in the summer of 2025, we took a trip to the coastal city of zadar — a dreamy, ancient and sun-drenched place on the edge of the adriatic. itinerary below, as always… (read more)
day 1: zadar
we arrived in zadar, where we first explored the old town’s attractions such as the five wells square, land gate, queen jelena madijevka park, narodni square, church of st. donatus, st. anastasia’s cathedral, roman forum and the church of st simon. we walked along the promenade altstadt and down the zara subacquea pier to admire the pristine seascape – one of the most beautiful i’ve seen, and i don’t say that lightly! further along the promenade is the sea organ (morske orgulje), a unique art installation of stone stairs and pipes that produce music as the waves push air through them. designed by the same architect, nikola bašić, the greeting to the sun (pozdrav suncu) is a stone’s throw away – a circle of multilayered glass plates that collect solar energy to be transformed into a colourful light show in the evening. we had dinner at restoran bruschetta where we tried octopus salad, mussels with white wine and spaghetti. dessert was ice cream at bob rock’s ice cream palace where i had rocher white ice cream!
day 2: plitvice lakes
after a long bus ride north, we arrived at plitvice lakes national park, a unesco world heritage site. we spent the day walking around, across and over a cosmically beautiful series of turquoise lakes and waterfalls linked by wooden boardwalks threading through the forest. back in zadar, we had dinner at restoran 4 kantuna before taking an evening stroll around the old town, across the gradski bridge, and through the sea gate.
day 3: island tours
we began the day with breakfast at kavana palace and coffee at kavi. afterwards, we boarded a speedboat moored outside the city walls and headed off on a tour of the zadar archipelago – ugljan, ošljak and galevac islands. waters were clear and sunlight was abundant, illuminating the seabed that we got to explore while snorkelling. after wandering around the entirety of each island, we indulged in late afternoon desserts at restaurant lazaret on ošljak island and ice cream on preko. sitting on a terrace right across the church of st chrysogonus, we had a seafood based dinner at restaurant jadera zadar.
day 4: nin
i’d heard so much about nin, a town surrounded by roman ruins and secluded beaches, so we decided we had to take the short drive there. after lunch at u.o aenona (where i had some incredible risotto), we explored the small town – walking through the historic town gate, across the lower nin bridge, to the famous church of the holy cross, famed for being the world’s smallest cathedral. we spent our last few hours in croatia by the seaport at ninski watching kiteboarders sweep across the horizon.
precious 