The Best Hotels to Book in Zadar, Croatia

With only three rooms, the Kadena is more a boutique bed and breakfast than a hotel, decorated in soft greys, and lent pizazz by swirling baroque wallpaper, satin curtains and marble-lined, double-basin bathrooms. It’s in the heart of old Zadar – two minutes from the Roman ruins and the sea front. The only downside is that there’s no lift – and with the bells of St Chrysogonus Church next door ringing out at 7am, it helps to be an early riser.

The Falkensteiner caters for travellers who want to stay on a Mediterranean beach without having to worry about more than getting a good tan. Identikit laminate-wood, cream and Matisse-blue balcony-rooms sit behind a modern glass-and-concrete façade on an isolated peninsula. With a gentle shingle beach, a stroll from the rooms, a hammam spa and huge indoor and outdoor pools, you are some drive from any sights. Most guests are content to lie back, relax and never leave the grounds.

With off-white walls, soft-grey counterpanes, inoffensive art and ebony-look furniture, the Mono’s room decor is more business hotel than boutique. But the location is plum: in a historic tall townhouse right next to the archaeology museum in Zadar’s old town. Best of all, shops and restaurants with genuine local character are within credit-card swiping distance.

With double beds you can fall into, complimentary wine you actually want to drink on the bedside table and bathtubs in the living room, these self-catering apartments (with fully equipped kitchens) are for couples who care about intimacy even more than privacy. The seaside promenade is a five-minute amble away, and tailor-made for romantic sunset views. While you’re out, take time to potter among historic Zadar’s sights and shops.

The building is nothing to Instagram home about – a concrete block 10 minutes’ drive from the centre. But the Niko’s Trokrevetne and Balkonen rooms are something else. Decorated in an exuberant French Empire style with bergère armchairs, heavy drapes and satin bedspreads, both are fronted with sea-view terraces big enough for a romantic evening meal. And the owner-manager family are heaven-sent – genuinely seeking to please.

Accommodation in Zadar is rarely better located than this: in a beautiful neoclassical townhouse in the heart of the old town, a minute’s stroll from the waterfront. There’s even a shady courtyard garden. Free parking, too. We say avoid the top-floor attic rooms, which have uncomfortably low ceilings, and the mezzanines, with their print-block art and faux-Japanese screens, in favour of the best rooms: the upper-floor double-standards.

This little Zadar boutique hotel, in the busiest part of the historic centre, manages to feel bright and modern. Rooms radiate honey-tinted whites and light wood, with fitted desks and bedside tables, all the while retaining vestiges of the 19th-century building. Expect exposed raw stone walls and an al fresco bar area spilling onto the Renaissance flagstones of the adjacent street. Generous breakfasts are included and Zadar’s best restaurants are minutes away.