Book your holiday today, visit Croatia and discover Plitvice Lakes! Discover all the beauties of this most popular national park in Croatia.
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A Fairytale of Plitvice Lakes
We can assure you that the Neverland must be a similar place to the Plitvice Lakes. You will lose yourself in the beautiful sites of stunning turquoise lakes, precisely in the beauty of sixteen of them. We assure you that you’ll find certain kind of magic cause fairies do exist and they’re all wishing you a welcome at the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Let us take you on a tour through this fairy tale about the harmony of nature!
Discover why Plitvice lakes are the Natural Heritage Site
In the midway between Zagreb and Zadar, in Ličko-Senjska county, Plitvice Lakes National Park and its 19.5 hectares of woods, sixteen lakes that spills into the waterfalls and streams represents one of Croatia’s most amazing sights. The unique ecology, stunning flora and fauna are the reasons why the Plitvice are the most popular National Park in Croatia and World Natural Heritage Site. Plitvice Lakes is the oldest national park in South-East Europe and they are under the protection of UNESCO since 1979.
The Upper and Lower Lakes Story
The lake system is divided into the Upper and Lower Lakes. The Upper Lakes lie in a dolomite valley that is surrounded by forests and numerous waterfalls. The Lower Lakes, shallower and smaller, lie on the limestone bedrock. Over the millennium and even today, the process of sedimentation and the work of algae and moss or tufa are creating new travertine, stalactites, channels and cascades. So, we can say that Plitvice National Park is some kind of live entity because of the entire dynamic process of formation, caused even by the mild devastating effects of waters that flows through the barriers at different places. Sit down, take a break for a minute and look closely into the magical things that take place in front of you. Green, blue, yellow, brown and red are colors of the world that stands tall around you.
The Wildlife of Plitvice
Wooden walkways allow you to walk all around, and sometimes even under the waterfalls through the waters. Hiking trails through the tranquil forests of beech and fir with spruce, horn-beam, maple and pine trees, will take you to the stunning sites at which only the patient ones will have an opportunity to see some of the Plitvice wildlife – chamois, deers, foxes, badgers, or more rarely a bear and playful otters. There are records of 126 species of bird (of which 70 are permanently nesting here), 321 different kinds of butterflies, 20 species of bats and also numerous endemic species, relics of crab species, including several amphibians and reptile species. Also, you can peek into the valuable and attractive buildings of the Plitivice Lakes Park – the restored traditionally crafted mills and sawmills driven by the water power.
Planing a visit?
Plitvice Lakes are beautiful throughout the whole year, but we must warn you that it gets very busy during summer. So, we recommend you a spring or late summer visit when the weather is ideal, the park is open for long hours and there are fewer people. The only thing left is to hit the road, relax and surrender to an amazing adventure that leads you to those scenic views of colorful flowers and trees, proud wild animals, emerald lakes and waterfalls.
Words always fail when it comes to describing the beauty of Plitvice Lakes, and each and every single one of you will try to create here a personal story to retell. So, why don’t you make it like a fairy tale to remember? A tale that will maintain magic in you!
If you’re planning a visit in the summertime, we recommend you to be in the park as early as you can – around 9 am is the perfect timing to beat the heat.
Things to do on the Plitvice Lakes
- Stand beside the Kaluđerovac Lake and go up to the Veliki Slap Waterfall, the highest waterfall in Croatia that has a 78 meter drop, pass by the beautiful cliffs of the Gavanovac Lake and took into the amazing emerald colors of the Milanovac Lake
- Go on a ride with the electric boat which takes you across the Kozjak Lake – the biggest lake at some 4kms in length
- Visit Novaković Brod, the last and smallest lake in the Plitvice Lakes, then head towards Sastavci, at which begins the river Korana
- Experience the unique sites of the Barac cave and go for underground sightseeing on which you’ll have the opportunity to see how rich with stalactites, stalagmites, and stalagnates this cave is
- From 8 hiking routes, pick out the route H – a 4-6 hours hike that hits most of the main waterfall
- Go for a ride to the Rastoke – the old part of Slunj town that is well known for its well-preserved mills and the amazing waterfalls along the Slunjčica river which flows into the river Korana
- Visit Nikola Tesla memorial Smiljan situated 65km-away from Plitvice lakes in which you’ll find early works and imitations/replicas of some newer works of this unique man
- In the small village of Kuterevo, visit the Kuterevo Bear Refuge that was founded in 2002 when the few bears lost their mothers
- For the extreme ones, there are paintball, archery and quad offers that give you an opportunity for the active and adventurous way of recreation
Photo by aiva. 
