Start the day off surrounded by old-style grandeur at the Esplanade, which was a one- time haunt of Orson Welles, Elizabeth Taylor and Alfred Hitchcock. If it's a sunny morning, you can linger over a coffee on the terrace overlooking the classic façade of the main train station, Glavni kolodvor. From there, it's a short walk to Tomislav trg - note the statue of Croatia's medieval king of the same name and the Art Pavilion. Even if the current exhibition isn't to your liking, the building, which was shipped from Budapest in 1896, is definitely worth a gander.
Zagreb is quickly gaining the big-city vibe of Vienna and Budapest, its Habsburg-era counterparts, while managing to hold on to its distinctive charm. Set below Mount Medvednica, where the last Alpine foothills meet the Pannonian plain, the city still feels like a big village. You can walk to most places you'd want to visit and the majority of tram routes pass through Trg bana Josipa Jelačića, the main square, making the city easy to navigate. Everything has an order common to German-speaking Europe, but with a Balkan sense of fun and after dark hedonism. Read our daytripper's guide to experiencing the best of Zagreb in one day.
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