Rainy Days at Plitvice Lakes

Oh, Croatia.

I had the most wonderful time in Croatia, but our Plitvice Lakes National Park adventure had a bit of a rocky start.

When we landed in Zagreb, I’d arranged for a car to pick us up from the airport and drive us to Hotel Jezero, the absolute best place to stay if you want to visit the lakes.

Here’s what I’ll say about traveling to Plitvice Lakes National Park: there is a bus system that is extremely economical that will take you to the parks, however, it is extremely and notoriously unreliable.

It just so happened that there was not a bus scheduled to stop at the airport anywhere near our arrival time, so we decided to go with a car from Daytrip for our drive to the park. We took the bus back to Zagreb, and while it was fine, I would highly recommend that you include lots of padding time in-between your bus pickup time and your flight departure, because the buses absolutely do not run on time in any way shape or form. Don’t be stressed waiting for a bus in a remote area of Croatia. Take an early, early bus, or choose to get a car.

We debated between using Uber or another service to get from the airport to the park, It’s about a 2 hour drive one way, and I didn’t feel entirely comfortable waiting until we arrived at the airport to figure out if we could get an affordable Uber. We only had one night at the park, and I wanted to maximize our time there, so we opted to take Daytrip, because it was ultimately $100 between the two of us, which I thought was extremely affordable for a two hour drive by car. There’s no way Uber could have competed with that.

Plus, we had an extremely comfortable ride, were able to charge our phones easily, and our driver was extremely knowledgable and told us a lot about Croatia’s history as we drove. I would definitely take Daytrip again, not just for this trip in Croatia, but for other journeys.

The problem arose as we were driving – as we watched rain come down through our windows, our driver told us that Croatia had received record rains, and many areas were flooding due to it.

When we arrived at our hotel, we were told that due to the heavy flooding, all of the trails were closed at the park. Meaning that we would not be able to see the park.

It was extremely defeating to hear.

I’ve prided myself on becoming an adaptable traveler and really being able to roll with the punches, but it was really frustrating to travel so far, only to hear that you wouldn’t be able to see any of what you had hoped. Lake Plitvice isn’t necessarily difficult to get to, but it’s not as easy as just flying into a major city. It took some coordination to get there, and I’d really been looking forward to experiencing the magic of the park. I told myself that if I really wanted to see it, I would come back someday. And you know what? I think I still will.

I manifested that the park would miraculously clear up by morning, and resolved myself that no matter what happened, it would all be good. But I kept my hopes up that we’d at least be able to experience part of the park.

We cheered ourselves up by posing with a large bear cardboard cutout in our hotel, having many a giggle as we goofed around.

Our hotel also offered a shuttle service to a local restaurant that I’d had my eye on: Lička Kuća, a traditional Croatian restaurant.

The walls were really cool, with wooden beams and rope in-between.

We started off with a delicious bread and a soft Croatian cheese.

Next up was a lamb soup.

And finally, the lamb itself. 10/10 to everything.

We couldn’t help ourselves, so we enjoyed a honey cake dessert, as well.

This was definitely comfort food, and it was delicious.

Once we were done with dinner, our waiter called our hotel, and they sent their shuttle back over to pick us up.

The next morning, we woke up and enjoyed a Croatian breakfast at our hotel.

I enjoyed a banana maple bread (heaven on earth) venison sausage, potatoes with mushrooms and cucumber, pears, and a peach yogurt drink.

It was fun to try the unique breakfast foods they served in Croatia.

After breakfast, we spoke with our hotel, and they told us that miraculously, several of the trails were open that morning. We were so excited!

It definitely was not the full experience we had hoped and planned to have, but they let us know that the trail we would be able to walk would include the largest waterfalls. While we would not be able to get up-close-and-personal with them, we’d still get the experience.

And, in hindsight, I feel lucky to have seen them when we did. Because of the rainfall, it’s likely that the waterfalls were actually much stronger than they may have been at any other time. A cool experience to have.

Before we departed, our hotel gave us a map and guide to the park, with the trails that we could visit highlighted.

It was a five minute walk from our hotel to a little shuttle area, which brought us to the main park entrance.

The shuttles were cute, and seemed to come back and forth between the park entrance and the hotel very regularly.

Once we arrived, we immediately hit the trail, determined to use every minute we had that morning.

The first viewpoint was gorgeous.

It looks like paradise. The mountains, the fog, the waterfalls, the greenery, all of it.

Once I saw this, my heart was content. I knew that even if I didn’t see anything else cool, this would be enough for me. And trust me, it was all uphill from here.

Let’s get closer.

Stunning. The water was so turquoise.

We continued down the path, giddy with excitement about what might lie ahead.

As it turns out, more views of paradise.

Come on, that water is incredible.

Here, you can really begin to see some of the trails that would have been available without the flooding – gorgeous wooden paths that take you across the water. I can only imagine how beautiful it would be.

But with these conditions, treacherous.

That’s not a trail that you’d even be close to being able to cross.

Lastly, our finale waterfall – unspeakably gorgeous.

I was jumping up and down, physically incapable of containing my excitement at seeing something so damn beautiful in real life.

Let’s zoom in a bit.

At this point, I felt completely satisfied with our decision to come to the park, even though it had been rained out. I would absolutely love to come back to this place to experience it again, and to see more of what the park has to offer. I learned that you absolutely need more than one day to experience this park, and if I were to return again, I would take 2-3 days to explore more leisurely and really absorb everything there is.

She’s a happy lady at a waterfall.

Even from a distance, the waterfall was amazing. I snapped a photo of a little area with benches at the park, and you can see how massive this thing was in the background.

Simply stunning.

We sat and marveled in the waterfall’s beautiful for quite awhile before making our way back to the hotel, just in time for check-out.

Since we had extra time before our scheduled bus (which did not arrive on time anyway), we returned to Lička Kuća for lunch.

This time, I opted for the chicken and potatoes. I don’t know what they did to those potatoes, but they were heaven-sent.

And then, we waited at the bus stop, which was a cute little shed.

The bus was taking awhile, so I popped across the street to a little shop, and purchased a mystery-flavor Fanta, which was becoming a trend on this trip.

We waited for hours for our bus, along with a group of people who had also been waiting for hours. Luckily, we’d scheduled to get on a bus much earlier than our flight departure time, so while I was anxious to get on the bus, I knew we would make our flight. Others were not so sure, and began hopping in taxis that parked near the bus stop. It seems that this is a problem often enough that the taxi drivers know they’ll make a few extra bucks simply waiting there.

Eventually, we got on our bus, and took a two-hour drive back to the airport. Yeah, I would definitely recommend more than 24 hours at the park.

Once we arrived at the airport, we grabbed a bottle of Clicquot, because I told my aunt that I’d never had it, and we decided we needed a champagne toast when we landed in our next destination: Dubrovnik.