You may know that I often spend a good part of my vacations hiking and being outdoors, so I was super excited to visit two of the best known national parks in Croatia: Krka and Plitvice Lakes. They definitely didn’t disappoint!
From Split, I drove to Krka National Park. It should have taken about an hour, but have I mentioned I am a nervous driver? So it took me a bit longer, since I drive slow, and had to stop to set up my cell phone charging/navigation situation (since the shitty rental car had nowhere to connect a phone to charge or to play audio). Anyhow, I arrived safe and sound. Most people take a boat there, but I opted to drive my car in so that I could check out a couple of different areas of the park.
The main sight to see there is the big waterfall, Skradinski buk.
So beautiful! Looks like a movie!
Views from above
It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, but I was really shocked by how crowded it was, the experience was basically waiting in line to take a photo of the waterfall. Given how un-crowded everything else had been up until this point in my trip, I think I was expecting that to also be the case at Krka. However, my hypothesis is that Croatian people don’t visit the “tourist” places like Dubrovnik, but they DO visit their own national parks, so while there were probably fewer foreign tourists, there were still a lot of Croatians there. Despite the crowds, I’m still glad I saw it, but if I could do it again, I’d get there much earlier in the day.
Because I had my car, I decided to take a quick detour to the town of Šibenik, before continuing my visit in the park. Šibenik is another cute old medieval town, with some fortresses you can climb, and cobblestone streets to explore. To be honest, I was feeling very hot and tired and stressed about the driving, and didn’t totally enjoy my visit to Šibenik. It felt a bit like I was going through the motions, checking our a fortress and views because that’s what I was supposed to be doing. Had I been in a better mood I might have gotten more out of it. But at least it was a good place to stop and have a snack and some caffeine. Oh well!
Views of Šibenik
Continuing on in Krka, I drove to the second most visited site in the park, Roški Slap. I think I expected Roški Slap to be something it wasn’t (I was picturing more waterfalls), but it was enjoyable in a different way. They have built 571 stairs that you can climb up to viewpoints, and to a cave that was once home to ancient people (cavemen…if you will). Climbing 571 stairs in 90 degree heat is not exactly a great time, but the payoff was some great views, and some coolers temps (and cool headgear) in the cave.
Stairmaster let’s gooooo!
The payoff, views for days!
From there, I walked down to what I thought was going to be a waterfall, but was actually just a swimming area on the river that comprises the park. I sat there for a few minutes but wasn’t interested in swimming, so called it a day and hit the road once again!
It was another 2.5 hour drive to Plitvice Lakes; while I didn’t visit both parks in the same day, I wanted to stay overnight close to Plitvice Lakes so that I could arrive first thing in the morning; especially after seeing the hordes of people at Krka, I wanted to see the sights with a fewer people around!
I stayed at the cute and comfortable Rustic Lodge Plitvice, where all I did was get a pizza to go from a nearby restaurant, and go to bed early.
The next day, I was up early to get to the park when it opened, at 7. Since I left my hotel before they started serving breakfast, I was glad to have half a pizza from the night before as my morning meal!
Plitvice Lakes is the most-visited national park in Croatia; it consists of a series of waterfalls and lakes that are colors you can hardly believe exist in nature. Getting there early seemed to be a good call; there were only a couple dozen other people around, so I felt more like I was on a scenic nature walk than in an amusement park (which is what Krka felt like). The park makes it super easy to explore as much or as little as you want, with different routes (ex: Route C) that have super clearly marked signs to follow. It isn’t really an adventurous hike per se, but more of a pleasant stroll along wooden walkways and through some shady forests.
Views of Plitvice Lakes from above
Me with the tallest waterfall in Croatia!
I asked a guy to take a photo of me, but he decided to take a video without telling me, so I present to you…the world’s most awkward video:
After completing “Route C” I decided to try to drive to what is supposed to be an amazing aerial viewpoint of the park (the “postcard view” as they call it). I drove about 15 minutes down a super narrow windy road (great for my anxiety….) to some GPS coordinates I found on a blog. I think I successfully found the right area, but the view wasn’t really what I expected. I was probably in the wrong spot, but I guess I’ll never know where the right spot is! I took a photo anyway.
My trip to Plitvice Lakes took about 4 hours in total, and I was so glad that I was able to see it…it was something very different from the rest of my trip, which up until that point had mostly been comprised of old towns, wine, and gelato. From there, it was off to Zagreb for one night!