Sunday, September 5

It’s waterfall day! I had looked forward to Croatia’s famous waterfalls since we did our first Google searches on the country. We only had time (and my hubby’s patience) for 1 waterfall park, so we had to decide between Plitviče and Krka. While Krka had the unique experience of allowing visitors to swim in the park (check current rules as they’ve changed), Plitviče attracted us with the sheer volume and beauty of the lakes and waterfalls.

In our original itinerary for 2020, we were going to spend the night near Plitviče to allow for 2 days in the park. Our revised itinerary included more time in Zagreb — thanks to a friend’s confident recommendation (spot on!) — so we only had time for a day trip between cities. Zadar to Plitviče was about 1.5 hours, and Plitviče to Zagreb (our final stop on this trip) was about 2 hours. We decided it was a good way to break up the day and make the most of our travels. We very well may have missed some great views in Plitviče or had to speed through areas worthy of extra time. Honestly though, for our keep-moving travel style, it really worked out fine. Let’s get into it!

Plitviče Lakes National Park (5/5)

I had purchased our tickets in advance as I heard it can sometimes be difficult to get tickets day-of. The park requires that you pick your entrance (1 or 2) and your entry time, as they only sell a certain number of tickets each hour for each entrance. We selected Entrance 1 at 8:00, which allowed us to enter anytime between 8-9 am.

Zadar was about 1.5 hours away, so we got up early and hopped on the road with a quick stop for coffee and pastries. We were glad we snagged the early spot as the park got significantly busier as the day went on.

A friend on our yacht shared the Plitviče Lakes National Park pages of her Rick Steve’s Croatia travel book with us, which helped us decide on our path through the park.

Entrance 1 brings you to the lower lakes first, and all of the blogs and books I read (including the Rick Steves pages) recommended starting there because of how the crowds shift. The park offers several well-marked routes to follow and we planned to take route C, which brings you around both the lower lakes and the upper lakes and utilizes the boat ferry to cut down on some of the walking.

We detoured from this plan a little bit, but if I were to have a do-over, here is what I’d recommend for your 1-day visit:

1. Start on route C, and when you cross the walkway over the first lake, take a right for the detour to the big waterfall. Then find the steep stairs (if you’re up for it!) to the viewpoint above. Take a look around or walk the road a bit, but you’ll need to come back down the same way, and return to the walkway to continue.
2. Continue following route C and when you arrive at P-3, the boat landing, make sure you take a potty break, and grab a sandwich and some water if you’re running low. While you can definitely relax here for a while, I’d recommend taking your sandwich to go and enjoying it later on, when you need a break. Two reasons: 1) the boat line can get busier later in the day, and 2) there are so many nice little spots to sit along the path! Once finished in the P-3 area, take the boat across the lake to P-2, where you’ll start your time in the upper lakes.
3. Continue route C until you get to ST-3 which is the bus stop. Take another breather here (maybe even get a frozen snickers bar!) and then hop on the shuttle to the ST-2 stop. Get off and walk down the stairs to P-1.
4. At P-1, spend the 70 Kuna (~$11 USD) to rent the rowboat for 1 hour. You don’t have to use the whole hour if you don’t want to, but get out on the clear water, get close to the little waterfalls and coves along the shoreline, and grab some photos.
5. Once finished with the rowboat, climb up the steps again and take the shuttle bus to ST-1. Get off here and continue along route C, which takes you on a higher walkway with occasional but spectacular views of the lakes from above. This path will drop you out right where you started!

Our day in Plitviče was absolutely incredible. We were gifted with the most perfect weather for the day, and the sun shone at just the right angle on the water. We ran into crowds a little bit here and there, but nothing that ruined the day. Don’t miss this!

Bosnia Drive-Thru

At the end of the Plitviče section of the Rick Steve’s Croatia travel book, there was a little note that the town of Bihać in Bosnia is only a short drive from the park and well worth it to stop in. Then it said: for more on Bosnia, visit page 424. Except we didn’t have page 424, so we just went and decided we’d figure it out!

Our entry into Bosnia was easy. There wasn’t much traffic at the border, and I had found a restaurant with good reviews in Bihać, so we headed that direction.

We saw beautiful scenery on the way, however when we arrived at the restaurant, we were unable to find what felt like a safe place to leave our car. Since it was rental, we didn’t tell the rental company we’d be crossing a border, and we had all of our belongings inside the car, we wanted to be extra careful. We ended up deciding we didn’t know enough about the country, this town, or what we were doing here to really stay and explore comfortably. So instead, we took a short drive around the town and headed back to Croatia. One day we’ll do more research and spend some time there. We’ve heard wonderful things!

The Road to Zagreb

After we were back in Croatia, we headed towards Zagreb. My Croatian friend in the US had recommended we stop along the road from Plitviče to Zagreb somewhere with the meat on the spit. While we weren’t able to find the prized lamb (it wasn’t the season), we did find a place with the roasted pig.

Ružica (3.5/5)

The food was pretty good, but not to die for. Ružica in Karlovac was not far off the road to Zagreb and while they did not speak English, we successfully enjoyed the dinner and found the restroom before continuing our journey. It was a nice pause in our drive as well.

We arrived in Zagreb just before dark on Sunday night, and it was the perfect city to close our our visit to Croatia. Excited to share our final day with you in the next blog!

XO,

J