Explore Zagreb with a Local Expert, walking past the Art Pavilion, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and tree-lined Zrinjevac Park. Ride the 66-metre funicular from Ilica Street to the historic Upper Town, where St. Mark’s Church and Lotršcak Tower mark the old fortified ridge.

Walk through the Stone Gate towards the main square, tracing the contrast between Zagreb’s 19th-century Lower Town and its older streets above. The funicular has linked the two districts since 1890.

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a welcome dinner with wine in Zagreb. The hosted meal offers a relaxed introduction to the group and a chance to hear more about the journey ahead.

Conversation is the centrepiece of this first evening in Croatia’s capital. Share a table, settle into the festive atmosphere and get to know the people travelling with you across Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Austria.

• 3 Dinner (D)
• 7 Breakfast (B)

Insight Vacations

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays

Browse the Zagreb Christmas Market during your time in Croatia’s capital. Seasonal stalls bring lights, conversation and the scent of winter treats to the city’s central streets and squares, creating space to explore at your own pace.

Zagreb’s Advent celebrations spread across the centre rather than occupying a single square. The setting lets you take in the festive displays alongside the Lower Town’s grand facades and the older lanes around the main square.

Board the Postojna Cave train and travel into one of Slovenia’s best-known karst cave systems. Explore underground passages shaped by water, with stalactites, stalagmites, columns and delicate calcite curtains. Look for the five-metre-tall stalagmite known as the Brilliant.

Postojna has more than 20 kilometres of surveyed passages and introduced an underground railway in the 19th century. Its waters are also home to the olm, an endemic cave-dwelling amphibian.

Taste Slovenian specialities with wine at a dinner in Ljubljana. The shared meal offers a welcoming introduction to the country’s food traditions and an opportunity to compare flavours and impressions with fellow travellers.

Slovenian cooking draws on Alpine, Mediterranean and Central European influences, giving the table a character of its own. Set in the capital, this dinner is a chance to experience that regional mix through food rather than sightseeing alone.

Walk Ljubljana’s riverbanks and squares with a Local Expert, seeing Ljubljana Castle, City Hall and St. Nicholas Cathedral. Cross towards the Triple Bridge, architect Jože Plecnik’s distinctive arrangement of crossings over the Ljubljanica, and spend time among the city’s Christmas market stalls.

Baroque facades and riverside cafés give the compact centre its character. In Advent, the market adds festive lights and the aromas of sweet treats and warming drinks to the historic streets.

Explore the UNESCO-listed historic centre of Graz on an orientation with your Travel Director. See the Town Hall and Schlossberg, or Castle Hill, stroll near the River Mur and browse festive market stalls among the Old Town’s colourful buildings.

Graz’s centre reflects centuries of Central European architectural influences within a remarkably well-preserved streetscape. The Christmas market brings seasonal activity to its squares, making this a chance to experience both the city’s heritage and its Advent atmosphere.

Choose a Local Expert-led exploration of Bratislava, taking in views from Bratislava Castle before walking the Old Town’s palace-lined streets. See Michael’s Gate, the Old Town Hall and the Slovak National Theatre as your guide introduces the capital’s principal landmarks.

Bratislava’s position on the Danube placed it at a crossroads of cultures and empires. This included Insight Choice activity focuses on the city’s layered history and its compact historic centre; it is an alternative to the Christmas food tour.

Choose to explore Bratislava’s Christmas market with a local food lover. Walk among the stalls and discover the seasonal foods and drinks that give the Slovak capital’s Advent celebrations their flavour.

The market’s festive aromas and busy gathering places offer a different way to get to know Bratislava, through its winter food traditions and the people who share them. This included Insight Choice activity is an alternative to the Local Expert-led Old Town and castle-view tour.

Tour Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna with a Local Expert, admiring frescoed ceilings, crystal chandeliers and gilded decoration. Discover rooms associated with the Habsburg court, including the Hall of Mirrors and Great Gallery, and learn about the imperial family’s private and ceremonial lives.

The palace served as a summer residence for the Habsburgs. Its grand reception spaces and apartments reveal how architecture, court ritual and personal taste helped express the dynasty’s power.

Discover Vienna’s monumental centre on a sightseeing tour with a Local Expert and a drive along the Ringstrasse. See landmarks including the Hofburg Imperial Residence and Vienna State Opera, as well as the City Hall and its surrounding parklands, dressed in festive lights.

The boulevard follows the line of the former city walls and displays the ambitions of 19th-century imperial Vienna. Around City Hall, the Viennese Christmas Market adds illuminated stalls and seasonal bustle to the grand civic setting.

Visit Varaždin’s Christmas markets on an optional excursion from Zagreb. Browse seasonal stalls set among the streets and squares of the town’s Baroque Old Town, taking time to appreciate its historic facades and festive decorations.

Varaždin offers a smaller-town contrast to Croatia’s capital, with an intimate historic centre shaped by its former importance as a Croatian administrative seat. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Discover Lake Bled on an optional excursion from Ljubljana. Enjoy the scenery around the Alpine lake, where a church stands on a small island and Bled Castle overlooks the water from a cliff. Winter conditions may lend the shoreline and surrounding peaks a particularly quiet atmosphere.

The island church and medieval castle make Bled one of Slovenia’s most recognisable landscapes. This excursion is at additional cost and bookable on tour; specific visits within the area are not stated.

Meet people at Soncek – Cerebral Palsy Association of Slovenia in Ljubljana and learn how its Care and Work Center supports adults with disabilities. Discover how guidance, care and adapted employment help members take part in community life and create handcrafted items and artwork.

This visit puts the people behind the work at its heart. It supports greater inclusion and reduced inequalities while offering insight into a Slovenian organisation’s approach to meaningful employment.