Zagreb is not always high up on the list of places to visit for tourists who come to Croatia, a country that has become renowned for its beaches lining the sparkling Adriatic Sea. However this is very surprising, considering that it has more museums per square feet than any other city in the world. This salient fact still doesn't do the capital of Croatia justice: whether you're walking through the 1000-year-old Old Town, with its winding cobbled streets, red-roof houses and medieval churches, or through the New Town that's strewn with a concoction of Neo-Baroque and Art-Deco buildings housing countless cafes and gourmet restaurants, you will find yourself with umpteen things to see and do. The perfect undiscovered city to get lost in and explore, it is full of live music, good food, and enough art and history to give Rome a run for its money. Our collection of the best places to stay in Zagreb are ideally positioned for accessing all this city has to offer.

It is often said that Zagreb rewards those who walk and this isn't surprising: lazily strolling around the pedestrian-only streets scattered with street stalls and pop-up markets, one minute you'll find yourself at Dolac - the open-air fruit market - and the next you'll stand face-to-face with the neo-Gothic cathedral, with its twin steeples scraping the sky. 

Where to stay - which neighbourhood?

• The Old Town is called Gornji Grad: charming and medieval, with similar architecture to other Central European cities like Vienna or Prague, it has stood for over 1000 years. A labyrinthine maze of winding cobbled streets full of ancient churches and red-roof houses, it is a simply beautiful place made all the more stunning during Advent, when the streets are lined with fairy lights. It is in Gornji Grad that you'll find some of the city's best-loved museums, whether it's the quirky and popular Museum of Broken Relationships, Zagreb's City Museum or for prehistory, the Convent of the Clares.
• As you step into the newer parts of the city, life takes on a grittier and more animated edge. Donji Grad, the Lower Town, standing on a grid-plan, is beautifully laid out with tree-lined avenues in the shadow of classically 19th century Hapsburgian buildings.
• The place-to-be for a good time, a sumptous bite-to-eat or a sip of rakija is Novi Zagreb. It is here that the rawer parts of Zagreb come to life with a different type of beauty and charm: with great Brutalist slabs jutting into the pale blue sky like tombstones, you might think that it is an area bereft of the beauty you find in the older parts of the city. You would be wrong. Everywhere you see brightly coloured murals done by local street artists, and you'll also find the infamous street Tkalciceva, where locals and tourists mingle on lengthy bar crawls.

What Not to miss

• Museums: where to begin? Zagreb has it all. If you're looking for prehistory, look no further than the Convent of the Clares; for modern history, the Zagreb City Museum has everything from propaganda posters to automatic machine guns; for Greek and Roman finds, as well as over 1700 paintings (from Rembrandt to Raphael) check out the Mimara Museum in the Old Town; if you're after modern art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Novi Zagreb will blow your mind. For a totally idiosyncratic experience, you have to go to the Museum of Broken Relationships, Zagreb's best-loved museum, full of bizarre and beautiful remnants and depictions of love-gone-wrong.
• Churches: the cathedral is sublime. With a neo-Gothic facade, twin steeples and, inside the northern wall, the 10 Commandments engraved in the medieval Croatian script "glagolitic". Further along in Gornji Grad is the Church of St. Mark, a beautiful 13th century building with a stunning red, white and blue tiled roof.
• Nightlife: Zagreb has a notoriously vibrant nightlife, whether it's the bar crawls along the Tkalciceva or the raves in the abandoned buildings of Novi Zagreb.

Though not a high priority for the tourists who annually descend upon Croatia for her beaches, Zagreb is a place steeped in history and is without a doubt the Capital of Good Times, and the best places to stay in Zagreb wil ensure that you leave the city eager to come back.