Plitvice National Park, Croatia

Plitvice National Park, a UNESCO site, is approximately a 4 hour drive from Rovinj.  We stayed about half an hour north of the park at Ranch Jelan Klanco, outside the small town of Rokavica. Although you can do the upper and lower lakes of the park in one day, we decided to get a two day ticket (180 KHR) which was a very wise decision.  This is the oldest and largest national park in Croatia. There are 16 lakes interconnected by a spectacular series of waterfalls. A wooden boardwalk and trails take you along the sparking turquoise lakes and cascading waterfalls. Visiting this park was definitely one of the highlights of Croatia and not to be missed if at all possible. There are day excursions to the park from Zagreb and Zadar.

The lakes are separated into an upper and lower cluster. The afternoon of our arrival we walked around the lower cluster (entrance #1) for 3 hours covering 5.7 miles. Dining options outside the park hotels are limited, but the restaurant at the Tourista Hotel in Grodivica was recommended to us for dinner.  Salad, meat kabob and a bottle of wine cost 144 KHR for the two of us.

The following day we did the upper lakes. We arrived at park entrance #2 around 10:30 am and took the little boat across the lake to walk loop C. We got to the top of the park around 1:30 pm pm, enjoyed a cup of coffee and then walked back (an hour) to the boat. This loop was 6.5 miles. I highly recommend you take two days and do both loops.

Excerpt from my article,  A self-drive tour of Croatia plus a cruise along the Dalmation Coast, published in the August, 2015 issue of International Travel News.