors in December 2009. It comprises 5,000sq m of exhibition space, a library, a multi-media room, a boutique and a children’s workshop.

The MCA, known to Croatians as the MSU, joins the Lisinski Concert Hall and the National Library as major cultural institutions to have been located in recent times in Novi Zagreb, the little-visited area over the Sava river lined with post-war residential blocks. Igor Franić, the Croatian architect who designed the building in the spirit of the former functionalist tradition, was inspired by the shape of the meander. This snake-like form has special significance in Croatian art, used repetitively by the influential Julije Kniefer in the 1960s. The collection consists of more than 4,000 works by 900 artists. Highlights include EXAT 51, New Tendencies, the experimental films of Ivan Ladislav Galeta and Tomislav Gotovac, and conceptual artists such as Goran Trbuljak, Sanja Iveković, Dalibor Martinis, as well as Atelier Kožarić.

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2. Browse the Dolac market

Eighty years old and counting, Dolac, Zagreb’s main market, sits above the main square, a landmark for local and tourist alike. Farmers from surrounding villages come to sell their home-made foodstuffs. In the covered market downstairs are butchers, fishmongers and old ladies selling sir i vrhinje, cheese and cream, while outside are some of the freshest fruit and vegetables you’ll taste. Alongside, the ribarnica fish market sells fresh seafood every day but Monday. Look out also for the bargain lunches offered at little spots around the edge.

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3. Barhop along Tkalčićeva

A lounge-bar scene may have sprung up around the Flower Market just south of the main square, but this rustic stretch parallel to Kaptol pointing north is still the main nightlife drag for many a local. Rickety old houses now interweave with remodelled restaurants and galleries while, in between, are dotted a dozen or more bars. Stand-outs include Cica, bohemian purveyor of rakija spirits; Melin, a tattered old haunt of teenagers and grown-ups who should know better; and the Funk Club, a lively bar and basement club. Here and there are cocktail bars, terrace bars, faux pubs and hostelries of most stripes. Unsurprisingly, the handful of fast-food outlets are equally popular.

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4. Enjoy cut-price quality cuisine

After the success of the outstanding but pricy Marcellino, chef-owner Mario Čerhak has opened the (relatively) bargain bistro Hugo under the same roof. On offer are risotto yamamoto, anchovy soup and other delights, in beautiful, verdant surroundings. Note that it’s closed on Sundays and on Saturdays only opens in the evening – but you could combine it with lunch at the Bistro Apetit nearby, followed by a brisk walk.

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5. Meet Croatia’s great

Mirogoj is Zagreb’s Highgate, the final resting place for 300,000 souls of many religious backgrounds, depicting the city’s rich patchwork history. A 15-minute journey from Kaptol on the No 106 bus, Mirogoj is also an architectural gem. Behind a series of green, onion-shaped cupolas, which cap ivy-covered brick walls, are tiled arcades, monuments to Croatia’s most prominent citizens. Some you would recognise from Zagreb’s street signs: Stjepan Radić, for example, who gives his name to Radićeva, was a politician who was shot in the Belgrade Parliament in 1928. His more recent counterpart, Franjo Tudjman, is honoured for his role in the Yugoslav War with a modern monument of black marble. One of the most visited sites is the grave of basketball star Dražen Petrović, who died in a car crash at 28. The best time to visit is on All Souls’ Day, November 1, when everything is shrouded in a halo of candlelight.

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6. Take the funicular

Linking the focal, shopping street of Ilica with the major sights of the Upper Town, Zagreb’s ‘Old Lady’ is more than 100 years old. Inaugurated in 1890, it’s the oldest public transportation in town, a year ahead of what was a horse-drawn tram. Its other nickname translates as ‘stuck’, locals poking fun at how many times it has stopped halfway up the incline – although no longer a problem, the distance remains 66 metres from the base on Tomićeva, just in from Ilica. Carrying a maximum of 28 passengers at a time, it journeys every ten minutes to and from the base of the Lotrščak Tower.

