Zadar Shopping

The shopping worth planning around here is edible and local. Maraschino, the clear cherry liqueur distilled in Zadar since the eighteenth century and shipped to most of the courts of Europe, is the city's signature bottle and is sold everywhere from delicatessens to the airport. Pag cheese from the island across the channel, olive oil pressed in Ravni Kotari, figs, lavender and honey, and hand-harvested salt from the Nin pans fill out the rest. The city market behind Narodni trg is the honest version of all of it, open every morning, with the fish hall alongside.

For everything else, Kalelarga and the lanes running off it hold souvenir shops, a scattering of galleries and craft studios, jewellers, and enough clothing to cover a forgotten packing item. Croatian silver filigree and coral work turn up in the better jewellers, and the museum shops at the forum sell reproductions that beat the fridge magnets. Larger retail sits outside the walls in the shopping centres on the approach roads, which is where residents actually go. Most shops on the peninsula open around nine, many still break in the early afternoon outside high season, and Sunday trading is limited.