April the 23rd, 2022 - The old part of Zagreb's Vlaska Street is set to become an exclusively pedestrian zone. This move comes as more and more plans are in the works to expand the heart of the capital's pedestrian zones and to gradually eliminate traffic in certain areas.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the old part of Vlaska Street, between Draskoviceva and Palmoticeva, is set to become an exclusively pedestrian zone, which will be welcome news to some, and a source of irritation to others. The profession is worried that the move will create traffic jams on other roads in the centre, while the City of Zagreb says that this is just the beginning of the expansion of pedestrian zones in the very centre of the city.

The project of adapting that part of Stara Vlaska (the old part of Vlaska Street) into a zone intended only for pedestrians starts on May the 28th and has been conceived in different phases:

"In the first phase, road traffic will be closed and the installation of planters with trees will begin, which will also be benches. The terraces of the cafes will remain as they are now, and we will bring some stands in for craftsmen. We'll mark the opening of the pedestrian zone with a concert and children from three nearby schools will draw on the pavements, with the help of some local street artists,'' said Deputy Mayor Luka Korlaet.

He added, according to a report from HRT, that about 10 parking spaces on that stretch of Vlaska Street will be abolished. Assistant professor Marko Sevrovic from the Institute for Traffic Planning pointed out two problems of such an intervention when it comes to traffic:

“What will happen to the vehicles that use that street to head to the east? If you're going from the north and want to go east, you'll have to go all the way down to Djordjiceva. Now the question is how this will affect the traffic there. Traffic is very similar to liquid - if you close it off somewhere, it will just go somewhere else. In addition to that, there's the issue of the pedestrian crossing on Palmoticeva. There will be two separate pedestrian zones with a very busy Palmoticeva between them in this case,'' he said.

A traffic light is offered as a solution for crossing what will then be a very busy Palmoticeva.

This is just the beginning of work on expanding the pedestrian zones in Zagreb's bustling and always busy city centre, and Korlaet concluded the following:

"The plan is also to turn Masarykova Street, so the entire promenade stretching to the Croatian National Theatre, into a pedestrian zone."

For more, make sure to check out our lifestyle section.

April the 20th, 2022 - The number of brand new cars being registered in the Republic of Croatia has increased by 17.5 percent, at least according to the last available data which is for 2021.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, last year, there were 2.38 million registered road vehicles in the Republic of Croatia, which is 3.2 percent more than back in 2020, with 1.8 million passenger cars registered with an increase of 2.8 percent, and the first (initial) registrations of passenger cars increased by 17.5 percent compared to 2020, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

Last year, 151,680 road vehicles were registered for the first time, which is an increase of 14.4 percent compared to 2020.

Unlike the 2020 results, when the decline in the number of road vehicles registered for the first time in this country was directly affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, last year saw the registrations of all types of vehicles across the country, with the exception of mopeds.

The first registrations of personal vehicles last year across the country stood at 112,345, equal to 17.5 percent more than the year before when there were 95,577 of the same. The increase is a result of the increase in the number of first registrations of new cars (26.1 percent) and used vehicles (14 percent). The increase in the number of cars on the roads has also unfortunately resulted in a higher number of traffic accidents.

According to CBS data, in 2021 there were 9,146 traffic accidents across the country with casualties, which is an increase of 18.6 percent compared to 2020, when 7,710 were registered.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

April the 19th, 2022 - Inflation is still causing tremendous issues across the board in the Republic of Croatia, and rising Croatian fuel prices have been one of the most talked about problems over the last few weeks.

This morning, Croatian fuel prices shot up once again after having fallen to more respectable levels a couple of weeks ago. This morning, diesel in particular is 28 lipa more expensive than it was last night. Here are the new prices if you want to fill your tank in this countru as of today.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian fuel prices on sale across the country's many fuel stations has risen once again since midnight.

One litre of Eurosuper 95, which was below 12 kuna last week, now costs 12.19 kuna. In the premium version, the price has risen from 13.16 to 13.67 kuna. A full 50-litre fuel tank is as such 11 kuna more expensive now than it was last night.

A full diesel tank, on the other hand, is 12 and a half kuna more expensive than it was yesterday. A litre of diesel is 28 lipa more expensive this morning than it was at midnight last night and costs 12.70 kuna, while in its premium variants, it costs over 14 kuna.

