Brijuni Safari

The safari park on the island of Veliki Brijun, in the Brijuni National Park off the Istrian coast, holds a collection of exotic animals that began as diplomatic gifts to the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, who kept the islands as his presidential retreat. Zebra, ostrich, llama, various deer and antelope, and the descendants of the elephants and other large animals Tito received now live in the park’s open enclosures.

The safari park is part of the wider Brijuni experience, in which the main island is run almost as an open-air museum of Tito’s time, the Roman ruins and the earlier layers of the islands. The animals roam in large fenced areas, and the park is toured by the electric train, rented golf cart or bicycle that visitors use to get around the island.

Brijuni is reached by a short boat from Fažana, and the visit is an organised one, with a ticket that includes the safari park, the museums and the roman and geological sites. The combination of a Cold War presidential retreat and a safari park on an Adriatic island is genuinely unusual, which is the point of going.

For photographers, the exotic animals against the Adriatic pines are the unexpected shot, and the Tito-era buildings are the period piece. Allow a half-day minimum, and check the ferry times from Fažana before you go.

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