Whoa, maybe let’s not jump straight to living in Zadar.
Time for bit of an update:
The last place I reported on here was Krakow. Well, after wrapping up March in Poland, I flew to meet my mom in London for her spring break (she’s a school nurse, not a college student, don’t worry) where we did lots of touristy stuff and ate a ton, obviously. I spent the rest of April and most of May in England with Marko before heading to Edinburgh, Scotland for a surprise birthday weekend and then celebrating the royal wedding in Warwick. After that, it was time for a joint 30th birthday trip to Italy with a few good friends from home. Hey, this is 30.
But what to do post-Italy? Where to go? I was running out of time in the Schengen, so we decided we’d head back to the Balkans. While I would’ve loved to return to the beautiful, cheap land of Montenegro, getting there is a bit of a hassle and we’d already been moving around a lot in Italy. So when Marko mentioned Zadar and we discovered an overnight ferry that went straight there, that sealed the deal. Because who doesn’t like Croatia?
Read More: Zadar Travel Tips – Inside and Outside the Old Town
I hadn’t visited Croatia since Year 1 of my travels (can you believe I have to specify now?) and even then, I only hit the tourist hotspots like Split, Hvar, and Dubrovnik. I didn’t have a huge urge to do any of them again* because they’re a bit pricey and super crowded, but I didn’t know anything about Zadar, so naturally I was like, “Sign me up!”
*Lies, I would definitely do Hvar again with lots of friends! Not to live, but to vacation and party.
Taking the Ferry from Ancona, Italy to Zadar, Croatia
Let’s be real, we went to Zadar because it was easy. However, finding information online about the overnight Jadrolinija ferry from Italy to Croatia is not. (Thank goodness for this blog post.) In the end, it wasn’t too difficult though. We booked online and then made our way to the coastal Italian town of Ancona. We made sure to schedule a couple of buffer days in the town which, again, we knew nothing about. But hey, a few more nights in Italy is never a bad idea…
We arrived via train from Bologna, and aside from an Airbnb with no wifi or air condition, everything went swimmingly. We got a local room in an apartment where we received great suggestions from the owners. We swam at a local seaside spot, had aperitivo hours during sunset, and ate fresh seafood (try this place), including an amazing tuna tartare and frito misto (you must go to Angui). It was actually a very relaxing and lovely little town.
The night of the ferry ride, I made sure we were prepared with a late checkout with our printed receipts. You’re allowed to bring food, drinks, and really whatever you want onboard. We opted to get a cabin so we’d get a good night’s sleep, but otherwise, it looks like you can just grab a seat and bring your sleeping bag and plop down anywhere. There were older men eating strawberries, drinking beer, and playing cards. There were backpackers who boarded early to snag a couch. We just got a bottle of wine before boarding the ferry and sat on the deck as we pulled away, waving goodbye to Italy.
My advice if you plan on doing the ferry from Ancona, Italy to Croatia?
Don’t hesitate, it was great! Just give yourself time to haul your bags to the check-in area, which isn’t super close to the ferry. You’ll then get on the free shuttle, go through passport control, and board the ferry (walking on as if you were a car, no less!). Eat dinner beforehand. Oh, and grab some wine and water, because the bar onboard ain’t cheap. For about $80 a piece, we got a private cabin with two bunks and a bathroom. It was cheaper and more comfortable than any flights out. We slept all night and arrived early the next morning. Crossing the Adriatic was easier than I could’ve imagined!
Life in Old Town Zadar
Old Town Zadar is beautiful and historic, filled with casual Roman ruins and smooth, stone, pedestrian-only roads (where you can bust your ass if you’re not careful) and tons of bars and restaurants, all with outdoor seating. And it’s surrounded by water on all sides for amazing sunsets.
So… I made a bad call on this Airbnb. Or maybe the listing just wasn’t super straightforward. But it’s by far the tiniest and hottest place we’ve stayed since trying to freelance on the road. Seriously, you cannot say you have AC and then not. Or loft the bed so the breeze from the fan won’t reach it. But I can’t complain too much because the location was perfect!
There aren’t a lot of tourist attractions in Zadar. The Sea Organ (listening to the waves make music in the steps by the water) and The Greeting to the Sun (lights on the ground that are powered by the sun) are both fun to visit at sunset, but it’s a quick activity, and man, it can get crowded. Still, we went more than once. There’s a sea glass museum, plenty of boat watching, and swimming. You can also head out to nearby waterfalls at the national parks or take boat tours (see below).
We arrived in early June and left in mid-July and the difference in tourists was drastic. Prices at our favorite bars even went up while we were there to account for the switch to high season.
But even after five weeks in Zadar, we were sad to leave.
Food and Drinks in Zadar
One of my favorite things about living in the Old Town (and one of the things we missed the most when we moved outside the city walls) was the local market right in the center. Locals set up stalls all over selling produce, cheese, honey, and everything else you might need if you’re looking to cook (and you should!). You’ll also find a few chicken ladies, a woman selling cured meats, and butchers selling beef or pork nearby. I had a lemon guy, a tomato woman, and a string of fruit stands that I frequented. I love grocery shopping anyway, so this was very exciting for me!
