Zagreb

People vary in their opinions on Zagreb. Cameron Hewitt, one of Rick Steves's writers, absolutely gushes about Zagreb in one of his recent blog posts. Some people do enjoy Zagreb, but personally I was done with Zagreb in about half a day of seeing the core sites in the upper town. The little Naive Art Museum is a must-see but small so not much time is required to see it.

On my recent trip back to Croatia, I flew home from Zagreb too, but (having been there before) spent just one night in the nearby little town of Samobor, which I enjoyed (but it is tiny).

It's a pleasant city but lacking blockbuster sights but also few tourists from North America. I liked it. There's a shuttle bus from the airport to the main bus station with a tram stop across the street. The tram takes you to the core of the city for easy walking about. If you dropped the car at the airport early in the morn, the rest of the day would suffice for a glimpse..

I think of Zagreb as a good base for making side trips (Plitvice, Slovenia, eastern Croatia), but the city itself is so-so. As others have said, it is lacking the blockbuster sites like you'd find in Dubrovnik or Split.

My daughter and I spent 2 weeks in Croatia in May of this year. We started our trip in Zagreb, spending 3 nights. We had read blogs beforehand saying that there wasn't much to do/ see in Zagreb but we opted for 3 nights to adjust to jetlag. Turns out that Zagreb was one of our favorite places, one of the reasons being there were very few tourists which was a breath of fresh air compared to Dubrovnik. The people were friendly and we had more of a local experience enjoying the endless number of outdoor cafes, the charming old town and vibrant farmers market. There were more museums than we had time for and the two we did visit were truly amazing and unique (Naive Art and Broken Relationships). We do like to explore and see what isn't necessarily on the tour guide list, so what was so much fun for us might not be enough for everyone. For example, on our second full day we also went to the antique fair where we enjoyed mingling with the locals and talking to the vendors. Our experiences was enhanced because we were not in a hurry.

I also like Zagreb a lot. Low-key, untouristy, relaxing. Two nights is probably fine as you can see most of it in a day. I second the Museum of Broken Relationships recommendation - it was really unusual. We also did the zoo, for some reason, which was actually quite fun. Other than that, we walked the town and sat in a lot of the outdoor cafes...there are hundreds of them, I think. They've got that outdoor cafe culture thing down!

Thank you, everyone. All of your feedback was quite helpful!