Guide to Croatia National Parks (Plitvice & Krka)
Guide to Croatia’s 2 best National Parks – Plitvice & Krka
If you’re planning a trip to Croatia, then by now you must have heard of Croatia’s National Parks. I mean, they are so beautiful it’s no surprise they are so well-known throughout the world.
By landing on this blog, you must be interested to know how you can make the most of your trip to Croatia and make sure you get to experience all nature has to offer.
During our 1 week stay in Croatia, we made sure to visit both Krka National Park and Plitvice Lakes. In this Blog, I will explain everything you could possibly need to know about how and when to go to both of these parks.
So grab a pen and paper (or save this post for later) and let’s get stuck in.
When Is The Best Time To Visit Croatia’s National Parks
I want to start by saying we visited Croatia at the end of May and for us, this was an ideal time to go. Let me tell you why.
May is not yet the peak summer season, so the entry tickets to both parks are still off-peak prices. The weather was not too hot. And the crowds were a lot smaller than they are known to be in the middle of summer.
Even if it rains like it did when we were there, the parks are so lush and green from all the winter rainfall that it is still such a treat to explore.
Where To Stay In Croatia
We were staying near Split and this was an ideal area. It’s easy to access both national parks from there by car, and there are bus tours available. We would recommend staying in this area!
Booking.comWhat are Croatia’s 2 Best National Parks
So now that we have covered when to go and where is the best place to stay to visit Croatia’s National Parks. Let’s dive right into the details of the parks.
Krka National Park – Croatia
Krka National Park is the closer of the 2 national parks and also the smaller of the 2. Making it possible to explore in just half a day if you are short on time.
When does it open?
The park opens at 8 am so we arrived at 8.30 am. The car park is open slightly earlier though which can be handy.
How to get there?
We drove from where we were staying near Split and it took about an hour to get there. You will want to put “Krka-waterfalls Entrance at Lozovac” into your Sat Nav or Google Maps and it’ll take you to the correct entrance.
Park in the huge car park and head to the ticket desks to buy your entrance ticket. You can’t miss them.
How much does it cost?
Parking is free and entrance in May (off-peak) cost us 110 Croatian Kuna each, which is about €14 each. By checking on the park’s website I could see the prices go up by nearly double from June 1st so this was perfect.
Summer peak times (June, July & August) – 200 Kuna
Mid peak (April/May & September/October) – 110 Kuna
Off-peak (November -March) – 30 Kuna
Once in Krka National Park
You can either choose to walk the 900m down to the start of the footpaths or you can take a shuttle bus which costs around 5 Kuna per person each way.
It is a very steep walk and we saw a couple of people fall over so if you’re not it walking boots then make sure to be careful!
Once you get down to the bottom the real fun begins.
Top Tip ***
We highly recommend going anticlockwise around the park so you END your walk at the big main waterfalls. From the small information hut, continue walking down the road a short way and then at the big route map, head onto the path behind the map rather than continuing along the road.
This takes you straight onto the wooden walkways over the water that you’ve no doubt already seen images of.
How long do you need at the waterfalls?
Krka National Park was truly magical, despite the rain we had the day we went. The water was still the deep turquoise colours and we were lucky enough to see all kinds of fish and toads enjoying the beautiful clear waters.
Krka is the smaller of the two parks and this means you can visit in about half a day if you’re tight for time.
We walked around the whole of the route, very slowly, stopping to take lots of photos and taking in all the scenery. In total, we spent around 2 hours there.
And due to arriving early we only saw about 4 other people while we were walking around. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves which was awesome!
Is there anything else there?
The park has Toilets, Cafes, Restaurants, gift shops, stalls selling local goods and even an art exhibition while we were there so yes don’t worry if you forget to pack your sandwiches you’ll be just fine.
Plitvice Lakes – Croatia
Plitvice Lakes are quite a lot larger than Krka and also further away from Split. This means it is best to make a full-day trip out of this National Park.
When does it open?
Similar to Krka, Plitvice Lakes also open their car parks from 7 am, with the actual parks being open from 8 am.
How to get there?
To drive from Split takes around 2.5 hours, so to Visit Plitvice Lakes you are going to need at least a full day. We would recommend parking at Entrance 2, to find it just enter “Plitvice Lakes entrance 2 parking’’ into Google Maps, and I’ll explain why in a second.
How much does it cost?
Plitvice is more expensive to enter than Krka, in May we paid 180 Croatian Kunas each to enter, which is about €24 each.
Summer peak times (July & August) – 300 Kuna
Mid peak (April/May & September/October) – 180 Kuna
Off-peak (November -March) – 80 Kuna
Remember for both parks, children pay less and in the summer months if you arrive after 4 pm there is a discounted fee to enter.
What route to take?
When you’ve parked, bought your ticket at the office and walked down to the entrance, you will then see some big boards with all the various routes you can do.
Included in the price you’ve paid to enter is access to the ferry boats and the shuttle buses.
Plitvice has around 8 different routes you can choose from depending on how much time you have or how much walking you want to do.
We initially chose a route that did the bottom half of the waterfalls, Route E. This started with a ferry boat across the water, a 2-hour walk past all the waterfalls and lakes and then a shuttle bus back to the start.
However, we quickly realised that we did in fact want to see the whole park and all of the waterfalls at the top too (that’s where the biggest ones are). So we stayed on the Shuttle bus all the way to Entrance 1 and then did Route B as well, which was another 2-3 hours.
Route B took us on a beautiful walk past more of the waterfalls and lakes, we then took a slight detour into the giant cave which is clearly sign-posted if you fancy it and then back via the ferry boat to Entrance 2.
How long do you need at the waterfalls?
We ended up spending around 7 hours in Plitvice Lakes in total.
With the drive to Plitvice being a long drive we arrived around 10.30 am and it was noticeably busier than Krka had been. There were already more coaches that had arrived with school groups and tour groups and this meant that in various places around the park, we did in fact end up in some pedestrian traffic jams.
It’s important to be realistic with expectations when you visit such well-known and popular tourist destinations that you are unlikely to have the pace to yourself. Nonetheless, it was still incredibly beautiful at every turn and we had a fantastic time exploring the national park.
Is there anything else there?
As with Krka, Plitvice also has multiple cafes, a restaurant, a mini supermarket, toilets, gift shops and probably more. Although I would highly recommend taking lots of water and your own lunch and snacks as the prices were much higher than normal.
Croatia’s National Parks – Final Thoughts
If you are short on time in Croatia then I would recommend sticking with Krka. If you can find time to visit both then amazing!
Krka National Park and Plitvice Lakes were some of the highlights of our 3 week Europe road trip and we really hope this helps you also have an amazing visit.
