Plitvice National Park (Waterfalls) Our Trip to Plitvice

I was expecting a lot from Plitvice Lakes based on the many reviews I’ve read over the last few years. But really I thought it would just be a larger version of the Krka lakes in Sibenik. I was wrong. The place is such a delight and I feel very lucky to have been there. That’s not to take away from Krka it’s just a different experience. Krka is special in another way :)

Our family decided to take the trip up while on our holiday in Split. I made a packed lunch the night before to have when we got there. The trip up from Split takes about four hours, you head up towards Zadar and keep going. It’s pretty much a series of motorways and tunnels cut through the mountains. One of the tunnels we went through was 8 kilometers in length!! Even though it’s a big motorway the scenery on the way up is one of the highlights for me, just so picturesque. The mountain range is nothing short of beautiful.

When we reached the Lakes we parked up and had our lunch in the wooded car park. We joked about the wolves and brown bears stalking us. We were hoping to spot them but they were not to be seen unfortunately. We paid (110 Kuna they also have a student and senior rate of 80 Kuna) and headed towards the park. We were told of the many different routes you can take through the park, some 3 hours and others 5 hours plus. We opted for the shorter route as we had a long drive back, however my uncle came up the idea of a shortcut. 5 hours later we were leaving the park. But we were all so glad of the “shortcut” as it meant we saw everything!! You walk through a series of wooden bridges with hundreds of small and large waterfalls at every turn. It is a calm and quiet place even with lots of tourists around. The fish and ducks are so familiar with people they come up to say hello and hope for a bit of bread in the process, in fact they fight over it. The ducks seemed to be the champions the day we visited.