Despite our late night, we were up at 6am. We had a quick breakfast after packing up and checked out of the Le Meridien. We were on the road to Zadar by 8am. It was an easy drive on the highway and took about 2 hours total.

We found our Airbnb and got directed into a tiny parking spot by the mother of the apartment owner. She was still cleaning the apartment but let us leave our bags while we went to explore Zadar. The Airbnb was a few yards from the pedestrian bridge into old town Zadar and pretty nice for $80+fees for one night.






The views from the 10th floor apartment were great as well.



It’s a great little town. Lots of locals around unlike Dubrovnik and Split. We felt like we were in a more authentically local and less touristy place. There were school kids displaying art work and little festivals all around the squares in old town. We walked down to the Roman Forum and just enjoyed the ambience.






We stopped for lunch at a little place called La Gavun. We had a great charcuterie plate with local meats and cheeses along with some excellent wine.






My wife then found some good prices on souvenirs at the local shops. Then we went back to the apartment to nap and make some calls about the insurance, etc. related to last night’s daughter car issues.

We ended up going back to the same little restaurant for some more wine and appetizers. We bought some wine from there as we can’t get it at home (I checked online). Then we found a place with you guessed it, a whole fish platter.




By this time, it was close to sunset, so we walked over to the Greeting to the Sun and the Sea Organ to watch the sunset.





We had an early morning planned so we didn’t linger too late, but we enjoyed our day and night in Zadar and I highly recommend it if you can add it to your Croatia itinerary. One day and night is enough to get a feel for the place and see the old town.

Next Up: Lakes and Ljubljana