If you’re ever planning to take a trip to anywhere in Croatia, you have to add Plitvice to your itinerary. Still having doubts? Let me convince you of the beauty of Plitvice in this post.

Disclaimer: I took every picture in this post myself. I did that with my phone, which is the reason why the quality may not be ideal and why most of the pictures are in portrait mode. My apologies for that.

What is Plitvice?

For those of you who are reading this post and are still not sure what Plitvice actually is, I’m going to try to explain. Plitvice, also known as Plitvička Jezera (Nacionalni Park) or Plitvice Lakes National Park, is a nature reserve located in Croatia.

The park is mainly known for its beautiful hiking routes and stunning lakes and waterfalls.

Now that everyone knows what I’m talking about, we can move on to the reasons why you should consider giving the park a visit. Buckle up!

Reason 1: Easy access from Zagreb and Split

If you’re coming to this nature reserve, you’re most likely going to be combining it with a visit to one (or several) key city in Croatia, such as Zagreb and Split. There are some convenient ways to get to Plitvice from these cities.

First off, the easiest option is to hire a rental car and drive yourself. That’s what we did. Coming from Zagreb, it took us about two hours to get there. According to Google Maps, a trip from Split would take you around two hours and 45 minutes.

The main advantage of hiring a car is that you have more freedom on the road. If you want to stop in a small town to grab a bite on your way back, you can do that. For example, we stopped in Rastoke, a very small town (only 62 inhabitants!) between Zagreb and Plitvice.

Secondly, it’s possible to get to Plitvice by bus. Using Flixbus, a one-way ticket from Zagreb would cost you €13 and about two hours of your time. If you’re starting in Split, you’d have to pay €22 and you’ll lose around four hours.

I recommend taking the bus if you don’t feel like driving, if you don’t have your driver’s license yet, or if you just want to chill for a couple of hours before spending a day hiking along waterfalls and lakes.

Reason 2: Low prices

Staying in line with the generally cheap Croatian prices, the entry fee to Plitvice Lakes is definitely worth it. You can check out the price you’ll need to pay on this website. Keep in mind, the prices are listed in Croatian kuna (HRK). You can convert your currency to HRK here in order to get a better understanding of the prices.

Reason 3: Breathtaking nature

Without a doubt, the most important reason that so many people want to visit Plitvice (even though you might never even have heard of it before now) is its fascinating nature. If you’re a fan of travel inspiration, you should honestly consider creating a trip based around Plitvice.

Does this picture really even need any explaining?

If I’m honest with you, I’ve never seen anything quite like the lakes, waterfalls, forests and hiking routes at Plitvice. It’s something that can’t really be explained. You’ll just have to find out for yourself.

Reason 4: Seeing other tourists

Some people might go crazy when this happens, but others enjoy it thoroughly. When we were in Plitvice, the other tourists weren’t so bad. That’s because we went at the end of June. There were some groups of Chinese people and other tourist families, but we were still able to go wherever we wanted without too much interruption.

If you’re going during the summer, you could be confronted with lots more tourists and other people. It could be something you might enjoy. If not, I recommend going between October and June, as that’s when most people don’t even consider traveling.

Reason 5: Road trip fun

This reason mostly applies to people who go to Plitvice by rental car, although you could also have a lot of fun on the road in a bus.

There are a lot of things you can do to make your trip more fun. For example, you could play road trip games, you could listen to some music, you could talk about the meaning of life, … The possibilities are endless.

For this specific Croatian road trip, there are some other things you could do. As it turns out, a lot of the Croatian houses, buildings and landscapes on the way to Plitvice are quite fascinating to watch. Many buildings still show signs of the Croatian War of Independence. For example, we saw one house that was completely pierced with bullet holes, but it was still standing.

Reason 6: Hiking

For anyone who likes walking through nature just for the sake of admiring nature, Plitvice is the way to go. (Also, for all of you people who are always trying to find cool Instagram picture spots, look no further!)

When you’re visiting Plitvice, you’ll be walking on cute pathways like this one

After a day of hiking in Plitvice – you can do tours ranging from one hour to 8 hours – there’s no doubt that you’ll be tired, but you’ll also be more than satisfied. I, for one, have never hiked in a more beautiful place.

Fun extra: you’ll be doing tons of cardio, so there’s no need to go to the gym!

Reason 7: Cooling off

When you’re visiting Croatia, this might not apply to you. But when we were there, it was SO HOT. The mist coming off the waterfalls was a welcome source of cooling down after walking in the nature park.

Then again, if you’re traveling between October and June, like I recommended earlier, chances are that you’ll already be cold enough when you’re there.

Final tip

If you’re coming by rental car, you should consider leaving your car at entrance 2. This entrance is located right at the centre of the park, which means you could go to either side relatively easily. We parked our car at entrance 1, which was also okay.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope I might have convinced you to consider Plitvice for your next holiday. Feel free to let me know what you thought about this post.

Thanks for reading!

-S