Nightlife in Croatia: Not Your Ordinary Kind of Fun
When the night falls, Croatia becomes a great plain canvas that you get to paint with all sort of fun color. Melodies of different kinds of music, baristas preparing you next treat, smiling people ready to mingle and great clubs make Croatia the perfect choice for your next night out session.
We bring you a first hand insight with some basic guidelines that you should keep in mind.
Hot summer nights
With first rays of spring sunlight, countless cafés, bars and clubs open their doors for the season. Summer nightlife is based on the coastline with islands of Hvar and Pag being the epicenters of entertainment. Outdoor venues cocooned between the thick pine trees and small cozy bars leaning to one another in the narrow streets of old town cores are a perfect background for hot summer nights.
During the summer dress code is pretty informal and tourist mix with locals showing off their dance moves on the dance floor. Colorful cocktails flow in streams often accompanied with shooters of morally questionable names.
Variety of musical selection
Croatian clubbing scene pretty diverse and clubs on the coastline often host relevant DJs from all over the world. Grooves get steamy and when the right song plays it makes the perfect opportunity to lock eyes with someone. Music is usually very loud in the clubs and doesn’t leave enough room for meaningful conversation that’s why everyone hits the bars first.
Around 10, 11 PM everyone is shiny slick surrounded with the cloud of their favorite perfume ready to engage in conversations with new and fresh faces. The clubs are almost empty until 1 am and then, in just 10 minutes you can’t find an unoccupied table anymore.
Big cities - leading nightlife destinations during the winter
When the summer hype settles and everyone gets to their regular jobs and their home-towns it becomes all about the weekends. Big cities like Zagreb, Split, Zadar and Rijeka come alive with abundant events, openings and concerts, while the islands and small costal villages go to sleep until next spring.
As the temperature decreases the dress code is adjusted. Croats know how to dress. Residents of the cities are quite posh and the night out is a great opportunity to strut their latest fashion accessory. Croatian women are known to be very well put together, although they are sometimes hard to seduce, they are very funny and great conversationalists.
Wining and dining
Typical night out in Zagreb or Split will most likely start at a dinner party or a restaurant. Croatians love food and wine and really like enjoying a sharing meal with good company. There is a number of restaurants that have musicians playing during the dinner to light up the atmosphere.
Wine is an essential part of the experience. Croatia is famous for its wonderful wines and wine is an irreplaceable part of our gastronomy. A Typical appetizer is cheese, prosciutto and olives. Desserts are often skipped and everyone is eager to hop in the cab and hit the dance floor to brush off the meal that they just had.
Authentic experience
Another type of entertainment worth mentioning that is very popular with the locals is the authentic informal socializing centered around food. “Peka” or food prepared “under the bell” is a traditional food preparation technique where everyone gathers around the burning flame and while the food is being cooked they engage in conversation, card games or often singing.
Group of friends gather sometimes for the whole weekend at someone’s cottage in the village or outside of the city. The nights are painted quite differently than your typical Saturday night but still burst with enjoyment and laughter. The person holding the guitar needs to be tireless to please all musical preferences deep into the night. If you get a chance to experience it for your self don’t miss it.
Exploring Croatian nightlife is a must. Diverse offer can please just about everyone. Alluring events, clubs, and most importantly interesting people flood the populated areas. If you can handle alcohol well, we suggest you try out what’s currently most popular beverage, domestic brandy named rakija. It comes in different flavors that you can taste and decide which one is your favorite.
Did you go clubbing in Croatia? Have you tried rakija? Would you like to visit most prominent party destinations like Hvar, Split and Zagreb? What is your preferred type of a night out?
Author: Nikolina Dukic
Photo Credit: (1) Moyan Brenn, (2) Dado, (3) I.tourism, (4) Eva Rinaldi
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