The sellers weighed things with actual old metal scales and kilogram weights, and of course, it was super affordable. All over the place, ladies sold olive oil in water bottles (straight from their land I imagine). They don’t have the size you need? Just ask them to pour it into a smaller bottle! Oh, and FYI, steaks from the butcher are shockingly cheap! And they’ll cut them as thick as you want…
Next door was the indoor Ribarnica, or fish market, where I got shrimp and fresh tuna for a fraction of restaurant prices. I tried to avoid going to the actual supermarket for anything (except like coffee, wine, and toilet paper). After shopping at different local stands for everything, it just felt so much colder and way less fun to go indoors and buy imported stuff when you could get it straight from the farm.
In terms of Old Town restaurants, it’s generally pizza, pasta, and seafood, and some of it is excellent. You can even get Dalmatian ham if you’re still hooked on the prosciutto from Italy. There’s also fast food like burgers and cevapi (seasoned, ground meat in the shape of a fat hot dog) and of course, high-end stuff.
A word on dining out. I’ll give my restaurant and bar recommendations at the end of this post, but suffice it to say, eating at restaurants in Zadar’s Old Town is not cheap. Nope. (Cue extreme disappointment on my part.) It felt like, based on my experience, the food in the busy tourist city of Split was cheaper than Zadar. Chalk it up to having more competition?
Groceries are cheap, wine is cheap, meat is cheap, so what’s going on? I blame it on the Old Town being a super historic area that they’re cashing in on. We tried to get recs from locals on places to eat, but everyone we spoke with told us that they cooked at home or with friends and never ate out in the Old Town. When you go around and browse the menus, you can see why. After Italy and all the fab value-for-money meals we had, Zadar was a bit of a let-down.
But like many other travelers said, “You don’t come to Croatia for the food.”
After one laughably bad (and expensive) meal on our first night out, I became wary of everything. Would they overcook my seafood? Will the meat be thin and tough? We did have several good pizzas, which can be affordable, a few nice handmade pastas, and the local cevapi which is always great. But overall, I’d recommend doing your research and eating out sparingly if you’re on a budget.
One thing that’s excellent and cheap? Burek! It’s a crispy, flaky, chewy Balkan pastry, savory OR sweet, that you can have at any meal (or for a snack). Get them from the chain Mlinar or a local bakery. I like the cheese and chicken varieties best.
Going out for a beer or espresso, however, is super affordable – and we did that a lot – but we tried to cook frequently. The stuff is just so fresh!
And the bars! There’s no shortage of places to have a drink in Zadar! There are tons! One thing that is different about them though: I’ve never seen so many places that serve strictly drinks – cocktails, beers, coffee, and that’s it. No chips, no snacks, nothin’ else. Well, mayyyybe ice cream. But that means you can bring your own stuff in. They’re all outdoors with TVs and that’s fantastic because the weather was perfect the whole time we were there.
The World Cup!
One of the most unexpected and best things about living in Zadar this summer? The World Cup. Croatia kept dominating and all the games were on at every bar and restaurant in town. The nicest, fanciest place? Yep, they’re wheeling in a big-screen TV. Wanna watch the Croatia game in public? You better get there early to get a seat. Scared of fireworks or loud noises? Uhh, better get it together quick because watching a game with a bunch of Croatians is crazy and awesome.
England didn’t do so bad either, so Marko and I picked our favorite spots and posted up early to watch most of the games, sometimes back to back. Thank goodness those aforementioned beers are cheap in the Balkans. We could get half-liter Ožujsko, Pan, or Karlovačko for about $3 and watch the World Cup all afternoon into the night. As Croatia progressed, the celebrations just got wilder. Talk about a cultural experience. We started to learn the Croatian songs that played on TV and during halftime. It made our decision to choose Zadar so much better – there was always something going on and everyone was just so into it!
I was pretty devastated that we had to leave just before the finals. It would have been incredible to be in Zadar when they welcomed the team back! Things got nuts! Hrvatska!
The Beaches in Zadar
Okay, okay, so I knew this ahead of time: Lots Most of the beaches in Croatia are made of rocks. They are not comfortable to lie on. You can do it. Or you can go somewhere with chairs that you’ll probably have to pay for (it’s usually worth it). You can swim all around the Old Town and lie on the concrete if you want. There are ladders to the sea on almost every walkway that’s adjacent to the water. We even saw people swimming around the Sea Organ during sunset. Or you can venture out to find a couple of pebble beaches.
For reference, there are some good beaches around Zadar. Our favorite was Kolovare Beach. There was a beach club with a diving platform, bar, tables, chairs, basketball courts, chess boards, volleyball, and a saltwater “pool” where part of the sea had been enclosed. It was a community hangout spot and appeared to be totally free… though, of course, we bought beers. Again, there was no food, but you could bring snacks!
