Give the first morning to the peninsula on foot: the Roman forum, St Donatus, the cathedral bell tower and the Venetian Land Gate sit within ten minutes of each other. Keep the western tip for late afternoon, when the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun take the sunset. Day two belongs to the water, either the Kornati archipelago by boat or Dugi Otok by ferry.
Zadar is the Dalmatian coast without the Dubrovnik markup. A Roman forum lies open in the middle of the old town, the walls around it are UNESCO listed, and at the western tip the sea plays an organ built into the steps. The islands begin twenty minutes offshore.
Nikola Bašić finished it in 2005: thirty-five pipes under a flight of marble steps, tuned so that swell and wind push chords up through slots in the pavement. It never repeats a phrase, and it is loudest when a ferry wake arrives. Sit low, where the sound is under you rather than beside you.
The largest Roman forum on the eastern Adriatic, laid out under Augustus and running roughly 90 metres by 45. It is neither fenced nor ticketed: paving, column bases and one standing pillar sit open in the middle of the old town, with St Donatus built straight onto the stone.
A ninth-century rotunda, 27 metres across and 27 high, raised on Roman blocks lifted from the forum it stands on. It stopped being a working church two centuries ago and is now a concert hall, because the cylinder holds a note. Go in for the acoustics and the sightlines, not for an altar.
Bašić's companion piece to the Sea Organ, fifty metres along the quay: a 22-metre disc of 300 glass panels that charges all day and runs a light sequence once it is dark. Come back for it after the sunset crowd has thinned, then walk the riva back into town.
The largest cathedral in Dalmatia, Romanesque and twelfth-century, with a campanile finished in 1892 to a design by the English architect Thomas Graham Jackson. The climb is the reason to come: a narrow stair to the whole peninsula, the channel and the islands behind it.
Michele Sanmicheli cut this triumphal arch in 1543, the Lion of St Mark over the main opening and St Chrysogonus above it. The walls behind made Zadar the strongest fortress on the Adriatic, and UNESCO listed them in 2017. Foša harbour below is the angle worth walking to.
More than five thousand Roman glass objects, most of them lifted from Dalmatian graves, held in the Cosmacendi palace above the harbour. The pieces are small and the labelling is patient. Time it for the glassblowing bench, which is the part children remember.
The Benedictine convent of St Mary keeps the city's reliquaries, processional crosses and painted panels in two quiet rooms beside the forum. It is the best goldsmiths' work in Dalmatia gathered in one place, and it is usually almost empty. Half an hour is enough.
Eighty-nine islands with almost no soil and no fresh water, and on the seaward side cliffs that drop straight into the Adriatic. Day boats from Zadar take about two hours each way and usually pair the archipelago with Telašćica bay on Dugi Otok. Park entry is charged separately.
The market sits against the inside of the city walls and is the one stretch of the peninsula that is not about visitors. Produce outside, fish under cover, Pag cheese and salted anchovies at the back. It winds down early in the afternoon, so go before lunch.
An old-town konoba built around peka, the iron bell buried in embers. Order it several hours ahead.
A Puntamika fish house on the water since 1963, and still where the city goes for a long lunch.
Mediterranean cooking in the centre, roomy enough to take a group without booking days ahead.
Above the walls facing the harbour, cushions on the grass and its own beer on the list.
The old town's late club, open air on Five Wells Square, themed nights from Latin to house.
The student bar by the university, a big terrace and the cheapest round on the peninsula.
A courtyard off Kalelarga, the sort of place locals stop at before deciding on anywhere else.
The Benedictine convent's treasury: reliquaries, processional crosses and panel paintings, two rooms deep.
Seventy-odd optical tricks in the old town, and the reliable answer to a wet afternoon with children.
The city's own collections: ethnography, cultural history and the art gallery, in the arsenal quarter.
The city beach, 1.5 km from the old town: fine pebble, concrete terraces and pine shade at the north end.
Four kilometres north, resort infrastructure and a shallow entry, which is why families base themselves here.
A wooded cape west of the centre, rock ledges instead of pebble and room to spread out.
White sand and shallow turquoise water on Dugi Otok, pines to the edge. About an hour and forty by ferry.
A long sand spit north of the city, medicinal peloid mud at one end and the Velebit range in view.
A ninth-century church the size of a room, a salt works still in production, and sand beaches past both.
Over the bridge north: sheep cheese, lace, and a bare karst landscape that looks like nowhere else on the coast.
About twenty-five minutes by ferry from Gaženica to Preko, then a climb to the fort above the channel.
An hour south, with a UNESCO cathedral built entirely of stone, no timber and no mortar in the vault.
The old town peninsula. Almost everything ranked above is on it, and none of it needs a bus.
Immediately south of the walls, with the city beach at the end of the street and a ten-minute walk back in.
The hotel strip four kilometres north: the best family beach, and buses that run late in season.
An eighteenth-century settlement of Albanian refugees across the harbour, now the quiet and cheaper side.
Široka ulica, the old town's spine, and the street everyone means when they say they are going into town.
Zadar's clear cherry liqueur, distilled in the city since the eighteenth century and sold in a straw-wrapped bottle.
Four days of trail running, rafting and open-water racing across the Zadar hinterland.
The three-a-side basketball tour plays a two-day stop on a court set up in the city.
One of Croatia's oldest festivals, staged inside the ninth-century rotunda for its acoustics.
The national theatre moves outdoors and plays squares and courtyards across the peninsula.
The riva's street lights go out and boats sell fish, wine and fruit off the quay by candlelight.
A patron saint's procession, with the fourteenth-century silver chest of St Simeon opened.
The city's day and its other patron, marked with a procession and a concert programme.
Lights, stalls and concerts on the forum and along the riva, running through to Epiphany.
At Zemunik, about 10 km east of the city. The shuttle bus meets arrivals and reaches the old town in roughly twenty minutes for €5, cash on board.
Island and Ancona sailings leave from Gaženica, 4 km south of the peninsula. Book car places well ahead in August.
One operator covers the city and the suburbs. A single ride is €1.59 bought on board and a two-ride karnet is €2.65.
Beef marinated, then braised for hours in a sweet and sour sauce and served with gnocchi.
Mixed fish stew cooked slowly with wine, eaten from the pot with polenta.
Meat or octopus baked under an iron bell buried in embers. Order it hours ahead.
Hard sheep's cheese from Pag, salty from pasture the sea blows over.
Cured pork neck from Nin, packed in sea salt and sliced thin.
Squid ink risotto, black to the teeth, on every konoba menu on this coast.
Zadar's clear cherry liqueur, distilled in the city since the eighteenth century.
Small fried dough balls with rum and citrus zest, sold hot at markets and festivals.
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