Travel in Croatia: An Easy-Peasy Guide to Visiting Plitvice

After visiting Zagreb for two days, I made a day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park. 🏞️

Plitvice Lakes is the oldest and largest national park in Croatia, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The park is spread across about 75,000 acres of land, yet its main attraction- the lakes- only covers 1% of the total park area.

There are 16 cascading lakes, Prošćansko and Kozjak being the most famous, and 90 waterfalls, including Veliki Slap, the Great Waterfall.

The water is also mesmerizing here, as it changes from blue to green throughout the day.

This is because Plitvice is part of the Dinarides karst region, and the waters are surrounded by jagged, limestone rocks, which contain calcium carbonate.

This expulsion of calcium also creates, tufa, a porous rock that is unique to this environment.

Because of its natural beauty, Plitvice receives about 1.5 million visitors each year! 😮

In an effort to limit the number of tourists and ease the flow of visitors each day, they’ve implemented a few successful programs.

First, in an effort to reduce the long lines, they require that tourists buy their park tickets online at least two days in advance.

Side Note: Students receive a significant discount, so book as a student if you have I.D. There are also two entrances separated by over 2 miles, so chose the correct one.

They also have eight programs for you to choose from during your visit, depending on how long you want to spend there and where you enter.

I chose Program H, which left from Entrance 2 and took about 5 hours. This reduced the stress tremendously, as all I had to do was keep following the signs with my letter.

I almost felt like a mindless zombie while ‘navigating’ the park. No brain required! Hah! 😜🧟

Now, since the park is so large, they’ve also included transport in the ticket price. For example, Program H involved two tram rides, a two-hour hike through trails and raised platforms, and a boat ride across Kozjak Lake.

To get to the park, I rode with FlixBus. My departure was at 8 AM and we arrived at the park by 10:30. Of course, I needed my morning dose of kava to start the trip! ☕

Since I wasn’t planning to stay overnight, I was able to leave my luggage free of charge in a locked cabin near the entrance.

By far, one of my favorite parts of Plitvice was its habitat diversity.🌳

During my visit, I admired alpine forests, grasslands, and mossy bogs. 😍

Along with these diverse habitats, comes a unique variety of flora and fauna.🐌

During my visit, I spotted colorful dragonflies, birds, ducks, butterflies, crayfish, trout, and rodents.🦋

Also, on my way out, I had a run-in with a deadly nose-horned viper, who hissed and lunged at me on the path.😱 🐍

I’m normally an animal lover, but I also know I’m no snake charmer, so I went running. 😂

I was also thankful to have been wearing the recommended footwear for once in my life. 🙌🏻

Of course, many people there opted for fashion over function. Yikes! 😂

I’d suggest ditching the stilettos, since the paths are a series of uneven, shaking bridges over running water.

It’s very picturesque, but even with my tennis shoes, I was worried that I might trip on the path and drop one of my valuables into the water. 📱

Here I am just trying to take a picture on the path without falling off. Just check out that lean! 😂

Side note: there is no swimming in Plitvice allowed….unintentional or otherwise. 😂

Overall, it was an easy-peasy day trip, and despite the amount of people, it was hard not to find some peace surrounded by all this natural beauty.💙

Getting there: I chose to take FlixBus from Zagreb to Plitvice, then continued on to Zadar at the end of my day. The bus stops at both Entrance 1 and 2.

Food: the park does have food and drinks for sale, but it comes at a high price, so I opted for a packed lunch.

Activities: in addition to visiting the lakes, the park also offers a range of hiking trails and activities for those planning to spend more than one day at the park.🛶

Accommodation: Initially I planned to stay one night at Falling Lakes Hostel in nearby Korenica, which had great reviews, but since rain was in the forecast for the following day, I decided to head straight to the beach instead! On that note, the next 10 days I will be exploring Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast. Stay tuned to hear all about it!👙🐚