Plitvice Lakes National Park

Plitvice Lakes National Park is the largest national park in Croatia. It is most known for its beautiful series of cascading lakes and waterfalls on the Korana River. The lakes have been formed over centuries as limestone deposits in the river settle on the riverbed, creating natural dams that are continually growing.

We had thought our itinerary meant we would miss Plitvice, but we found that there were busses from Split that would let us go for one night. Due to universally rave reviews, we decided it was worth making the extra effort to go. Entry to the National Park includes use of a couple of shuttle busses and boat rides that link the walks around the lakes. This meant that we were able to see almost the whole park in just a few hours.

Here are some of our photos from Plitvice. It was an overcast day, which affected our photos a bit, but the lakes still looked spectacular.

This region is one of the only places in Europe where bears can still be found in the wild. After leaving the park, there was a 20 minute walk back to our accommodation. It was dusk by this point, so every tree stump started looking like a potential bear ambush!

We stopped for dinner on the way home. As we walked towards a restaurant we spotted a snow groomer parked outside! Turns out the restaurant was the lodge for a small skifield. We had no idea the area got so cold in winter.

We were so glad for our decision to come to Plitvice. We had never seen scenery quite like this, with so many lakes flowing into each other. The minerals from the dissolved limestone give the lakes a gorgeous range of vivid colours. The water was also so clear that you could see hundreds of carp and trout swimming around.

The next morning we headed for Zagreb, our last stop in Croatia. We have a host in Zagreb and are looking forward to CouchSurfing once again.

Comments from WordPress

• Charlotte 2012-10-18T02:55:08Z

  It’s wonderful… I really want to see that! And your photos are great.

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson