Zagreb is where a Croatian road trip starts, and the airport sits on the bypass rather than in the city, so the motorway you need is always the next junction: the A1 south to Plitvice, Zadar and Split, the A2 north into the Zagorje hills, the A6 west through Gorski kotar to Rijeka and the Kvarner coast.
Zagreb is where a Croatian road trip starts, and the airport sits on the bypass rather than in the city, so the motorway you need is always the next junction: the A1 south to Plitvice, Zadar and Split, the A2 north into the Zagorje hills, the A6 west through Gorski kotar to Rijeka and the Kvarner coast.
No deposit, no excess
Premium Insurance means the local partner waives the security deposit completely – nothing is blocked on your card for the length of the trip.
Local rates, not airport markups
Direct prices from Croatian partners. What you book is what you pay at the counter in arrivals, with no desk fee added at the terminal.
Unlimited mileage
Croatia is long and thin, and the good parts are at opposite ends of it. Nothing we rent charges by the kilometre, which is the difference between the lakes and the coast in one week.
The motorways are genuinely fast
The A1 runs from Zagreb to Dalmatia at 130 and is usually empty outside August. It is tolled, but it turns Split from a day's drive into an afternoon.
Built for a late landing
Zagreb is a hub airport with evening banks of connections. Add your flight number at booking and the desk tracks it, so a delay does not cost you the car.
One counter, in the arrivals hall at Zagreb Airport. Open the page for directions out of the terminal, drive times and what is worth the detour on the way.
Everything here is measured from Zagreb, because the motorways fan out from it – and an hour in any one direction lands you in a completely different landscape.
An Austro-Hungarian city with a tiled-roof Upper Town, a market under red umbrellas and a wooded mountain along its northern edge. The airport sits south of it, in the oak country of Turopolje.
Green hills an hour north, thick with them: Trakošćan on its lake, Veliki Tabor on a ridge, Kumrovec kept as a whole nineteenth-century village, and Krapina's Neanderthal museum in the hillside.
South down the A1 towards the Plitvice lakes and the watermills at Rastoke, with the Velebit range beyond them and the karst getting drier and emptier the further you go.
West on the A6 through forest and tunnels until the Učka drops you onto the sea at Opatija and Rijeka, with Krk, Cres and the islands lined up beyond the bridge.
Right-hand traffic, fast tolled motorways, free national roads, and two seasonal rules that catch visitors out because neither depends on the weather.
Drive on the right
As on mainland Europe. Limits are 50 in built-up areas, 90 on open road, 110 on expressways and 130 on motorways, and they are camera-enforced on the A1.
Motorways are tolled, the rest is not
Take a ticket where you join, pay by card where you leave. Zagreb to Split is roughly €29 to €35 for a car. Croatia is moving to camera-based free-flow tolling during 2026.
Headlights in the winter half
Dipped beam is compulsory all day from the last Sunday of October to the last Sunday of March, whatever the weather – and not required outside it, which catches people out both ways.
Winter equipment is a date
Winter tyres, or chains carried for a summer set, are compulsory from 15 November to 15 April on the roads that require them. The road to the coast crosses Gorski kotar, which is one.
Alcohol 0.05%, zero under 24
The general limit is 0.5 g/l, but it is absolute zero for drivers under 24, for professional drivers and for anyone in the first two years of a licence.
Minimum age 21
With at least one year of driving experience. Some vehicle categories set a higher minimum, and it is shown on the car while you are still choosing.
Pick Premium Insurance with zero excess and the local partner drops the security deposit altogether, so you settle at the counter with a debit card or cash. The cover is the partner's own, so there is nothing to pay out and claim back later.
At Zagreb Airport (ZAG), the only counter we operate in the country. It sits ten kilometres south-east of the centre at Velika Gorica, directly on the ring road, so every motorway is within a quarter of an hour of the car park.
No. EU, UK and US licences are accepted on their own for a tourist rental, alongside your passport or ID card. Bring an International Driving Permit as well only if your licence is not written in the Latin alphabet.
You pay by distance: Zagreb to Split is roughly €29 to €35 for a car, Zagreb to Rijeka around €8. You take a ticket joining and pay by card leaving, and summer rates run a little higher than winter ones.
Often yes, but it has to be arranged in advance. A Green Card and the partner's written authorisation are issued before you travel, so name the countries you plan to enter when you book rather than at the desk.
For Zagreb alone, no. For Croatia, yes: Plitvice, the Zagorje castles, Lonjsko Polje and the Kvarner islands are the reason people come, and the bus network between them is built for commuters rather than for a route like that.
Yes, on every car and every insurance tier. It matters in a country shaped like this one: Zagreb to Split and back is more than 800 kilometres before you have driven anywhere once you arrive.
May, June and September. July and August fill the A1 to the coast and every Plitvice car park with it, while winter brings snow to Gorski kotar and the Lika plateau on the two roads most visitors want.
Book in minutes, pick the insurance tier that suits you, and collect in the arrivals hall at Zagreb Airport the moment you land.
