Car hire in Zagreb

Car hire in Zagreb: cars and prices

For 5 October to 19 October 2026, 79 cars were listed for car hire in Zagreb, 76 of them collected at Zagreb Airport. 44 had an automatic gearbox and 17 had seven seats or more. Each car shows its deposit, card rule, cancellation terms and seats before you pay. Checked 2 October 2026.

Should I pick up the car at Zagreb Airport or in the city?

At the airport, in almost every case. Franjo Tuđman Airport Zagreb is in Velika Gorica, with one passenger terminal, opened in 2017. Rental companies operate there, and your voucher names the meeting place.

Zagreb Railway Station is also offered as a pick-up point; the search shows whether any car is available there for your dates. Some cars offer city delivery. If you are staying in the centre for a few days before driving on, collecting at the airport on the day you leave the city saves parking the car while you do not need it. And if the holiday starts on the coast rather than in the capital, collecting in Split instead saves the drive down the A1.

How do I get from Zagreb Airport to the city centre?

By road: the centre is 16 km from the airport, and Ban Jelačić Square 30 minutes without traffic. The square itself is a pedestrian zone, so the drive ends at a car park or a street space nearby, not on the square.

Driving in central Zagreb

Motor traffic is banned, except with a city permit, in the designated pedestrian zones: Ban Jelačić Square, Ilica from the square to Gundulićeva, Tkalčićeva from Splavnica to Mikloušićeva, Radićeva, Dverce and the Strossmayer promenade among them. The city order lists streets, not the Upper Town as a whole, and the signs at each street decide.

Cars in Croatia must drive with daytime running lights or dipped headlights on during the day from 1 November to 31 March, and dipped headlights are required in any tunnel all year. The limit for ordinary car drivers is 0.5 grams of alcohol per kilogram of blood; not drinking before driving is the only safe choice.

Where do I park in Zagreb?

Street parking and the city garages are run by Zagrebparking, the city parking operator, in five numbered zones, I to V, with sub-zones. Zone V is Park & Ride. An hourly ticket allows 2 hours in Zone I and 3 hours in Zones II.1 and II.2, and Zone III has no limit. Zone I.1 has no hourly parking at all, only residents' and daily tickets.

The charging hours differ by zone and sub-zone, and the public garages charge round the clock. Zones II.1 and III are free on Sundays and holidays; sub-zones I.1 and I.2 never are.

• Zone I: 2 hours on an hourly ticket; charged Monday to Saturday 07:00 to 24:00, Sundays and holidays 07:00 to 15:00
• Sub-zones I.1 and I.2: charged 0:00 to 24:00 every day
• Zones II.1 and II.2: 3 hours; Zone II.1 charged weekdays 07:00 to 20:00, Saturdays 07:00 to 15:00
• Zone III: no limit; same hours as Zone II.1
• Zone IV.1: charged weekdays 07:00 to 16:00 only; Zone IV.2 weekdays and Saturdays 07:00 to 20:00
• Zone V: Park & Ride

How do I pay for parking in Zagreb?

Not by SMS on a foreign phone: Zagrebparking's SMS payment works only on Croatian mobile networks. The alternatives are the ZgPark app, the ePK web portal, the parking meters, electronic tickets bought at kiosks, and the Aircash, bmove and KEKS Pay apps. Newer meters take coins and bank cards; older ones take exact coins only, and the ticket goes behind the windscreen.

A car found in a charged space without a valid ticket gets a daily parking ticket (DPK), valid for 24 hours. Parking is the renter's cost under the rental conditions; some companies keep the deposit for 30 to 45 days, and a fine or unpaid toll from the rental period can be charged to it.

The rental conditions behind a Zagreb pick-up

The minimum chargeable period is 24 hours. Fuel is like for like. Tolls on the A1 and the other motorways are the renter's to pay, today at barrier plazas that take cash in euros, cards and ENC tags. The standard insurance on the car requires immediate notice to the rental agent and a police report after an insured event, unless the agent agrees otherwise, and it never covers the wheels, the undercarriage, the windscreen or the interior.

What day trips can I drive from Zagreb?

Down the A1, the coast at Zadar is 3 hours 25 minutes without traffic, and Rijeka and the northern Adriatic 2 hours 5 minutes. Inland, the state road D1 runs via Karlovac and meets the D429 at Prijeboj, and both park entrances of Plitvice Lakes are on the D429: Zagreb to Plitvice is 2 hours 10 minutes to Entrance 1 without traffic.

Winter equipment is compulsory from 15 November to 15 April on the designated winter sections of public roads, motorways and state and county roads among them, not on every road: four winter tyres, or summer tyres with at least 4 mm of tread plus snow chains for the driven wheels. Check that the car is equipped for those sections before a winter drive.

Can I pick up in Zagreb and return the car somewhere else?

Yes, at any of the other airports on the coast, chosen as the drop-off in the same search: for 5 October to 19 October 2026, 53 Zagreb cars could be returned in Split, 51 in Dubrovnik, 39 in Zadar and 35 in Pula, with the drop-off charge inside the price shown. With a one-way hire to the coast, the drive south is a single rental with no drive back.

The drive from Zagreb to Split is 4 hours 35 minutes centre to centre without traffic, most of it on the A1, the motorway that starts at the Lučko junction on the Zagreb bypass. Dubrovnik is 7 hours 15 minutes without traffic, and the long drive to Dubrovnik leaves the motorway near Ploče, where the A1 currently ends.

Search cars in Zagreb for your dates

Driving from Zagreb into neighbouring countries

Only with permission arranged before the trip. Travel outside Croatia is added during booking as the cross-border option, for a fee, and the rental conditions send you to the booking support team to arrange the permission, with prices and conditions set by the car, the company and the length of the trip abroad. The A2 motorway from Zagreb towards Slovenia is run by the concessionaire Autocesta Zagreb-Macelj; every other motorway out of Zagreb is run by the state company Hrvatske autoceste.