In short
Zagreb is two hundred kilometres from the sea and is nothing like a seaside town. It is a central European capital, Austro-Hungarian in architecture, that lives all year rather than four months.
The Museum of Broken Relationships, born from an exhibition of break-up objects sent in by strangers, has become one of the country's most visited museums. It has no equivalent.
What it really costs
Croatia is in the eurozone and in Schengen since 2023. Zagreb costs about half of Dubrovnik or Split in summer, for a city whose prices do not move with the season.
That is precisely the point: the Croatian coast doubles its rates from June to September, the interior does not.
What nobody tells you
The city was hit by an earthquake in March 2020, and scaffolding is still widespread in the upper town. Several monuments, the cathedral among them, are under long-running works.
Winter is continental and grey, without any Adriatic mildness. Anyone arriving with postcard Croatia in mind has the wrong season and the wrong latitude.
The Plitvice lakes are two hours away by road and require timed, quota-limited tickets in summer. From Zagreb the day trip is feasible but tight.