Depending on the point of sale, a litre of autogas now stands between 6.89 kuna and 7.19 kuna as of this morning.

For more on Croatian fuel prices and inflation as this fluid situation changes, make sure to check out our dedicated news section.

April the 18th, 2022 - A massive 32,000 tonnes of diesel is going to be poured into the market from Croatian mandatory stocks of that fuel following a government decision issued last week. The move was made as more and more countries explore gas and fuel options that minimise any reliance on Russia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, on Thursday, the government decided to release 32,000 tonnes of diesel fuel from Croatian mandatory stocks of oil and petroleum products. The Hydrocarbons Agency will release 12,000 tonnes of said diesel fuel from Croatian mandatory stocks by the end of April and 20,000 tonnes by the end of May 2022.

The Minister of the Economy and Sustainable Development, Tomislav Coric, explained that a meeting of the International Energy Agency (IEA) was held on April the 1st, 2022, at which an agreement was reached to release 120 million tonnes of oil from mandatory reserves in order to send a unique and strong message to international oil markets that there will be no shortage of supplies as a result of the Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

Although the Republic of Croatia is not a member of the International Energy Agency and has no obligations to engage in these practices, it can participate in the second joint coordinated action with the aforementioned 32,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, or 238,000 barrels converted into crude oil equivalents.

Back in March of this year, the Republic of Croatia participated in the first joint coordinated action to launch Croatian mandatory stocks out onto the market, during which it released 22,000 tonnes of diesel fuel, ie 164,000 barrels converted into crude oil equivalents, Minister Coric explained.

The decision to place Croatian mandatory stocks of oil and other such petroleum products on the market was made by the government, and the Hydrocarbons Agency will release those mandatory stocks onto the market at regular market prices.

For more news like this, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

April the 4th, 2022 - Croatian fuel prices should be finally set to drop tomorrow after last week's hike which came as a very unwelcome surprise to drivers.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, following on from last week's significant and entirely unwelcome increase in Croatian fuel prices, there's finally a little bit of good news for the nation's drivers. From tomorrow on, Croatian fuel prices will be lower, but they will still not be able to compensate for the increase from last week.

As such, the prices of regulated Eurodiesel in Croatia should be about 80 cents lower, while Eurosuper 95 petrol should be about 35 cents cheaper. This means that one litre of Eurodiesel should cost around 12.70 kuna, while a litre of Eurosuper should cost around 12.10 kuna. There was a significant rise in Croatian fuel prices last week. Petrol rose in price by 61 lipa, and diesel did the same by as much as 1.48 kuna, 24sata writes.

Anonymous activists announced that last night, some fuel stations here in the City of Zagreb had stickers with the image of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic stuck on them, as well as a derogatory message.

"We're aware that the growth of Croatian fuel prices is being influenced by many factors, but also Andrej Plenkovic's government has not done everything it could have to curb the rage in prices. They reduced VAT on some energy sources, but they didn't do the same with fuel, just as they didn't reduce excise duties as much as they could have, but only by a miserable 20-40 lipa. We demand a stronger reaction from the government, a reduction in levies and greater relief. We'll continue this action over the coming days when we intend to present ourselves to the public,'' the group of activists called the Boys and Girls of Zagreb's Asphalt ", 24sata writes.

For more, make sure to check out our lifestyle section.

March the 14th, 2022 - With inflation continuing on its global upward trajectory and with the Croatian Government set to put its inflation-curbing measures into place only on the 1st of April, Croatian fuel prices will likely shoot up once again tomorrow.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, yet another very unwelcome new increase in Croatian fuel prices is expected from Tuesday the 15th of March. As it turns out, that fuel price leap will stand at about one kuna and 60 lipa, meaning that a litre of petrol would rise to 13 kuna and 79 lipa, and diesel to 14 kuna and 13 lipa per litre. Some Croatian economists are reassuring people that oil will not become so expensive for a long time yet, as reported by Dnevnik.hr.

"This rise in Croatian fuel prices is likely to come to a halt later on this year, regardless of the outcome of the political and military situation unfolding over in Ukraine, meaning that market mechanisms will begin to work, namely at high prices, and consumers will begin to reduce their consumption," said well known Croatian economic analyst Damir Novonty.

