Adriatic Escape - Small Group

Arrive in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, capital of Croatia and a key Central European gateway to the Adriatic. After check-in, you’ll have time to settle and take in first impressions of the city or simply rest at the hotel. In the evening, you’ll meet your Travel Director and your Small Group for a welcome dinner in a local restaurant, where regional dishes will introduce your northern Adriatic journey.

Explore Zagreb with your Local Expert, beginning in the Lower Town near the Art Pavilion and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. You’ll walk the formal paths of Zrinjevac Park before riding the funicular up to the Upper Town for St. Mark’s Church and a view of the Lotršcak Tower, once part of the city’s defensive walls. Later, continue across the border to Slovenia and arrive in Ljubljana. Join a walking tour that follows the riverbanks and main squares, crossing the bridges that link the historic center. In the afternoon, visit the Soncek association for a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience, meeting artists with cerebral palsy who craft distinctive Slovenian souvenirs. This evening, enjoy dinner of local specialties in a Ljubljana restaurant.

Travel to Lake Bled, one of Slovenia’s best-known Alpine lakes, long recognized as a historic spa resort. With Insight Choice, choose to board a traditional wooden pletna boat to Bled Island, climbing to the 15th-century church to ring its bell, or visit Villa Bled, once a presidential residence, to sample Bled’s kremšnita cream cake with coffee on the terrace overlooking the water. Return to Ljubljana for an afternoon at leisure, perhaps taking the funicular up to Ljubljana Castle for city views, walking the avenues and gardens of Tivoli Park or exploring Jože Plecnik’s riverside Central Market, and perhaps join an Optional Experience to Pr’ Krac for a traditional dinner showcasing Slovenia’s rural heritage.

Leave Ljubljana and travel south to Postojna Cave, one of Europe’s best-known karst cave systems and a show cave visited since the 19th century. Inside, you’ll travel by underground train into the heart of the cave, then continue on foot through chambers marked by stalactites, stalagmites and limestone columns formed by water over millions of years. Continue across the border into Croatia towards Rijeka, a major Adriatic port once known as Fiume under Habsburg rule. After settling into the hotel, spend time along the waterfront or on the Korzo promenade, and perhaps join an Optional Experience to Opatija to follow its seafront promenade and try coastal specialties in a local restaurant.