Etno Kuća pod Okićem

At Botanicki vrt Suban botanical garden (10 minutes) you can have a picnic surrounded by fragrant medicinal plants. Make the most of the fresh air before heading underground with a guided tour of the mining shafts at Rudnik sveta Barbara (35 minutes’ drive), which was in operation as far back as the 15th century, when it yielded enormous quantities of copper. In addition to hiking, mountain biking and climbing, the Žumberak and Samobor Mountains are a favoured destination for wildlife watching, since it is home to bears, wolves and spotted salamanders, plus myriad bird species, including goshawks. If you have no luck with living animals, you might spot fossils of ammonites, especially at Gregurić Brijeg (35 minutes). Elegant 19th-century Austro-Hungarian buildings in Zagreb include the Croatian National Theatre and the Croatian State Archives, but the capital city also has a vertiginous neo-Gothic cathedral with tall twin spires and the medieval Church of St. Mark, its roof covered in colourful tiles portraying the local coats of arms.