Bus transport companies, which have faced hardship after hardship as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and its accompanying restrictions, as well as a lack of state intervention, will no longer be able to function normally without the help of the government.

The above was recently warned about from the Association of Public Line Carriers, especially in rural areas of the country where buses are the only means of transport for locals to get to school, work, pharmacies or to the shops. You can read more about that here.

Until then, Croatian transport companies, primarily bus carriers, the association says, will be forced to raise their ticket prices by 30 percent if government aid continues to lack as we move forward. An example of that would be that a typical Zagreb-Split bus ticket would increase in price by about fifty kuna.

For more, make sure to check out our lifestyle section.

January the 24th, 2022 - The Croatian average salary can purchase four times less fuel than the average Swiss salary can, which is unlikely to come as much of a shock to anyone. Now that the Swiss labour market is fully open to Croatian nationals, facts such as this one are likely to only add to further demographic issues.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, here in Croatia, 643 litres of Eurosuper 95 petrol can be purchased at its current price for the average Croatian average salary.

At the same time, the Swiss can buy 2742 litres of fuel for their average salary, the Danes can buy 2150, the Norwegians can buy 1828, and the Germans can buy 1706 litres. The neighbouring Italians, with a slightly lower average salary of 1,752 euros and currently the eighth most expensive fuel in all of Europe (1.77 euros per litre) can purchase one thousand litres.

When you look at the price of fuel only, Croats are currently paying for the 18th most expensive petrol from as many as 44 European countries, meaning that the country's fuel prices are among the most expensive.

A litre of petrol is the most expensive in the Netherlands, amounting to 2.11 euros, followed by Norway with a price tag of 1.92 euros, the Finns with 1.89 euros, then the Icelanders and Danes, and surprisingly the Greeks with 1.78 euros per litre of fuel.

Given that the average salary in Greece stands at roughly 1,116 euros, they can purchase less fuel than the average Croatian salary can, being able to afford just 627 litres. The Portuguese are in a similar situation, where a litre of Super 95 costs 1.71 euros, or almost 13 kuna. With their average salary of 1,110 euros, they can afford just a few more litres of fuel than the Croats - 649 litres.

The bad news for Croatia is that in 17 countries across Europe with (currently) higher fuel prices than those listed in Croatia, with the exception of Greece, significantly more litres of fuel can be bought for an average salary than for the Croatian average salary. That said, it is also old news that we're following Western European countries in terms of prices, but not in terms of overall living standards.

According to the latest data, fuel in neighbouring Serbia is only slightly cheaper than it is here in Croatia, 10.7 kuna when recalculated, and in Serbia the average salary is only 550 euros, which means that only 385 litres of Super 95 can be purchased for a typical Serbian wage. The ratio is more or less the same down south in Montenegro, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, thanks to the slightly lower price of a litre of gasoline (1.20 euros), the situation is a little more bearable.

The Hungarians, Bulgarians and Romanians, as well as the Slovaks, can currently buy slightly less petrol for their average salaries than the Croats can.

In a total of six European countries, petrol is still below the 1 euro price limit. Apart from Russia, these are Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine, Novi list writes.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

January the 24th, 2022 - Pasman island which lies among several others in Zadar County is set to receive a generous amount to be spent on the enhancement of traffic safety.

As Morski writes, back in September last year, the working group in charge of implementing the National Road Safety Plan of the Republic of Croatia for the period from 2021 to 2030 published a call/invitation for applications for projects in the field of road safety in Croatia.

Out of over 200 registered projects for 2021 and 2022, about 70 were selected, and one of them is the project of the Municipality of Pasman - The installation of new vertical signs and equipment in Dobropoljana, which will be co-financed by the Ministry of Interior (MUP) in the amount of 164,500 kuna, while the total value of the project stands at 235,000 kuna, as was explained from Pasman island.

The Mayor of Pasman, Kresimir Cosic, stated that this is the third tender of the Ministry of the Interior in which a project from Pasman island has been accepted.

''We're constantly working on road safety in the area of ​​our municipality, so this is the third time we've managed to pass a tender from the Ministry of the Interior for the reconstruction of potentially dangerous places in terms of traffic. We participated for the first time back in 2018 when we received funding for the calm traffic zone on the part of the D110 state road in Nevidjani near the Vladimir Nazor Elementary School. Then, back in 2020, we received 172,000 kuna from another tender from the Ministry of the Interior for the installation of traffic lights from the main entrance to the centre of Pasman,'' said Cosic.

