Plitvice is Fantastic
The reason to come to this region is to visit Plitvice National Park. The park is a series of a dozen lakes which cascade waterfalls between them. The karst rock gives the water and a gorgeous sheen of blue and turquoise. Unfortunately, we were not alone in wanting to visit. The park gets 15,000 visitors per day in high season and sometimes it even sells out! Furthermore, the park is a series of boardwalks which can get packed with visitors. To manage the crowds, the park has set ticket times and the queues to get in can be horrendous.
However, we had a secret weapon – our host Ivonich whose name translates to ‘The Edge.’ He had worked at the park a guide for years and knew all the ins and outs of the park. His advice literally saved us hours with his advice about where to park and how to enter/exit.
We hadn’t purchased tickets in advance so Tom got up early to make the 15 drive to the main entrance to purchase tickets in the 7am-8am time window. It turns out they sell them in blocks of time to manage the crowds but you don’t have to use them during a particular time frame. By 8:15 Tom was back, tickets in hand. We later saw the massive line of people waiting to buy tickets and enter the park. It was easily a 30 minute wait in the hot sun.
The Edge also told us of a way to enter the park that avoided the congested car park and associated waiting. He even provided a hand drawn map of how to visit the park in a away that covered the best sights in the best order. Awesome!!
After a quick drone flight and excellent panorama, we set off for the park around 10:45. At 11:00 we were in the park gawking at the spectacular views. No lines for us, thank you very much!!
https://www.skypixel.com/photo360s/sankorana-croatia
We spent the whole day walking from lake to lake snapping pics at the fantastic waterfalls. Most were more like continual cascades than massive waterfalls although there were a few big ones as well. But the colors made them all gorgeous.
By 7pm we were back at the inn, oblivious to the traffic mayhem endured by the other 14,992 park visitors.
The kids beat the heat with a dip in the chilly river while the adults cooled down with a chilly beer. Around 8, the adults went into “town” for dinner while the kids had leftovers and cereal for dinner and enjoyed the company of their screens & Wi-Fi.
Our meal was just a delicious and affordable as the night before and by 10:30 we were home and everyone was snug in their beds. A fantastic day of hiking with friends.