Zagreb (Croatia)

Zagreb is a Sava River cruise port and Croatia's capital/largest city with population around 0,8 million (metro over 1,12 million, or ~1/4 of the country's total population). The closest sea cruise port to Zagreb is Rijeka, at ~2 hours drive (approx 160 km / 100 mi to the southwest) via road E65.

On shore excursions/bus tours from Budapest Hungary (riverboat's homeport) can be also visited Zagreb as well as Slovenia's capital Ljubljana.

Zagreb is usually included in cruisetour packages that include Danube River cruising and visiting the city via land tours, with bus transfers to/from Osijek Croatia or Belgrade Serbia. As Sava River cruise port, Zagreb was included in the 2021 schedule of one of Europe's largest river cruise companies - Avalon Waterways. The 9-day itinerary "The Danube from Croatia to the Black Sea 2021" (Zagreb to Bucharest Romania) included sailing on two rivers (Sava and Danube) and visiting port cities in Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, going all the way to the Black Sea (Danube Delta) via a guided tour to Constanta. Next table shows the 7-day itinerary operated by the ship Avalon Passion.

The 9-day cruisetour was priced from EUR 1750 / USD 2130 per person with double occupancy. The tour's daily schedule featured Day 1 (Zagreb/hotel overnight), Day 2 (bus transfer from Zagreb to Osijek for ship embarkation), Day 3 (Belgrade/city tour; onboard lecture), Day 4 (Golubac-Donji Milanovac-Iron Gates Gorge Passage/tour to Golubac fortress, tour to Lepenski Vir), Day 5 (Vidin/bus tour to Belogradchik, Vidin city tour), Day 6 (Rousse/bus excursion to Veliko Tarnovo and Arbanassi Monastery, Rousse city tour), Day 7 (Constanta/guided sightseeing tour), Day 8 (ship debarkation in Cernavoda, bus transfer to Bucharest/overnight hotel and city tour), Day 9 (Bucharest hotel check-out in the morning).

Another 9-day itinerary ("Balkan Odyssey", from Bucharest to Belgrade) included a bus transfer to Zagreb and overnight hotel stays in both Bucharest and Zagreb.

The city is divided into 17 districts, with the northern ones in the Medvednica Mountain's foothills. The city's urban area is 202 km2 (78 mi) extending ~30 km (19 mi) east-west and ~20 km (12 mi) north-south. The settlement was established in the early-11th century (as Zabrag/Zagrab) and was first recorded (as Zagreb) in a late-17th century map. During the SFR Yugoslavia times (1945-1992) Zagreb was the federation's second-largest city - after Belgrade. Zagreb has 7x road bridges across Sava River - Podsused (2-lane), Jankomir (4-lane), Homeland (4-lane), Liberty (4-lane), Adriatic (6-lane), Youth (6-lane) and Sava (pedestrian-only), in addition to 2x railway bridges plus 2x proposed (Jarun, Bundek).

All largest Croatian companies are headquartered in Zagreb. The city is a major transportation hub (roads, railways, flights) linking Central Europe with the Mediterranean. The current-day city's economy is based on services, heavy and high-tech industries, tourism (museums, shopping, restaurants, hotels, resorts, annual festivals, food and wine tours, Christmas Market). In Zagreb interconnect 5 highways - A6 (Zagreb-Rijeka), A4 (Rijeka-Budapest), A1 (Croatia's longest/476 km/296 mi, Zagreb to Zadar-Sibenik-Split-Dubrovnik), A3 (part of Pan-European Corridor X, from Samobor-Bregana to Lipovac/towards Serbia) and A2 (Zagreb-Macelj/towards Slovenia).