As if it was always meant to be, I have been walking around Zagreb the last few weeks completely in love with the city. The beautiful streets, buildings, history, art, culture, and people have made it an endless exploration that has mixed perfectly well with the meetings, management, and (endless) emails that come with my work-remote lifestyle.
The catch? I have a secret. What may be surprising is that just a few weeks earlier I hadn’t thought of visiting Zagreb. And, I was already in Croatia as a digital nomad. It was only barely on my radar as Croatia’s capital. No one told me how green the city was, the endless options of great cafes and restaurants. Instead, I thought the coast was Croatia’s main attraction.
When I planned my trip to Croatia, it was with the idea that I would work remotely for the summer months and slowly make my way up the coastline. I arrived in Dubrovnik to find that it was as picturesque as people describe it to be. The fortress walls meeting the seaside and the cobblestone alleyways hiding quaint shops made the city perfect for your average tourist, but I found it hard to balance work.
In an effort to ‘settle’ and become more comfortable, I searched online for coworking spaces.I quickly found the Saltwater Nomads website and at the top there was a banner promoting the Zagreb ambassador program.
The advertisement caught my attention for two reasons: 1. I had plans to visit Dubrovnik, Spilt, Makarska, Hvar, Trogir, Sibenik, Zadar, Krka national park and Plitvice Lakes national park, why had I overlooked Zagreb, the country’s capital? And 2. I have missed the capital on other trips and later regretted it. It had me thinking, what did I not know about Zagreb?
A blackhole of and hours of googling later, I found that the city spoke to me by highlighting things that I care about. Zagreb has easy access to nature, and yet, new events around the city every night.Someone described it as Seattle in the 90s, another blogger talked about the layers of history. I was suddenly determined to find out for myself, so I took a chance and applied to the Zagreb ambassador program.
(Doma Zagreb Aparthotel – 4-star luxury in central Zagreb)
While I was excited when I found out I had the opportunity to be the first Zagreb Digital Nomad Ambassador, I arrived in Zagreb a bit nervous. I wondered, “What if I miss the coast?” and didn’t know if there would be enough to do for the month. Most blogs and tourism guides discuss what you can do in Zagreb for 24 or 72 hours. As a digital nomad, I was wondering what I would do after that.
It is the things are are not in the tourist guides or blogs that makes Zagreb perfect for digital nomads, the great places to work (when I can bear to leave my bay window at Doma Zagreb Aparthotel), taking work calls for peaceful parks such as Maksimir and Art Park, quaint cafes, and endless restaurants. The vibe of the city is young and fresh and there are events almost every evening that I have found simply by leaving the apartment and walking around.
It turns out the number one thing I fell in love with in Zagreb is the people. Adel, the owner of the Doma Aparthotel where I am staying, invited me to dinner, and I immediately felt welcomed to the city. As I met the other partners from the Zagreb Ambassador Project, Saltwater Nomads, Total Croatia News, Digital Nomad Association Croatia and the Zagreb Tourism Board, it became clear that this was one of those cities I was not going to want to leave. I quickly found it normal to meet someone for a coffee for a few hours and ask a stranger for directions. Each interaction has created a constellation, a community, making the nomadic world in Zagreb feel a little more like home.
Do you want to be a Zagreb Digital Nomad Ambassador? Learn how here.
For more news and features on digital nomads in Croatia, visit the dedicated TCN section.
