Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Zagreb
- Country: Croatia
- Airport: Zagreb
- Where from: Manchester Airport
- Flight cost: £20 return
- Airline: Ryanair
- Length of trip: 3 nights
- Date of trip: 24th - 27th March 2022
- Trip Type: Solo trip
Itinerary
Day 1
- Arrived into Zagreb at around 5.30pm just as the sun was setting, went outside and got the airport shuttle bus into the main bus station in the city.
- Shuttle bus costs around £4 and you can pay the driver when you get on, they leave the airport every 30 minutes.
- From the bus station I headed to a corner shop (Tisak) to buy a tram ticket, you can buy these per trip or get a day pass.
- Headed to the hostel that I was staying at (see below for details)
- Went for a little evening walk to try find some food and then headed back for an early night ready for a full day adventuring round tomorrow.
Day 2
- Got up early and headed off to the new Sljeme cable car that had only been open a few weeks, it costs £8.50 return and took 20 years to build. To get here you need to get a tram to Mihaljevac then swap onto a tram to Dolje. The whole trip only took about 25 mins or so and was super easy to navigate.
- On the way to my tram stop I passed a funicular which happens to be the shortest in the world so I had a quick trip on that for 50p
- The cable car was super quiet and there was no queues to get on which surprised me, I had a whole car to myself.
- Once at the top I was really surprised to see that people were skiing!
Day 2 cont:
- I spent about an hour at the top, there isn't really much to see or do at the top but I had a little hike around and watched someone people skiing for a little while then decided to head back down for lunch
- Once fed and watered I headed back to the hostel so that I could check out and go check into my hotel.
- In the afternoon I checked into my new hotel and felt a lot better once I had my own space, almost felt like walking round naked.... just because I could.
- After checking in to my hotel I headed back out into Zagreb down to the Museum of Broken Relationships, I 100% recommend a visit to this museum as it is just hilarious!
- I spent a good couple of hours in the museum as there are so many different things to look at and read and then headed back to my hotel.
Day 3
- My plan was to get up early and get a bus out of the city and to a really cute town called Samobor I got the bus from the Zagreb Bus Station which cost around £4 return and takes less than half an hour.
- The town itself is like a fairytale town, I didn't really know what was there other than that it was a really pretty town near Zagreb, so I just wandered round.
- Just a 10 minute walk from the centre is the Samobor Castle, it's a fairly easy walk and the views are nice from the top, they arent breathtaking views but it is certainly worth the easy walk.
- On the way back down I went past a huge graveyard and wandered past loads of beautiful houses.
- There was a street market the day I visitied so I took some time looking at the various stalls.
- I spent around 6 hours here and would throughly recommend this charming town.
Day 3 cont:
- Once my exploring of Samobor was complete I got the bus back into Zagreb, I still had a fair few hours of the day left so decided to go for a walk in the Maksimir Park which is the oldest park in Zagreb
- The park is huge and there is also a zoo, the admission price was around £3.50 which I thought was extremely cheap so I headed inside to take a look.
- After being in the zoo for around an hour I headed back into the park and walked all around the lake, after so much walking I headed back to the hotel for a quick rest and grabbed some food.
- After a rest I headed back out and went to the Chocolate Museum, it was £5.50 to get in but I was quite impressed with it, it wasn't huge but it was informative and your ticket was made out of chocolate, it was an interactive ticket so you got told which bit to eat as you went around the museum. Throughly recommend a visit.
- The next morning I got up early for my flight home.
Swanky Mint Hostel
I never stay in hostels these days, I have nothing against them and I think when you're young they are an amazing, cost effective way for young people to travel and meet other like minded travellers. However as I have got older, I have completely different ideas as to what travel means to me and completely different priorities.
For example, when I am solo travelling I want to see and do as much as possible, this usually entails early nights and early mornings which doesnt really lend itself well to hostel living but on this trip I really wanted to give it a go. I hadn't stayed in hostels for a long time so felt it only fair that I stayed in one for this trip to be able to write about it from a current point of view rather than based on hostels from years ago, so that is how I came about staying at Swanky Mint Hotel.
I was really impressed with this hostel, the rooms were basic but clean and the facilities were really good. There was an on-site restaurant and bar and even had a pool for use in the summer months and really nice outside area.
I have literally nothing but good things to say about this place however after just once night I checked out and checked into a hotel... why I hear you cry?
It genuinely just boils that need of having your own space, I don't know if that just becomes more important as you get older but I was sharing with 3-4 girls who were all just lovely however they arrived home after a night out around 3am making a racket, they were apologetic and lovely about it but my other issue is when I wanted to get up and get ready at 8am they were fast asleep and I felt really awkward trying to be quiet.
So all in all it just wasn't for me so I checked out that morning and checked myself into a normal hotel which was a bargain at £39 for the night.
Tips and Info
Public Transport
In Zagreb, trams, Zagreb funicular and busses can be accessed with the same ticket. The tickets are timed and last 30 minutes each and you must validate your journey in the little ticket machines on board, I would always suggest getting a 24 hour pass from a Tisak (a little stand that sells newspapers etc, they are everywhere) it only costs 30 Kuna for the day which is around £3.50