Rijeka Carnival Weekend Guide | Croatia Travel Blog

Move over Opatija, your lesser known sister, Rijeka is my new favorite place in the Kvarner Region.

I never bothered to go to Rijeka in the past 18 years of traveling Croatia – as I just thought it was a port town with nothing of real interest to me.

Gasp, I was so wrong.

Others had tried to tell me of Rijeka’s charm – and I have added this post-industrial city to our ‘“things to do in Croatia‘ list based on my friends trusted recommendation. But, I never had seen it for myself, so I never really knew just how incredible this city is. That is, until experiencing Rijeka in its full glory this past weekend for Carnival.

I could not have chosen a better time to discover what to do in Rijeka. Carnival weekend is the Rijeka’s main attraction – and the whole city lives for this one magical weekend.

Several years ago I was invited to the Rijeka Carnival (known as Riječki Karneval in Croatian) by the Rijeka Tourist Board, but on the…