Where to stay in Zagreb: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Zagreb began up here, and the Upper Town still feels like a village that happens to contain a parliament. Cobbled lanes lead to St Mark's Church and its bright tiled roof, a funicular rattles up from the shopping street of Ilica, and every evening the street lamps are still lit by hand.

Places to stay are small and personal: guesthouses, apartments and residences in old townhouses on the slopes between Ilica and the hilltop, rather than big hotels. It is wonderfully quiet at night and five minutes on foot from the main square. The catch is the hill itself, and the cobbles, which are no friend to wheeled suitcases.

Everything in Zagreb is measured from Ban Jelačić Square. Trams clang through it, friends meet under the clock, and the twin spires of the cathedral poke up just behind. The Dolac market, with its red parasols, is up a flight of steps; Tkalčićeva, a long curving street of bars and restaurants, begins around the corner.

Stay here and you will barely need public transport. Hotels range from a long-established address right on the square to smart modern four-stars and bed and breakfasts on the side streets. It is the liveliest part of town, so ask for a room at the back if you like to sleep with the window open.

South of the main square, Zagreb straightens its tie. The Lower Town is a nineteenth-century grid of handsome ochre buildings wrapped around a chain of parks and squares: Zrinjevac with its plane trees and bandstand, the Archaeological Museum, the Croatian National Theatre and, at the bottom, the Botanical Garden and the main railway station.

This is where the best hotels are. The landmark is a 1925 grand hotel beside the station, opened for passengers on the Orient Express and still all marble and old-world polish. Around Zrinjevac you'll find boutique five-stars in converted palaces, and newer design hotels sit close to the station. The main square is about a ten-minute walk through the parks.

West of the centre the grand facades give way to ordinary, lived-in Zagreb: apartment blocks, neighbourhood bakeries and trams full of commuters. Trešnjevka is not a sightseeing district, but it holds one of the city's most enjoyable hotels, a tower with a rooftop pool, a sun deck and a pair of bars looking out over the rooftops.

Elsewhere in the west, straightforward four-stars and a large business hotel on the main avenue out of town offer bigger rooms and parking at gentler prices. Choose it if you are driving, staying a while or want a swim after a hot day. Skip it if you want to step out of the door into the old city.

Zagreb's offices cluster south and east of the old centre, around Vukovarska Street and Radnička Road, and the big international hotel brands have followed them. Expect what those names always deliver: new rooms, good gyms, proper desks, restaurants that stay open late and car parks underneath.

For a leisure trip it is a head-over-heart choice. Rates can be sharp, especially at weekends, and the centre is a short tram or taxi ride away, with the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall and the big shopping malls close at hand. But the streets are wide and busy rather than pretty, and you will not be wandering home past any gas lamps.

Zagreb's airport is south of the city, beside the town of Velika Gorica, and a handful of small hotels make life easy for anyone landing late or leaving at dawn. They tend to be family-run and quietly comfortable, with restaurants serving Croatian cooking, parking, and airport transfers on request. One has a sizeable wellness area for ironing out a long journey.

The city centre is around 20 minutes away by car, so this is not the base for a sightseeing weekend. It works best as a first or last night, or as a pit stop on a drive between central Europe and the coast.