Zavižan Botanical Garden & Weather Station

At 1,594 m the Zavižan meteorological station is the highest permanently manned weather post in Croatia, and it has recorded uninterrupted daily observations since 1953. Next to it lies the Velebit Botanical Garden, founded by the visionary biologist Fran Kušan in 1967 to protect the astonishing 2,700 plant species and subspecies of the Velebit massif — including the tiny golden Degenia velebitica, endemic to a single 20 km stretch of ridge and unknown anywhere else on earth. Reaching Zavižan takes about ninety minutes on foot from the Babić Siča trailhead along a wide gravel road — or, once a year in July, by a special shuttle for the annual mountaineer's rally. The reward is one of the great Adriatic panoramas: on a clear day the Kvarner archipelago from Rab and Pag to Cres and Krk spreads below like a map, with the Italian Dolomites theoretically visible on the sharpest winter mornings. Warm mountain hut Planinarski Dom Zavižan serves hearty bean stew and mulled brandy, and doubles as an overnight base for the Premužić Trail. Weather can turn violently — the record wind gust here is 249 km/h.