Best Plan for Visiting Plitvice Lakes in Croatia
PLITVICE LAKES | CROATIA
Plitvice Lakes is a place that you can see more waterfalls in a day than you have seen collectively in all of your life! When planning our trip to Croatia, I knew that this place MUST make the list. It can be done as a day trip out of Zadar or Zagreb but I will give you a tip to maximize your time and reduce the amount of people you have to share the park with down below.
PLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARK
Instagram has taken over the world of travel inspiration and it is how I learned about this amazing place. However, when it comes to actually planning a trip, I turn to blogs and travel articles. When searching the internet for information on Plitvice Lakes, I came across an article written by Earth Trekkers (they captured the beauty of the park in photos much better than I did) and decided to give it a try. We entered the park at Entrance 1 and followed Program C that they recommended. I will let you read more about it on their site as we had a fantastic day following their advice. In addition to Program C, at the end of the day, we visited the Veliki Slap viewpoint, the postcard viewpoint and walked the stairs back down to the first waterfall. Each spot was incredible!
CROATIA WATERFALLS
You will do quite a bit of walking, some in the shade and some in the sun so come prepared. There will also be a lot of stairs and inclines to climb and descend. When the park is empty, the floating boardwalks are like a dream winding through the turquoise waters.
PLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARK TIPS
The only downside was the massive amounts of people. They do recommend getting there when the park opens as the crowds are much lighter. The crowds also thinned out later in the day. So, my suggestion would be to arrive in the afternoon and enter the park later in the afternoon (which has a reduced cost) and see either the upper or the lower lakes. Stay at a hotel near the park (Entrance 1 or Entrance 2) and then visit at opening and see the other half. The park is truly spectacular without the crowds. With the hoards of people, it kind of loses something. But it is absolutely still worth visiting either way.
If you want to follow along with our 25-day wedding / honeymoon trip, you can see more of our adventures in Malta, Italy, the Vatican, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro.