The municipality applied for this project due to the need to increase traffic safety in the zone of the kindergarten positioned along the LC 63 136 local road that connects the D110 state road with the centre of the settlement positioned there. There are no pedestrian paths along this road, meaning that parents and their children need to walk along the pavement to the kindergarten, and since the pavement is sloping down towards the sea, drivers passing can easily further endanger overall pedestrian safety.

An agreement between the competent services of the Ministry of the Interior and the Municipality of Pasman will soon be drafted and signed, on the basis of which the project will be co-financed.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

January the 21st, 2022 - Rising Croatian fuel prices was an issue for drivers several weeks ago, more precisely back at the tail end of 2021, and the government had to step in and place a cap on the price of fuel in order to make the situation sustainable. It looks as if the same is going to need to be done again with a new packet of measures.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the government is set to compile a new package of measures to reduce the impact of rising energy prices on people if prices continue to rise, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced on Wednesday.

''In the case of price increases, in addition to limiting Croatian fuel prices, we'll raise the fees provided to socially disadvantaged households, and when it comes to the price of electricity and gas, we're going to be relying on HEP, which can take over and reduce the impact on people and households,'' announced Plenkovic in response to a question on the matter asked by Mirela Ahmetovic (SDP).

As the third element, PM Plenkovic mentioned VAT, which amounts to 13 percent for electricity and 25 percent for gas. He explained that the rise in energy prices was caused by supply disruptions, the ongoing disruption as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and extremely high demand.

"Households across the Republic of Croatia haven't yet seen an increase in electricity prices and will not experience them until April the 1st, and the same is true with the price of gas," he assured.

Earlier on Wednesday, he announced that the state could step in and limit Croatian fuel prices again, if prices continue to rise next week.

When it comes to the price of Croatian fuel prices, the government limited the price to approximately 11 kuna just three months ago and kept that price for a period of two months, thus avoiding a blow to driver's wallets and bank accounts.

"After that, we left things to the market, and yet we noticed that the current fuel prices are higher once again. If we have an estimate that the price will continue to rise next week, we will once again step in and place a cap on Croatian fuel prices, with the exception of premiums,'' concluded Plenkovic.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

January 4th, 2022 - Croatia was recently declared the most difficult and the most expensive country to learn to drive and take a driving test. What lies behind this undesirable title? An overview of the process and cost of learning to drive in Croatia, from a personal perspective of a current driving school candidate

Getting behind the wheel for the first time is a rite of passage of sorts, a process of mastering a skill that allows you the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want. The minimum age to legally drive in Croatia is 18, so most people take the mandatory lessons and the driving test around the same time they finish high school. 

Not me, though. For a number of personal reasons, I put this off until the ripe old age of 32. In late 2021, I finally decided it was time to get a driver’s licence, and so I set off to find a decent driving school (Croatian: autoškola). 

Chance had it that my personal project coincided with an interesting report by Zotobi that came out last September. In the report, Croatia was declared the most difficult and the most expensive country in the world to learn to drive and to take a driving test. 

‘Croatia is the toughest country to get behind the wheel due to their expensive and stringent driving tests that require a minimum amount of learning and monitoring to pass’, says the Zotobi report. 

Driving schools in Croatia indeed charge exorbitant prices (compared to average earnings), and they've only gone up in recent years. Driving classes now cost about 40% more than when my peers were taking them in our senior year of high school - it was a costly mistake to wait this long. 

Completing driver’s education is a lengthy process that depends on multiple factors: how much time you can find in your schedule to attend classes and take driving lessons, when exactly you'll get an appointment to take the required tests, and so on. On average, I’d say it takes 4 to 6 months to complete all the classes and take the final driving test. As the above report says, the driving tests are stringent, the examiners merciless, and it’s a common occurrence that candidates fail on the first try, adding more expenses to the total cost and extending the process. 

I enrolled in driving school in October 2021 and decided to keep a record of the experience. Something I might’ve not done otherwise, but since Covid restrictions affected the way the classes and lessons are conducted, I was interested to see how much my experience would differ from that of my friends who’d passed the test before the pandemic changed our daily lives. 

What follows is an overview of what driver’s ed looks like in Croatia these days, followed by a breakdown of related costs. 

