Croatia, Plitvice Lakes National Park

I had wanted to visit this park for a very long time and finally had the chance to check it off my bucket list.

Plitvice became the first national park of Croatia in 1949. It takes about two hours from Zagreb to get to the park. 

The park is the destination, there really isn’t anything else around the area of interest to tourists. But it is well worth anyone’s time to visit ... to sum it up, it is simply stunning.

We prefer exploring places on our own. Even on the odd occasion we take a mini-van tour, as we did to Lake Bled, it is really just for the transportation. On this trip though, we had a guide to take us through the park. It was well worth it as the park is crowded, huge, and can be a bit confusing.

The guide started us opposite from where most people begin their journey, going from the upper lakes to the lower, against the human traffic.

The hike was wonderful. Unfortunately, the lakes, as nature has a habit of doing, have changed over the years. The upper lakes have less water than they used to and many of the falls have dried up. We were there in September, after a dry summer, so none of the falls were as spectacular as the photos I've seen.

Even so, it was an absolutely lovely place to visit, hike and explore. The lakes are beautiful and the falls that did have water were pretty. There was a photo opportunity at every turn.

Try to avoid the worst of the crowds by going off season; late spring would be best when there is more rain and runoff from the mountains. Weekends are obviously the busiest times, so going midweek and early or later in the day would be better. Start at the top and work your way down so you are going against the flow rather than with the crowds. Good, hiking shoes are necessary as a lot of walking and a little climbing are involved.

Perhaps not quite as spectacular as we had hoped, and a lot more people, but definitely pretty, enjoyable and well worth a visit.