Zadar

Introduction

Zadar

© Utrecht

Zadar is a city along the Adriatic Coastline of northern Dalmatia, a region in Croatia. Almost 100,000 people call Zadar their home and they are proud of their city which might be one of the least known of the Croatian coastline. Still, the old city with its narrow and traffic free streets include a nice collection of medieval buildings and beautiful churches.

Sights and Activities

• Roman Forum - the largest on the eastern side of the Adriatic
• Roman aqueduct remains just outside of the ramparts. There used to be more remains, but most of them are used in the fortifications.
• St Donatus' Church
• St. Anastasia's Cathedral, the largest cathedral in Dalmatia.
• Romanesque style churches of St. Chrysogonus and St. Simeon.
• St. Krševan's Church
• St. Elijah's Church
• St. Francis' Church, gothic styled.
• Five Wells Square
• St. Mary's Church
• Land Gate and citadel.
• Sea organ
• Sun Salutation
• Great Arsenal

Events and Festivals

Zadar Night of the Full Moon

August’s full moon is a time of traditional along the coastline around Zadar’s harbor. All the lights are turned off and the quays and harbor are lit by candles. Singing, dancing, eating and viewing the full moon in all its splendor are favorite occupations during this romantic night.

Weather

Zadar has a pleasant Mediterranean climate. Summers last from June to September when it's mostly between 27 °C and 33 °C during the day and nicely warm nights. Winters are from December to March when temperatures are mostly between 8 °C and 15 °C during the day and nights are still above zero. Frost is possible during some nights though and even snow is not unheard of though rare. Most of the precipitation throughout the year falls from October to April. Summers can have months without a single drop of rain, though sometimes heavy rainshowers occur.

Getting There

By Plane

Zadar Airport (ZAD) is 14 kilometres from the city. Ryanair flies to/from Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, London, Pisa, Stockholm and Weeze (near Düsseldorf). A few other airlines serve cities like Pula, Bratislava, Zagreb, Warsaw, Berlin, Cologne and Stuttgart.

By Train

Trains to Zagreb go multiple times daily, with fast (7 hours) and slow (10 hours) services. Buses are much faster though.

By Bus

Croatia Express has buses to Zagreb (4-5 hours), Trieste, Split (3 hours) and quite a few German cities. There are also buses from the station to Rijeka (5 hours) and Dubrovnik (8 hours).

By Boat

From Ancona, there are crossing to Zadar. Check the Jadrolinija website for details. Hydrofoil Miatrade has ferries between Ancona and Zadar as well.

Getting Around

By Foot

Zadar's old town is small and can easily be seen during an easy half day stroll.

Sleep

Upscale

Learn

• University of Zadar

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet cafés are available in all major cities. They are relatively cheap and reliable. A free Wi-Fi signal can be found virtually in every city and can be found in cafés, restaurants, hotels, some libraries, schools, colleges etc. Mostly it's free, but sometimes a fee is required or you can use it for a limited time only. Internet connections with unlimited downloads costs 178 kn (€24) per month via T-Com and just 99 kn with some other providers like Metronet or Iskon.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The country calling code to Croatia is: 385. To make an international call from Croatia, the code is: 00.

Croatia uses the GSM 900/1800 system for mobile phones. There are three providers, T-Mobile (also operates the Bonbon prepaid brand), Vip (also operates the Tomato prepaid brand) and Tele2. Over 98% of the country's area is covered. If you have an unlocked phone, you can buy a prepaid SIM card for 20 kn. There have been promotions in which SIM cards were given avay for free with newspapers (7 kn) and sometimes even literally handed out on the street. GSM phones bundled with T-Mobile or Vip prepaid SIM cards can be found in post offices, grocery stores and kiosks at varying prices.

An alternative to using a mobile phone is Calling Cards which can be found in postal offices and kiosks, there are two providers, Dencall and Hitme. You can buy cards from 25 kn.

Post

Hrvatska Posta is the national postal service of Croatia and has pretty fast and reliable service throughout the country and internationally. It takes several days by airmail to other countries in Europe, but over a week to the US for example. They have a direct link to the pricelist, where you can see the prices of sending postcards, letters and parcels both domestically as well as to other countries. Post boxes are yellow in Croatia and the times of collections are indicated on the box. The opening times of post offices vary, but mostly they are open from 8:00am to 7:00pm Monday to Friday and until 2:00pm on Saturdays, though some might keep shorter or even a longer hours, just ask around. You can buy stamps here, or at newsstands. Prices start at around 10Kn for sending a letter or postcard to neighbouring countries, a few more further away. If you want to send packages internationally, it might be better to check companies like FedEx, TNT, DHL or UPS. They are reliable, fast and usually not much more expensive than Croatia's postal service.

External Links

For more information, check the Zadar Tourist Board website.