***

Every person enrolling in a driving school must present a medical certificate confirming they’re physically and mentally fit to drive. The medical exam is taken in clinics specialising in occupational medicine and usually involves a general health screening, an eyesight test and a psychological test. Once you get your certificate, you’re good to attend the required driving courses. 

There are three main parts to driver’s education in Croatia, all of them obligatory. 

1. Traffic regulations and safety rules: 30 hours + exam

When you enrol in a driving school in Croatia, you must first attend a class on traffic regulations and safety rules which lasts 30 hours in total. Each ‘hour’ is 45 minutes long and the lessons are held daily in 90 minute blocks, so this part effectively takes about three weeks to complete. At the end of the class, you must take a written exam at your local HAK office (Croatian automobile club). 

Usually, you’d attend this class in person at your driving school HQ. Multiple time slots are offered to accommodate candidates’ daily schedules and you can typically choose between morning and evening classes. They’re facilitated by a lecturer who first covers the course material, then goes through a selection of common exam questions to give the candidates a chance to practice before the test.

I can imagine this being a nice concept in a classroom, but it turned out the pandemic made things a lot more complex. In my driving school, for example, this class was held entirely online on a streaming platform.

Like many others, I’ve gone almost fully remote since the pandemic started and I’m more than familiar with video calls, streaming and screen sharing. However, I’m used to seeing my friends and work colleagues on camera on such occasions, as we always try to make our virtual meetups feel as close to meeting in person as possible. 

It turned out that absolutely no one but the lecturer himself was required to have their camera on. Most of the time, we didn’t even see the man on-screen, as he usually had the camera focused on a whiteboard where he explained the ins and outs of intersections and overtaking with the help of little magnetic toy cars and coloured markers. 

It was a unique experience to say the least. The lecturer really did his best, but he must have found the new environment so unsettling and alienating. For almost two years now, the man’s practically been talking into the void, addressing a silent list of names on a dark screen day after day. He got no chance to put faces to names, or to look for signs of understanding or confusion on said faces. No way to gauge our collective mood, to read the room to see how well a joke landed. 

Actually, he had no way of making sure we were all present for the entirety of each lecture in the first place; after the roll call at the start of the class, there wasn’t much interaction for the most part until we got to revise for the exam.

You can easily tell when a hardened professional suddenly gets thrown off balance. He’d been a lecturer and driving instructor his entire career and planned to keep working as long as he could despite nearing the age of retirement, he told us one day. Not anymore - he now has his mind set on retiring the first chance he gets. This is no way to teach, he said. 

Some strange times we’re living in alright.  

Weeks went by in a flash and soon came time for the exam. You get 45 minutes to answer 38 questions; a 90% score is required to pass. They’re either multiple choice questions or require a very precise answer in terms of speed limits and the like. Not too harsh, if it weren’t for one little caveat: there’s a specific batch of questions about the right of way in intersections (Croatian: raskrižja). Get one of these wrong, and you fail the exam instantly, regardless of how well you did on the rest of it. 

Luckily, I passed this on the first try and with the theory out of the way, I was ready to go on to the practical part. But first…

2. First aid training: 9 hours + exam

As part of driving school you must take a compulsory first aid class. They’re organised by external educational agencies and facilitated by certified medical doctors; the class lasts 9 hours and is typically held over the course of several days. You can take the training course at any point before you take the final driving test, but most people opt to complete this part as soon as possible. 

The somewhat bizarre experience of a remote traffic regulations class took an even more ridiculous turn with the first aid course. The thing is, the former is theoretical in nature, so despite it feeling impersonal, it sufficed to listen to the lecturer explain the regulations to get ready a written exam. First aid, however, involves an oral exam and practical skills - performing CPR, bandaging wounds to control bleeding, immobilising fractures and so on. 

Since this course was to be held remotely as well, I was fully expecting a video demonstration this time around. If we couldn’t attend the class in person, surely someone would show us a training video of how to perform CPR, at the very least? 

Nope. Throughout the course, we were taken through a PPT covering the basics of first aid, and that was that. To be fair, the MD was quite displeased by the circumstances and said on more than one occasion that this was not the proper way to learn first aid. To his credit, he tried involving us as much as he could, asking questions and getting us to think practically about how we would behave in the event of an emergency situation. 

