Northern Dalmatia
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Northern Dalmatia - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Archaeological Museum
Founded in 1832, Zadar's archaeological museum is one of the oldest museums in this part of Europe. It occupies a plain but pleasant modern building beside the convent complex of Crkva Sv. Marije (St. Mary's Church). It is home to numerous artifacts from Zadar's past, from prehistoric times to the first Croatian settlements. The third floor focuses on ceramics, weaponry, and other items the seafaring Liburnians brought home from Greece and Italy, whereas the second floor covers the classical period, including a model of the Forum square as it would have looked back then; a smaller exhibit addresses the development of Christianity in Northern Dalmatia and contains rare artifacts from the invasion of the Goths. On the first floor you'll find an exhibit from the early Middle Ages, taking you to the 12th century.
Trg Opatice Čike 1, Zadar, Zadarska, 23000, Croatia023-250–613Sight Details
Rate Includes: 30 Kn, Closed Sun. Nov.– May., June–Sept., 9–9; Oct.–May, 9–2 -
2. Crkva Sv. Donata
Zadar's star attraction, this huge cylindrical structure is the most monumental early Byzantine church in Croatia. Originally called Church of the Holy Trinity, it was probably inspired by plans set forth in a book by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, On Ruling the Empire. Centuries later it was rededicated to St. Donatus, the bishop here from 801 to 814. Legend has it that Donatus, an Irishman, was the one who had it built, using stone from the adjacent Forum. The stark, round interior features a circular center surrounded by an annular passageway; a sanctuary consisting of three apses attached to the lofty mantle of the church walls, set off from the center by two columns; and a gallery reached by a circular stairway. Although the church no longer holds services, its fine acoustics make it a regular concert venue. During the off-season (November to March), when the church is closed, someone at the Archaeological Museum next door may have a key to let you in.
Zadar, Zadarska, 23000, Croatia023-250–613Sight Details
Rate Includes: 20 Kn, Closed Nov.–Mar., Apr.–May, 9–5; June, 9–9; July–Aug., 9 am–10 pm; Sept.–Oct., 9–5; Nov. -
3. Kornati National Park
The largest archipelago in the Adriatic, Kornati National Park comprises more than 100 islands that are privately owned, mostly by residents of Murter, who purchased them more than a century ago from Zadar aristocrats. The new owners burned the forests to make room for sheep, which in turn ate much of the remaining vegetation. Although anything but lush today, the islands' almost mythical beauty is ironically synonymous with their barrenness: their bone-white-to-ochre colors represent a striking contrast to the azure sea. However, owners tend vineyards and orchards on some, and there are quite a few small buildings scattered about, mostly stone cottages—many of them on Kornat, which is by far the largest island, at 35 km (22 miles) long and less than a tenth as wide. Indeed, some of these cottages are available for so-called Robinson turizm (ask at the Murter tourist office, or inquire around town). In 1980 the archipelago became a national park. It was reportedly during a visit to Kornati in 1936 that King Edward of England decided between love for his throne and love for Wallis Simpson, the married woman who was to become his wife a year later. No public transport currently goes to Kornati, so visiting is only possible as part of an excursion or with a private boat, and tickets must be purchased beforehand. Pick up tickets from the official website or through the various tour groups in Zadar or Murter. The entrance ticket is included in the price of the excursion, departing from Zadar.
