Zadar Hotels

Zadar splits its hotel stock in two. Inside the walls the buildings are old and the conversions are small, which means a dozen or so rooms, no pool and a door that opens onto the pedestrian lanes; you pay for the position and you walk everywhere. The trade-off is noise in July and a suitcase dragged over stone, since no car reaches most of these doors.

The other cluster is Borik and Puntamika, four to six kilometres north west along the bay, where the larger hotels have gardens, pools, their own stretch of shore and space for a coach. The city bus runs into town in about fifteen minutes and a taxi takes ten. Families and anyone arriving by car generally do better out here; a first-time visitor on a two-night stop generally does better inside the walls. Rates roughly double between May and August, and a good share of the beach hotels close from November to March.