7. Sink a Velebitsko

The main attraction of rock bar-club Route 66 is not the regular live music, nor the autographed mementoes of the visits of Bill Wyman and some guy out of AC/DC: it’s the Velebitsko. Available at a few select outlets in town, and certainly not in big supermarkets, this sought-after beer is brewed under age-old German laws of purity in Lika, a modest drive from Zagreb. Holding out against the majors, the Velebitsko brewer gained experience in Germany before setting up in Croatia in 1997. Locals travel across town for a cold one of quality. Another microbrewery is Medvedgrad, with a chain of beer-hall restaurants across town, while nearly every other bar will stock domestic Ožujsko or Karlovačko.

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8. Stroll the Maksimir

A lovely expanse of green a ten-minute tram ride east of the city centre, the Maksimir combines park, zoo and, across the road, the national football stadium of the same name. It first opened to the public more than 200 years ago. You could happily spend a day around its dense woods, long meadows, tree-lined alleys and man-made lakes. Along its southern edge is the City Zoo with seals, sea lions, otters and piranhas.

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9. Grab some gableci

Cheap and satisfying, gableci are cut-price lunches sold at outlets around town where à la carte dishes may be twice as dear. You’ll see boards up, usually during the working week, suggesting the three or four gableci for that day. With the modernisation of daily life, the spread of fast food, the standardisation of working hours and trend towards healthier, lighter pastas and salads, (often) meat-heavy gableci are getting harder to find. But find them you will, around the Dolac market and Kvarternikov trg, for example, neighbourhood spots serving bean stew (grah), turkey with Zagorje pasta (purica s mlincima), squared pasta with roasted cabbage (krautflekerli), and so on. One place to try them might be the Gostionica Purger between the main square and the station, titled after the local name for someone from Zagreb.

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10. Buy Croatian wine

According to the owner himself, Vlado: ‘Bornstein started in 1990 on Pantovčak, the first private enoteka in all of former Yugoslavia, selling only wines from private producers. When we started in the early 1990s, that was important’. Thus, 20 years on, Bornstein is still the best wine boutique in town, probably in all Croatia. Vlado has an encyclopaedic knowledge of labels from every region of the country – and is happy to share it with customers. The shop also stocks truffles, honey and olive oils, making it a handy one-stop shop for quality souvenirs near the Cathedral at Kaptol and at his original branch at Pantovčak near Britanski trg.

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11. Soak away at the Westin

Each improvement at the five-star Westin offers a new reason to book a room. At the end of 2009 it made yet another splash with a vast, sparkling fitness and beauty centre. It also pushes Zagreb as a spa destination to be reckoned with. Set behind the Mimara Museum, near the National Theatre, the Westin has had to play something of second fiddle to Zagreb’s other five-star lodgings. With the addition of their ‘World Class Health Academy’, no more. Within its confines reside Turkish and Finnish saunas, cutting-edge Nautilus equipment, and a beauty centre for massages, pedicures, manicures and facials. The 17-metre pool has an infinite feel and is surrounded by tasteful wooden lounge chairs and black stones, lit with an ethereal blue light. Check their website for deals such as the stay-two-nights-get-one-free special.

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12. Catch quality live jazz

For its size, Zagreb punches well above its weight as far as live venues and music bars are concerned – but it really specialises in jazz. Along with the long-established, legendary BP Club run by renowned vibraphone virtuoso Boško Petrović, the city can also provide the discerning jazz aficionado with the Jazz Club and the new kid on the block, the Bacchus Jazz Bar near the main station. Look out also for the Zagreb Jazz Festival in November, Jazzarela every spring, and International Jazz Days in October. Along with these major events, you should find a worthwhile live show nearly every night of the year.

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13. Hang out with the arty set in Sedmica

Cult bar Sedmica is hard for the first-time visitor to find – look out for a small sign in a residential doorway just off Ilica. Inside is the meeting place for people from all fields of the creative arts, an obvious rendezvous spot before a private view at a trendy gallery or for an impromptu cast party. You’ll find them crowded, smoking and yakking, on the mezzanine of wrought iron or around the bar counter heaving under taps of Fischer’s and Erdinger beers.

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14. Take a 1924 tram

In a museum filled with attractive, unusual features – an 80-year-old snow mobile, a 19th-century fire engine, a World War II-era Italian submarine – the vast Technical Museum offers one particular attraction every Sunday: a free ride in a pre-war city tram. This 1924 model sets off at 9.30am every week all the way to Maksimir Park and back, the ideal family choice before coffee and cakes.

