Zagreb

Zagreb is the city most Croatia visitors skip, which is their loss and your gain. The Upper Town is medieval and intimate — cobblestone streets, gas lamps that are still lit by hand each evening, and the Church of St. Mark with its tiled roof depicting the coats of arms of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in a mosaic so cheerful it borders on defiant. The Lower Town is Habsburg elegance: parks, theatres, and cafe terraces where the institution of coffee is taken with Viennese seriousness.

The city’s museums are unexpectedly brilliant. The Museum of Broken Relationships — crowd-sourced objects from failed love affairs, each with a short story — is funny, devastating, and unlike anything you have seen before. The Dolac Market, perched on a terrace above the main square, is the city’s daily ritual: farmers selling cheese, peppers, and kulen sausage under red umbrellas while the cathedral spires tower behind them. For nightlife, the Tkalciceva street transforms from daytime cafe strip to evening bar crawl with a seamlessness that suggests Zagreb has been practicing for centuries.

When to go: April to June for outdoor cafe season and the city at its liveliest. December for one of Europe’s best Christmas markets, with mulled wine and fairy lights in every square.