Plitvice Lakes National Park

Pretty early on in our stay in Zagreb, we heard about Plitvice Lakes National Park and knew it was a must-visit destination. After doing some research, though, we also discovered that it is known for being overly crowded in the summer months. So, we put off visiting until the fall.

Some folx we met in Split warned us that there is typically one week of amazing weather at the park where the leaves are beautiful fall colors and then it becomes rainy and brown. I was, then, of course pretty nervous that we waited to visit this spectacular place and might be disappointed. Our timing turned out to be just perfect!

I ended up visiting the park with some dear friends from home and two of their good friends. They were staying in Split and I was in Zagreb — Plitvice Lakes is about equidistant between the two which made for a wonderful meet-up spot.

We stayed at a cute cottage in a remote area, Sertić Poljana, which was a good base for getting to Plitvice Lakes.

We were there for a day in late October and happened to luck out and saw all of the fall colors in their full glory!

We spent about half of a day walking around the lake and we took a small ferry back and forth from one area. Everywhere we turned the views were spectacular! And, we definitely could have spent more time at the park. There are a lot of trails and beautiful spots to explore.

Visiting in the shoulder season on a weekday meant it wasn’t very crowded and we could easily go at our own pace and stop for photos quite regularly!

If you are ever in the Zagreb or Split area, I would highly recommend spending at least a day here!