Croatia public holidays 2027: all 14 dates, weekdays, what is closed

The list comes from the Act on public holidays, memorial days and non-working days (NN 110/19, amended by NN 72/25). Easter, Easter Monday and Corpus Christi move with the church calendar; everything else is a fixed date. Croatia does not shift a holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday, so in 2027 Labour Day, Christmas Day and Statehood Day are simply a Saturday and two Sundays.

The long weekends of 2027

• 1 to 3 January: New Year on a Friday. 27 to 29 March: Easter weekend with the Monday. 27 to 30 May: Corpus Christi on a Thursday, many take the Friday off, and Statehood Day is the Sunday. 5 to 8 August: Victory Day on a Thursday, the busiest holiday weekend on the coast. 30 October to 1 November: All Saints on a Monday. 18 to 21 November: Remembrance Day on a Thursday.
• Lost to the weekend in 2027: Labour Day (Saturday), Statehood Day (Sunday), Assumption (Sunday), Christmas Day (Saturday) and St Stephen's Day (Sunday). No replacement days.

What is closed on a public holiday

• Shops: closed by the Trade Act (NN 87/08 with amendments up to 59/26; the Sunday and holiday rule since NN 33/23). Retailers may open on 16 Sundays a year of their choosing, which on the coast are the summer Sundays, but public holidays are closed for everyone. Exceptions: shops in railway and bus stations, airports and ports, at petrol stations, in hospitals, hotels, museums and cultural institutions, in campsites and family farms, and in protected areas; farmers' markets for agricultural produce; kiosks and vending machines.
• Offices, banks and post offices: closed. Pharmacies: one on duty in every town, the address is on the door of the others. Restaurants, cafés and bakeries: open, most of them.
• Ferries: Jadrolinija's timetables mark holidays as Sundays, so the Sunday schedule applies; on 25 and 26 December and 1 January some lines run a reduced holiday schedule. Buses run their Sunday and holiday timetable. Motorway tolls, tunnels and bridges charge as on any day.
• Museums and sights: most open on the summer holidays, many close on 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 November and 25 December. Check the specific site; the Dubrovnik walls, for instance, close on Christmas Day.

Days that look like holidays but are not

8 October, Independence Day, and 25 June, Croatian Statehood Day, have been memorial days since 2020, when Statehood Day itself moved to 30 May; shops and offices work on both. Carnival Tuesday, 9 February 2027 in Rijeka, is a local celebration, not a holiday. Members of other religions have a day off for their own feasts under Article 3 of the Act (Orthodox Christmas on 7 January, Orthodox Easter Monday, Eid, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah), but that changes nothing for shops or transport.

Worked examples for 2027

Two arrivals show how the rules work in practice. You land in Split on Thursday 5 August and want Hvar the same day: the catamaran to Hvar town and the car ferry to Stari Grad both run the Sunday timetable, which in August still means several sailings, but the car queue at the port starts early on the busiest holiday weekend of the year, so buy a catamaran ticket online before you fly. You arrive in Zagreb on Monday 1 November: supermarkets and banks are shut, the trams run the Sunday timetable and the afternoon traffic heads for Mirogoj cemetery, so eat out and shop on Tuesday. The table adds the other dates that catch visitors.

What to do the day before

The holiday itself is easy once you have shopped. Supermarkets are busy on the eve of a holiday, and on 24 and 31 December many chains close early in the afternoon, so buy bread, water and breakfast by midday. Bakeries open on the holiday morning in most towns, and petrol stations sell milk, snacks and coffee round the clock. Take cash out the day before if you need it: ATMs work on a holiday, but the bank branch that sorts out a swallowed card does not. Restaurants that serve Easter Sunday or Christmas lunch fill with local families, so reserve a table.

• Fill the tank before a holiday drive. Petrol stations stay open, but the queues on the coast road on 5 August are long.
• Download your ferry ticket and read the Sunday column of the timetable for your line the evening before.
• Find the duty pharmacy: the rota is on the door of every pharmacy and on the local pharmacy website.
• Buy a SIM or eSIM before the holiday. Tisak kiosks open, the operator shops are closed.
• Return a rental car at the airport on a holiday. Airport desks work, town offices are often shut, so confirm the return time in writing.

Regional differences on a holiday

A holiday looks different on the coast and inland. On 5 August and 15 August a Dalmatian resort barely changes: beaches, cafés and restaurants are full and the only sign is the locked supermarket. Zagreb and the inland towns empty on the same days as families drive to the sea. Assumption is the pilgrimage day, with crowds at the shrines of Sinj, Trsat above Rijeka and Marija Bistrica north of Zagreb, and slow roads around them from the morning. 5 August brings the state ceremony to Knin. All Saints belongs to the cemeteries everywhere, with candles at Mirogoj in Zagreb and in every village along the coast. Christmas is quiet in the resort towns and busy in Zagreb, where the Advent markets run through the holiday.

Some cities add a day of their own. Dubrovnik marks St Blaise on 3 February, Split marks St Domnius on 7 May and Rijeka marks St Vitus on 15 June, each with a procession, a fair and closed city offices. None is a national holiday, so the shop rule does not apply, but the old town is closed to traffic and full from the morning. If your visit falls on one, park outside the centre and walk in. The processions start in the morning and the fair runs into the evening, so the day is a reason to stay in town.

Common mistakes

Most holiday problems come from the calendar you carry from home. Visitors from the UK expect a Monday off after a Sunday holiday, visitors from the US and Canada expect the shops to open anyway, and Australians assume a holiday is a good day for a long drive. None of that holds in Croatia. The list below covers the errors that cost a morning or a ferry in 2027, and each has a simple fix.

• Planning a Monday off after Statehood Day or Assumption: both are Sundays in 2027 and the Monday is a normal working day.
• Reading the weekday ferry timetable for 5 August or 1 November: the Sunday column applies, with fewer early and late sailings.
• Treating Friday 28 May as a holiday: shops and offices are open, but many Croatians take it off, so roads and ferries are full.
• Leaving the food shop to the holiday morning: only bakeries, petrol stations and station kiosks sell anything, and the choice is small.
• Expecting the museums in Zagreb to open on 1 November: several close, and the cemeteries are the busiest place in town.
• Expecting a quiet drive on 5 August: it is the busiest holiday weekend of the year on the A1 and the D8, so leave early or travel on Wednesday 4 August.

Practical notes

The emergency number is 112 on every day of the year and the operators speak English. Zagreb's street parking zones are free on Sundays and public holidays, and the coastal towns usually charge in the summer zones every day, so read the sign on the meter. City buses and trams run the Sunday timetable, and intercity buses have fewer departures, so book the one you need in advance. Fuel prices are capped by the government and change weekly, so a holiday does not raise the price at the pump. Post offices are closed, and stamps come from a Tisak kiosk. Cathedrals hold services through the holiday morning, so plan a visit to the interior for the afternoon.