Not many people volunteered answers. That silent list of names I mentioned earlier remained stubbornly silent in this class too. I hopped in as much as I could - yes, I’m that annoying kid, but mostly it was because I sympathised with the poor man. I’ve worked as an educator both in a classroom and remotely, and I know how discouraging it is for a lecturer of any kind to not get feedback from their class. It’s easier to handle the situation if you can see people’s faces, but if you’re technically presenting over a voice call and are getting absolutely nothing in return… The prospect alone makes me anxious. 

It’s really strange being taught how to immobilise a broken limb descriptively, without getting to observe the process. We were provided with a training manual and instructed to practice for the exam at home, as it was supposed to involve a few practical questions where the candidate is expected to demonstrate a procedure. 

You might be thinking, there’s a YouTube tutorial for absolutely everything these days. Why not look up some first aid training videos? That’s not the issue I take with this. The issue is that we essentially paid close to €100 for a PPT and a training manual we could’ve bought in a bookshop for way less and learned the bloody thing on our own. Knowing how to perform first aid is a crucial skill, and I’m disappointed it wasn’t taken more seriously. 

Unlike the class, the exam was held in person. Over 15 people were cramped in a hallway and went into the exam room in pairs. No demonstration was required at the exam either. 

3. Vehicle management: 35 hours + final driving test

Once you’ve mastered the theory, you can go on to the practical part: driving classes, officially called ‘vehicle management’. Candidates need to complete a minimum of 35 hours (again, 45 minutes each), but can take additional lessons before the test if they don’t feel confident enough behind the wheel. 

After the previous two experiences, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the actual driving lessons were also held remotely. A simulator, perhaps? Ah, to have a driving test where the lecturer only asks you to describe how to parallel park!

Jokes aside, these classes do take place on the road, and the candidate is joined by a professional driving instructor. Most driving schools allow you the option to choose the instructor in case you’ve heard good things about someone in particular. In some cases, if you don’t have any preferences in regards to the instructor, you can choose the vehicle you’ll be driving throughout the course - an option that comes in handy if you’re planning to purchase a car of the same make, or have a similar family car you’ll be driving right after you pass the exam. 

We skipped the obstacle course and went straight into traffic - thankfully, a quiet street where I could learn the fundamentals without worrying I’d cause a pileup. By the fourth hour, I was out on a motorway. My fabulous instructor doesn’t waste time. I wonder why she keeps telling me to relax.

It’s been long since I’ve learned a practical skill of this sort; most of my learning in the last 15 years or so has been more on the academic side. I assume driving feels like a second nature to those who have been out on the road for a long time, and my musings might seem silly to them. To me it’s novel, and while the principles are simple, I’m just now discovering why paying attention to your surroundings is much easier in the passenger’s seat. I’ll get there eventually - wish me luck.  

***

Driving school costs in Croatia

The minimum driving school costs in Croatia were prescribed by law until 2018 when market liberalization replaced the previous legislation. At present, the schools are free to determine their own prices, which are often higher than what the minimum used to be.

The cost of a driving school includes the traffic regulations course and driving lessons; other fees are paid directly to HAK, medical service providers and first aid training providers. 

Pricing varies between different cities more than it does within different schools in the same city. For the sake of clarity, the following breakdown of driving school costs in Croatia is based on the former minimum costs prescribed by law for category B (including VAT). In bigger cities like Zagreb, Split or Rijeka, you can expect to add another 10% onto the total. Fees charged by HAK are fixed rates. 

Medical certificate
Medical exam: 400 kn on average

First aid
Training course: 550 kn 
Exam fee: 118,75 kn (HAK)

Traffic regulation and safety rules
Class: 663,75 kn
Exam fee: 147,50 kn (HAK) 

Vehicle management 
Driving lessons: 143,75 kn per hour x 35 hours = 5031,25 kn
Driving test fee, paid to the school for vehicle usage: 143,75 kn
Driving test fee, paid to HAK: 236,25 kn

Total cost: 7331,25 kn (approx. EUR 980, USD 1102, GBP 816) 

Retaking the test if you fail on the first try: approximately 900kn
Additional driving lessons: 143,75kn per hour 

Learn more about driving in Croatia in our comprehensive guide Driving in Croatia 2021: Laws, Motorways, Ferries, Borders & Tips.