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15. Dance to quality DJing

Run by Zagreb resident Sergej Lugović, a man of 20 years’ nightlife experience in London and Moscow, Sirup has been a huge hit since opening a couple of years ago. Inside it feels a little like a lunar park, an undulating floor leading to a packed dancefloor. At the decks is a reliable agenda of quality DJs, Croatian and international, often those on the way up. Admission is eminently affordable, as are the sassy cocktails and pint-sized Bavaria beers.

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16. Find that lost album

Along with music bars, the Croatian capital specialises in music stores – in particular second-hand record shops. A generation of enthusiasts gained their musical education in the record stores of punk era Zagreb – and you’ll still find many of these old hands in vinyl havens such as Dobar Zvuk (rock, jazz, blues and classical), Free Bird (5,000 LPs of every genre) and Roxy (domestic albums and ex-Yugo treasures). Many also stock CDs. Real Hornby stuff.

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17. Observe the Saturday špica

Defined most simply, špica is the Saturday-morning custom of having coffee in Zagreb’s city centre. More specifically, it takes place where Gajeva meets Bogovićeva and Preradovićeva by the flower market on Cvjetni trg, and between 11am and 2pm, after everyone has paid a visit to the Dolac market across the main square. Literally, the word means the point of something sharp. Though nominally about drinking kava and enjoying a morning off from the hassles of the work, this ritual is more about looking sharp, of seeing and being seen, fitting with the local stereotype of being on point with regard to the direction of the latest vogue breeze. It’s an impromptu stage for fashionistas, wannabe glamourites, local paparazzi and hush-toned trend mongers. Though foreigners are considered nowhere near chic enough to participate in this improv runway event, this could be your chance to rate your ability to travel under the radar. With the sun out and blue skies above, put your Porsche keys and iPhone on the table and check out the scene from behind D&G sunglasses. If people pretend not to notice you, you’re in.

18. Tuck into some štrukli

A cousin of Austrian strudel and Turkish borek, štrukli is comprised of rolled dough, delicious when filled with cream and cheese. Whether cooked or baked, sweet or salty, in a soup or with added poppy, pumpkin or spinach, all versions you’ll find merit attention. When taken to try štrukli in a traditional local restaurant, most first-time visitors are impressed by the gentle taste of the soft dough, creamy cheese, the eggs and sour-cream sauce. Many venues pride themselves on their štrukli, although the kitchen at the landmark Regent Esplanade would be doing a pretty poor job if it wasn’t able to provide some of the best – if not the best – in town.

19. Scale Sljeme

The ski slopes, hiking trails and traditional mountain-lodge restaurants of Sljeme attract visitors all year round – and they’re only a tram ride or bus hop from the city centre. Zagreb is set in the valley protected by the Medvednica range. The highest peak is 1,033-high Sljeme, a name used to define these easily accessible slopes, and it can be easily reached on foot, by bike, car, bus or tram. Thanks to this accessibility, sports activities here include hiking, trekking, skiing, caving, orienteering, running, mountain biking, road cycling and many more, depending on the season. They welcome mushroom pickers in autumn, and picnickers in spring and summer. Skiers can now take advantage of an international-standard centre used on the World Cup circuit, partly inspired by the achievements of Olympic champion Janica Kostelić who trained on these slopes. Used for leisure activities since the 18th century, Sljeme saw its first climbers’ hut built in 1870. The first lodge was built just beneath the peak in 1878. Today, there are numerous climbers’ and skiing lodges, where traditional restaurants offer hearty stews of meat and beans, and Zagorje specialities such as local mlinci pasta strips with goose, duck or turkey.

20. Sip something strong

In Zagreb, a meal is not a meal without a strong drop of something before and/or after. This is usually one of three choices: a clear fruit grappa-like brandy, rakija (also known as loza); the dark digéstif Pelinkovac; and the cherry liqueur Maraska, native to Zadar. If it grows, then some Croatian, somewhere, has popped it into a bottle. The range of rakija types beggars belief, sold both from the shelf or, in the case of the home-made variety, under the counter or the market stall. Quality rakija is usually 40 per-cent proof, and its more rustic version anything up to 80 per cent. The most typical base ingredients are plums and grapes, although you’re bound to come across grappas made from apples, peaches, pears, cherries and figs. The best place to try them is Cica, a funky, bohemian bar on the main strip of Tkalčićeva.

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