Zagreb's single terminal sits at Velika Gorica, ten kilometres south-east of the centre and directly on the ring road, which is the whole point of collecting here: you reach the A1 south to Plitvice and the coast, the A2 north to the Zagorje castles and the A6 west to Kvarner without ever driving through the city. The Upper Town is twenty minutes the other way.
Zagreb's single terminal sits at Velika Gorica, ten kilometres south-east of the centre and directly on the ring road, which is the whole point of collecting here: you reach the A1 south to Plitvice and the coast, the A2 north to the Zagorje castles and the A6 west to Kvarner without ever driving through the city. The Upper Town is twenty minutes the other way.
No deposit, no excess
Choose Premium Insurance and the partner waives the security deposit entirely – nothing is blocked on your card while you are in Croatia.
No airport surcharge
Direct prices from Croatian partners. What you book is what you pay in arrivals, with no desk fee bolted on at the terminal.
On the ring, not in the city
The terminal sits on the Zagreb bypass, so the A1, A2, A3 and A6 are all inside a quarter of an hour and you never cross the centre to reach one.
Unlimited mileage
Zagreb is where people start a Croatia trip rather than end one: Plitvice is under two hours and Split about four. No rental we offer charges by the kilometre.
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.
The terminal is in Turopolje, a flat oak-wood country most visitors drive straight through, with the city twenty minutes north of it and the hills behind that.
The country the airport stands in is oak forest and flood meadow, with hand-built oak chapels scattered through the villages around Velika Gorica. Five minutes off the airport road and the first one is standing there.
St Mark's tiled roof, the gas lamps still lit by hand every evening and the funicular down to the lower town. Dolac market sits between the two, under its red umbrellas, and it is the reason to arrive before noon.
A baroque square on a stream forty minutes west, where the thing to order is kremšnita and the thing to do afterwards is drive up into the Žumberak hills behind it.
The wooded mountain along the city's northern edge, with a thirteenth-century fortress halfway up, the Veternica cave at the western end and a road that keeps climbing to Sljeme at the top.
Zagreb sits where the Alps, the Pannonian plain and the road to the Adriatic meet, so the three directions out of the airport are three different countries to look at.
1h50 one way
South on the A1 to Karlovac, then the D1. Sixteen terraced lakes falling into one another over travertine, walked on boardwalks. Break at Rastoke on the way, where the Slunjčica drops through a village of watermills.
1h30 to Trakošćan
North on the A2 into green hills full of them: Trakošćan on its lake, Veliki Tabor on a ridge, Kumrovec's whole village kept as it was, and the Neanderthal museum built into the hillside at Krapina.
2h to the sea
West on the A6 through the forests of Gorski kotar, then the Učka tunnel and the sea is suddenly under you. Opatija is Habsburg villas and a twelve-kilometre seafront walk; Rijeka is twenty minutes before it.
50 min one way
East along the Sava into a flood plain of oak forest, where the villages are built of wood and Čigoč has more white storks nesting on its roofs than it has houses. Best from April to August.
The bypass is the airport's road
You leave the terminal onto the Zagreb ring rather than into the city. Decide north, south or west before you set off and you will be on the right motorway within fifteen minutes.
The motorways are tolled, the rest is free
You take a ticket entering and pay by card leaving; Zagreb to Split runs around €29 to €35 one way. Croatia is switching to camera-based free-flow tolling during 2026, so check which system is running when you travel.
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. Outside that window it is not required, which catches people out in both directions.
Winter equipment is a date, not a forecast
Winter tyres, or chains carried for a summer set, are compulsory from 15 November to 15 April on the roads that need them – and the road to the coast crosses Gorski kotar, which is exactly one of them.
Euro and Schengen
Croatia uses the euro and is inside Schengen, so there is no money to change and no queue into Slovenia, Hungary or Italy. Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro are the outside border and still mean passports.
Park below the Upper Town
Gornji Grad is largely closed to cars and the lower town runs on colour-coded paid zones. Use a garage and take the funicular up – it is the shortest ride of its kind in the world and it beats circling.
Yes. Pick Premium Insurance with zero excess when you book and the partner waives the security deposit, so you settle in arrivals with a debit card or cash. Nothing is blocked on a card, and you never pay out and claim it back.
Zagreb has one passenger terminal, opened in 2017, so there is no terminal to choose and nothing to shuttle to. Your voucher names the desk and the pick-up time, and the car park is a short walk from arrivals.
The car is held for an hour past your booked pick-up time, within the station's opening hours. Zagreb runs evening banks of connecting flights, so give us your flight number and the desk can follow the arrival rather than the clock.
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 take a ticket where you join and pay by card where you leave, and the price depends on the distance – Zagreb to Split is roughly €29 to €35 for a car. Only the motorways are tolled; every national and local road is free.
The coast is the normal trip and needs nothing: Opatija is two hours, Zadar three, Split about four. Leaving Croatia is different – a Green Card and the partner's written authorisation must be arranged when you book, not at the desk.
The Upper Town is twenty minutes north, Samobor forty minutes west and Trakošćan an hour and a half. Plitvice is about 1h50 south on the A1, and Split roughly four hours down the same motorway.
Twenty-one, with at least a year of driving behind you. A few vehicle categories ask for more, and the minimum is shown on each car before you book, so you will not find out at the counter.
Arrivals hall – Zagreb Airport (ZAG)
Book in minutes, choose your insurance tier, and collect at the terminal the moment you land in Zagreb.
