Rijeka

A medieval castle on a rise over the Rjecina gorge; in the nineteenth century General Nugent bought it and built his family mausoleum within. The Petar Kruzic stairway climbs up from town, but with hundreds of steps many people ride the bus up and walk down.

The oldest Marian pilgrimage site in Croatia, tied to the legend that the Holy House of Nazareth rested on this hill before moving on to Loreto. A votive room beside the church is packed with ship paintings and crutches left by pilgrims.

A pedestrian street laid where the old walls stood, where the arch under the clock tower at its midpoint opens onto the alleys of the old quarter. In the evening locals fill the cafe terraces, and the carnival parade passes down here too.

A theatre opened in 1885, part of whose auditorium ceiling a young Gustav Klimt painted with his brother Ernst and colleague Franz Matsch. The ceiling shows only at performances or on guided visits, so a show ticket is the easiest way in.

Several market halls framed in cast iron in the late 1800s cluster by the port, and the fish hall walls are decorated with carved fish and crabs. Kvarner boats deliver their catch each morning soon after dawn, and past noon the fish counters start to empty.

The palace where the governor lived under the Kingdom of Hungary now houses the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral. Ship models and navigation instruments fill many rooms, and the upstairs ballroom keeps its old chandeliers and murals.

The largest carnival in Croatia, held just before Lent, with dozens of masked groups filing along the Korzo in the international parade on its final Sunday. The zvoncari, wrapped in sheepskins with big bells at the waist, stamp along to drive off evil spirits.

The seaside path of Opatija, the Austro-Hungarian aristocrats' resort, follows the rocky shore from the fishing village of Volosko to Lovran. A city bus from Rijeka takes about 30 minutes, and walkers cover one direction and ride the bus back.

The highest summit of Ucka, the range that divides Istria from Kvarner, crowned by a stone lookout tower. Cars drive almost to the top, and on a haze-free day the tower takes in Krk and Cres islands together.

A small walled village sits on a hill northwest of Rijeka, with the roofless walls of an old church closing off its square. In early October the Bela Nedeja festival for tasting the new Belica wine packs its lanes with people.

Stone steps climbing straight from Tito Square in town to the Trsat shrine of Our Lady on the hill. The Uskok captain Petar Kruzic first laid them for pilgrims in the 16th century. A few of the faithful climb kneeling; even on foot you arrive soaked in sweat.

A breakwater of a little over 1.7km wrapping the harbour on its seaward side, with a promenade along the top. Walk to the end and the city and Mount Ucka line up across the water. Locals walk dogs out and back on it around sunset.

In 1866 the English engineer Robert Whitehead built and tested the world's first torpedo in Rijeka. On the western shore the old launch station still juts into the sea, now a ruin. Early torpedoes are on show at the city museum in town.

A small fishing village on the coastal slope between Rijeka and Opatija, its stepped lanes tumbling down to the harbour. Seafood restaurants ring the little port. Walk the Lungomare seaside path from Opatija and you arrive here.

A villa the Rijeka merchant Scarpa built in 1844, the starting point of Opatija's growth into a resort. Camellias fill the garden, and Opatija adopted the flower as its symbol. Inside is the Croatian Museum of Tourism.

Krk's main town, on an island tied to the coast since 1980 by a bridge, keeps a cathedral and a Frankopan castle inside its walls. A pebble beach lies by the harbour just outside the walls. Buses from Rijeka cross the bridge in roughly 70 minutes.

A mountain forest national park in Gorski Kotar, declared in 1949 and named after the lynx. The 4.5km Leska trail loops from the Crni Lug visitor centre. At the park's lowest point the Kupa river rises from a blue pool as deep as 86m.