Interliber 2026: Zagreb book fair, 10 to 15 November

Interliber is the international book and teaching-aids fair of the Zagreb Fair, and in Croatia it is simply the week when books are bought. The 48th edition runs from Tuesday 10 to Sunday 15 November 2026 in the pavilions on Avenija Dubrovnik in Novi Zagreb, and entry is free, as it has been for years. Every publisher in the country takes a stand, from the university presses to the one-person houses, and the fair discounts, often a third off and more on the last day, are the reason the halls are full from the first hour. Around the stands runs a programme of readings, presentations, debates and a large children's section that fills school mornings.

When to go and how to get there

• Tuesday to Thursday mornings are the calm hours; Saturday is the busiest day of the year at the Fair, with queues at the checkouts of the big publishers.
• Sunday afternoon has the deepest discounts, as publishers would rather sell than pack; the choice is thinner by then.
• Tram 7 and 14 stop at Velesajam, fifteen minutes from the main square; by car, parking on the fairground is charged and full on the weekend.
• Opening hours 2026: Tuesday to Thursday (10 to 12 November) 10:00 to 20:00, Friday and Saturday (13 and 14 November) 10:00 to 21:00, Sunday 15 November 9:00 to 19:00 (Zagreb Fair).

Bring a bag that closes and a budget you are willing to exceed. The same week has the Zagreb Film Festival in the city's cinemas, and two weeks later Advent opens on the squares, which makes mid-November the cheapest and most crowded-indoors time to see the capital.

How the fair works on the ground

Interliber takes a group of pavilions side by side on the fairground, with short walks in the open between them, so keep your coat on. The largest publishers, among them Školska knjiga, Mozaik knjiga, Fraktura and Profil, fill whole blocks of floor with several checkouts each. Around them stand the small presses, the university and church publishers, the second-hand dealers with boxes of old paperbacks, and the teaching-aids side of the fair: school supplies, maps, globes, educational games and stationery, which is why so many families come. The Fair publishes an exhibitor list with pavilion numbers shortly before the opening, and the big houses keep the same positions from year to year. If you want a specific title, go to its publisher's stand: the deepest reductions are on the publishers' own stands.

Bring cash as well as a card. The big houses have proper tills, the smallest presses may have a cash box and a phone terminal. Stands do not hold titles for later, and popular books run out by Saturday afternoon, so buy when you see one. Most stands hand out a bag, but a rucksack carries the weight better, and there is nowhere sensible to leave a suitcase. The readings and debates run on small stages inside the pavilions, announced day by day on the Fair's site and on boards at the entrances, almost all of it in Croatian. The children's hall fills with school groups on weekday mornings, so with your own children come in the afternoon.

Where to stay for the fair

The fair lies on the southern bank of the Sava, in Novi Zagreb, and the choice of hotels there is small: a few business hotels along the avenues and flats in the housing estates. Most visitors stay in the centre and take the tram, as the publishers' guests do. Tram 14 runs from Ban Jelačić Square past the main station and over the Freedom Bridge (Most slobode) to Velesajam, and tram 7 takes the same bridge from the station, so anywhere between the main square and the station puts you on a direct line. Mid-November falls between the autumn conference season and Advent, so rooms in the Lower Town are easier to find than 2 weeks later. Book anyway: the film festival runs the same week and brings its own crowd.

Novi Zagreb around the fair

The Velesajam tram stop is on Avenija Većeslava Holjevca, and across that avenue from the fairground stands the Museum of Contemporary Art, the largest of its kind in Croatia, open from 11:00 to 18:00. The collection follows Croatian art from 1950 onward, with the Gorgona group and Exat 51, and Carsten Höller's slide takes you from the upper floors down to the exit. It is the natural pairing with the fair: a morning among the books, 2 hours among the installations, all within a 5-minute walk. The building also has a cinema, a library and a terrace with a view back over the river toward Medvednica, and the museum shop sells its own exhibition catalogues.

North of Avenija Dubrovnik lies Bundek, the park on the southern bank of the Sava with a lake, meadows, playgrounds and a gravel beach, laid out anew in 2006 after decades of neglect. From the fair it is a walk of about 10 minutes along Avenija Većeslava Holjevca toward the river, and in November it is nearly empty: a place to put the bags down before the tram back. Avenue Mall stands on the northern side of Avenija Dubrovnik at the same crossroads, with a supermarket, a cinema and restaurants on 3 levels, the practical stop for lunch or a cash machine between pavilions. If you want a longer walk, the Sava embankment runs flat and car-free in both directions from the bridge.

The oldest books in the city

A book fair is a good excuse for the oldest written objects in the city, and both stand on Zrinjevac, on the walk from the main square to the station. In the lobby of the Croatian Academy palace on Strossmayer Square rests the Baška Tablet, a stone slab of about 1100 from the island of Krk, carved in the Glagolitic script and one of the earliest monuments of the Croatian language. The lobby can be seen without a ticket, and the Strossmayer Gallery of old masters upstairs closes at 16:00. A square further north, the Archaeological Museum in the Vranyczany palace keeps the Zagreb linen book, the wrappings of an Egyptian mummy bearing the longest surviving text in Etruscan, open from 10:00 to 18:00. Add the 13th century Glagolitic inscription by the cathedral entrance, if the restoration works leave that part open, and you have Croatian literacy before the printing press in a single afternoon.

Where to eat during the fair

Food on the fairground means counters and the pavilion cafés, enough for a coffee and a sandwich between halls, so plan a proper meal on the centre side of the river. Amfora, the plain canteen by the fish hall of Dolac, serves fried small fish and a glass of white from 08:00 to 21:00 at fair prices, and a bag of books fits under the table. Pod Zidom beneath the market wall cooks what the chef bought at Dolac that morning and needs a reservation. By the station, the Esplanade's ground floor restaurant serves štrukli, the baked cheese pastry of the Zagreb region, a few steps from the tram back to the fair. Medvedgrad brews its own beer and serves plates of grilled meat at its Savska branch, and Submarine Burger in the centre is fast and reliable when the halls have worn you out. For coffee, Cogito on Varšavska roasts its own and is open until 20:00.

Practical notes

Croatia uses the euro, and cards work at most stands, though the second-hand dealers and the smallest presses may prefer cash. Books are heavy: 10 paperbacks weigh several kilos and hardback art books more, so check your airline's baggage allowance before the last day's shopping. The main post office stands beside the main station on Branimirova, and a parcel home saves carrying. November in Zagreb is cool and often wet, with daytime highs around 10 degrees, while the pavilions are heated, so wear layers you can shed. If you drive in from Slovenia, Austria or Hungary, every motorway into Zagreb is a winter section from 15 November with mandatory winter equipment, whatever the weather.

• Check the Fair's site the week before for the pavilion numbers and the stage programme, both of which change from year to year.
• Buy tram tickets at a Tisak kiosk before boarding and validate them in the machine on the tram.
• The Zagreb Film Festival runs from 9 to 15 November in the city's cinemas, so an evening screening after the fair is easy to add, and premieres sell out early.
• Bookshops in the centre, among them the one in the Oktogon passage between Ilica and Flower Square, cover anything you missed at the fair.
• Plan the heavy buying for your last visit to the fair rather than the first, so you carry the books once, from the tram to the hotel.