View Tours and Activities -
4. Paklenica National Park
The Velebit mountain range stretches along the Croatian coast for more than 100 km (62 miles), but nowhere does it pack in as much to see and do as in this relatively small, 96-square-km (37-square-mile) park at the southern terminus of the range. Here, less than an hour from Zadar, is a wealth of extraordinary karst features—from fissures, crooks, and cliffs to pits and caves. The park comprises two limestone gorges, Velika Paklenica (which ends, near the sea, at the park entrance in Starigrad) and Mala Paklenica, a few kilometers to the south; trails through the former gorge are better marked (and more tourist-trodden). All that dry rockiness visible from the seaward side of the range turns resplendently green as you cross over the mountains to the landward side. Named after the sap of the black pine, paklina, which was used long ago to prime boats, the park is in fact two-thirds forest, with beech and the indigenous black pine a key part of this picture; the remaining vegetation includes cliff-bound habitats featuring several types of bluebells, and rocky areas abounding in sage and heather. The park is also home to 4,000 different species of fauna, including butterflies that have long vanished elsewhere in Europe. It is also the only mainland nesting ground in Croatia for the stately griffin vulture. The park has more than 150 km (94 miles) of trails, from relatively easy ones leading from the Velika Paklenica Canyon (from the entrance in Starigrad) to the 1,640-foot-long complex of caverns called Manita Peć, to mountain huts situated strategically along the way to the Velebit's highest peaks, Vaganski Vrh (5,768 feet) and Sveto brdo (5,751 feet). The most prominent of the park's large and spectacular caves, Manita Peć is accessible on foot from the park entrance in Starigrad; you can enter for 32 Kn, but remember to buy your ticket at the park entrance. Rock climbing is also a popular activity in the park. Meanwhile, mills and mountain villages scattered throughout Paklenica evoke the life of mountain folk from the not-too-distant past. About a half-mile down the park access road in Starigrad, you pass through the mostly abandoned hamlet of Marasovići, from which it's a few hundreds yards more downhill to the small building where you buy your tickets and enter the park (from this point on, only on foot). From here it's 45 minutes uphill to a side path to Anića kuk, a craggy peak, and from there it's not far to Manita Peć. However, if you don't have time or inclination for a substantial hike into the mountains, you will be happy to know that even the 45-minute walk to the entrance gate and back from the main road affords spectacular, close-up views of the Velebit range's craggy ridgeline and the gorge entrance. Also, be forewarned that if you are looking to escape the crowds, you will be hard-pressed to do so here in midsummer unless you head well into the mountains or, perhaps, opt for the park's less frequented entrance at Mala Paklenica; more likely than not, you will be sharing the sublimities of nature with thousands of other seaside revelers taking a brief respite from the coast. A further point of interest at the park are the Bunkers, an intricate system of underground shelters built by Marshall Tito in the early 1950s. With relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR then at their worst, Tito used the geographical benefits of the gorges to build an A-bomb shelter. All the work was done in complete secrecy and very few people knew of the Bunkers. After Stalin's death, they were closed down and only reopened in 1991. Although the park headquarters is on the main coastal road in the middle of Starigrad, fees are payable where you actually enter the park on the access road. Beyond the basic park admission and the supplemental fee to enter Manita Peć cave, the park offers every imaginable service and presentation that might encourage you to part with your kunas, from half-day group tours (400 Kn) to presentations every half hour from 11 to noon and 4 to 7 on the park's birds of prey and on falconry.
View Tours and ActivitiesDr. Franje Tuđmana 14a, Starigrad, Zadarska, 23244, Croatia023-369–202Sight Details
Rate Includes: 60 Kn, three-day pass 120 Kn, Park: July and Aug., daily 7 am–9 pm; Apr.–June, Sept., and Oct., daily 8 am–noon and 4–8 pm. Cave: daily 10–1 -
5. Sea Organ
Comprising 35 pipes under the quay stretching along a 230-foot stretch of Zadar's atmospheric Riva promenade, the Sea Organ yields a never-ending (and ever free) concert that delights one and all. Designed by architect Nikola Bašić with the help of other experts, the organ's sound resembles a whale song, but it is in fact the sea itself. It's hard not to be in awe as the sound of the sea undulates in rhythm and volume with the waves.
Obala kralja Petra Krešimira IV, Zadar, Zadarska, 23000, Croatia -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Telašćica Nature Park
This nature park encompasses Telašćica Bay, which cuts 7 km (4½ miles) into the southern tip of Dugi Otok with an inner coastline so indented that it is really a series of smaller bays and a handful of islands. Flanked by high vertical cliffs facing the open sea to the west, with low, peaceful bays on the other side, it has a variety of vegetation. Relatively lush alpine forests and flower-filled fields as well as vineyards, olive groves, and onetime cultivated fields give way, as you move south, to bare rocky ground of the sort that predominates on the Kornati Islands, whose northern boundary begins where Telašćica Nature Park ends. Aside from Telašćica's other attractions, most of which are accessible only by boat, one of the park's key highlights—accessible by land on a 20-minute drive from Sali—is the salt lake Jezero mir, which was formed when a karst depression was filled by the sea. Small boats (generally with 8–12 passengers) bound for both Telašćica Nature Park and the northern fringes of Kornati National Park leave the east side of Sali's harbor (i.e., where the Zadar ferry arrives) at approximately 11:15 each morning and return by 6 or 6:30 in the evening. Verify ferry times at www.croatiaferries.com. Expect to pay 200 Kn per person, sometimes less. The best way to arrange ferry passage is in person—by going to the harborside square near the post office around 8 pm on the day before you wish to leave (which means at least a one-night stay in Sali), when boat captains gather there looking for passengers for the next day's excursion. However, the tourist information office in Sali can put you in touch with operators by phone as well.
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