If you don’t want to hang at a beach club, there’s a pebbly beach farther down with little cafe bars for drinks and chairs (although they weren’t open in early June). Further on down the same road from Kolovare was Karma beach. It’s slightly more lowkey and picturesque. I tried to go on daily walks and runs and this was a nice spot to check out from the road.
A short Uber ride away on the other side of town (or long-ass run, if you’re Marko) is Plaza Borik where families hang out and swim. There are pebbles and sand here, but I’d also recommend Famous Beach Bar & Grill nearby where you can find Adirondack chairs by the water, sports on TV, and solid pizza. Swim, eat, drink, repeat.
Boat Trips – An Adventure From Zadar to Sakarun
Well, this was interesting. Leave it to me to wait until the last possible minute to squeeze in the only must-do activity of our stay in Zadar. We wanted to visit Sakarun, a white sand beach with turquoise, crystal clear water located on the nearby island of Dugi Otok. Just do a quick Google image search of it and you’ll see. Irresistible right? Right.
Well, between England and Croatia playing in the World Cup every weekend and our workday schedule, it was super hard to pencil in a date. (Oh, and Marko went back to London one weekend and I couldn’t go without him. Total traitor move.) There were lots of tourist boats that charged about $60 per person for boat trips to Sakarun, but the reviews seemed hit or miss. Word on the street was that it took over two hours to get there and two hours to get back, what with all the different places they had to pick up and drop people off. Four hours is a lot of time to spend just hanging out on a boat waiting around. So after much debating, we decided to DIY it. Because of course we did…
So, first off, if you found this blog post because you’re considering taking the Jadrolinija ferry from Zadar to Sakarun, let me just say that it is totally doable and much cheaper than any alternative. The ferries are nice. Just book a return ticket to Božava (located on the island of Dugi Otek) and you can either make the hilly, hour-long walk to the beach or take a ride in a little tourist “train” (an open-air method of transportation decorated to look like a train) to the beach. Check ahead of time with the Jadrolinija office by the city walls because the ferry does not run both ways every day and you will likely need to spend most of the day at the beach. Still, totally doable. The total cost during high season is about $12.50 per person for roundtrip ferry tickets to Sakarun and it’s supposed to take about an hour and twenty minutes to get there.
A few days ahead of time, we booked tickets that left from Zadar at 8:15 AM on Sunday (they say to be there 30 minutes early and Croatia played the night before so we were not in the best shape). The ferry returned around 6 PM that night. Well, that’s what was supposed to happen anyway…
Scenic villages en route to Brbinje – Who could be mad at this? Besides Marko…
FYI, this is the tourist train. Not sorry I missed that!
Our ferry broke down. Well, one engine died. Or something like that. After about an hour and forty minutes, and lots of time floating around and not moving, we had to turn around and go back to Zadar. But then we had a decision to make:
They offered us our money back… or a trip to Brbinje, a little village just a short ride from Sakarun. There would be a bus, they said. No worries, right? Just another (unplanned) hour and twenty-minute ride… hungover. It was a toss-up, but we decided to do it. We didn’t have a spare day left to go on this trip! So we got on the second ferry, which was much nicer, with outdoor seating and a bar. It took about an hour and a half, and of course, we were the last people dropped off after several other stops. But the ride, the clear blue water, and all the scenic villages along the way were gorgeous. Marko, however, was not amused.
Things didn’t get bad until they dropped us off. There was no bus. No transport offices. No humans. Just an empty parking lot. Luckily, there was a lone (overpriced) restaurant where we could sit in the shade, purchase Cokes, and top them off with the rum that we’d packed as we commiserated (bitched) with other travelers for about an hour.
Somebody in our stranded group of strangers took the initiative and asked one of the servers if he had any friends with a car. Luckily, he called up the restaurant owner who arranged for a guy with a van (isn’t it always a guy with a van?) to come get us… in shifts. Needless to say, we all threw him some kuna and he drove us across the island to Sakarun, blaring techno the whole way. And HE GOT US TO THE BEACH!
It was totally worth it.
Despite some online criticisms of Sakarun and its cleanliness, we were so happy to arrive and find that it actually existed. Maybe the dried seaweed bothered some people. Perhaps you need to go during high season or when the sky is clear and the sun is shining so that the sea really sparkles, but I thought Sakarun was fantastic. Bright blue water, sandy bottom, a couple of beach shacks selling drinks, beers, and snacks. It’s really all you could ask for!
We made friends with two other couples and went swimming, took pics, threw a ball around, and had some drinks in the sand… and on the ferry ride back. It was a perfect day. We almost forgot about all the chaos beforehand.
If you’re thinking about going, wait until the weather is good and GO!
What’s the Cost of Living in Zadar for 5 Weeks?
$1,834.72
…which is a bit higher than usual for me, but still pretty damn good for summertime living in Croatia. You have to consider that it’s more than a month, two different apartments, and well, it was during the World Cup so we had to go out a lot!
Read More: Zadar Travel Tips – Inside and Outside the Old Town
