This Advent again the Zagreb Tourist Board has decided to raise spirits of visitors by a new route in the internationally-award-winning mobile app Zagreb Be There. The Sweetmas route includes the localities where you can satisfy your sweet tooth, recommended by the most famous master Croatian pastry chef Petra Jelenić.
To recall, the app is something like a local insider any visitor could carry in their pockets and use their smart phone to discover lesser known landmarks in the city. In addition to regular routes for the summer and Advent, the app also offers short-term routes, recommended by famous people. Despite being designed chiefly for tourists, it is eagerly used by the citizens of Zagreb alike.
If they make up their minds to use the Sweetmas route, this Advent the tourists will be able to discover the places where they can eat both “traditional” sweets and those with a modern and innovative touch. The route singles out seven sweet spots recommended by Petra Jelenić: pastry shops Cukeraj, Orijent, Time, Medenko, 041, Vis à Vis by Vincek and a “craft” bakery Korica.
“Cukeraj offers a fusion of home-made and rustic cakes, and I have eaten one of the most delicious hazelnut cakes over there,” says Petra Jelenić, adding: “I admire Orient’s tradition, innovativeness and perseverance, as they are one of the oldest pastry shops in Zagreb. The pastry shop Time is hi-tech and offers small master pieces. I’m addicted to their Double Chocolate and linden flower ice-cream, as well as to the toasted sunflower seeds in Medenko. In 041 pastry shop I never know which ice-cream to taste first, but commonly end up with raspberry. The pastry shop Vis à Vis by Vincek is the only place offering sweets adapted to people with special dietary regimes, and Korica is a bakery that makes bread with autochthonous ingredients in a traditional way.”
Besides the Sweetmas route, the app offers a refreshed traditional Zagreb Advent route. This year, together with Zrinjevac, Fuliranje (Fooling Around), the Ice Park and Štros (Strossmayer Promenade), it includes the Grič Tunnel and the Upper Town as well.
The app is game-based, and the visitors who take the entire route and log in on each spot of the route using hashtag #BeThereZagreb, are eligible for awards. The app is free and available for Android and iPhone devices, but can also be downloaded from the microsite betherezagreb.com. The app designed by the Bruketa&Žinić&Grey Agency in cooperation with the Zagreb Tourist Board won the international award for the best digital tourist promotion in Europe at the Tourism & Strategy Festival in Paris in 2015.
