Krka National Park
In the morning we went into the city of Zadar to grab breakfast before heading out to Krka National Park. We sat down at a nice little Croatian restaurant where they advertised a “delicious English breakfast.” We both ended up passing on breakfast all together and ordered the Spaghetti Bolognese. I know you might be wondering, Spaghetti for breakfast? But after seeing the picture of the English breakfast I’m sure anyone would have done the same.
Towards the end of our breakfast we noticed a crowd of young people in matching shirts gathering in the streets. I wanted to know what it was all about so I asked one of the guys in the crowd. He told me the students in Croatia celebrate the end of a school year by having a food fight. The students divide themselves up into separate groups that wear different color shirts according to their class and participate in the event. By the afternoon the small food fight turned into all out war. Some students were being ambushed with flour bombs and egg launchers. I even saw a group of students armed with ketchup and mustard squirters shooting crazy into a crowd of their peers. The food fight was all in good fun and very exiting to watch. I had to dodge a few flour bombs myself while capturing the footage on my go pro. Luckily, both of us survived the battle free of any stains.
We left Zadar around noon headed for Krka National Park, the second national park of the trip. We arrived at the park shortly after 3pm when most of the visitors were on their way out. We followed the main trail which was an easy 4 kilometer hike to the big waterfall. When we finally arrived at the falls I was completely blown away. Krka’s waterfall is absolutely massive. Made up of 17 smaller waterfalls the Krka waterfall is easily the coolest thing I’ve seen so far on our road trip. We spent about an hour swimming and relaxing around the falls before getting back on the road.
Our final stop for the day was scheduled for Split. We made it to Split around 9pm and drove around the city center looking for accommodation. I read so many great things about Split during our research of the city and wasn’t expecting to have much trouble finding a place even at such a late hour but boy was I wrong. We must have checked out a dozen places but every place we checked was either super sketch or ridiculously out of our budget. We ended up finding a small apartment 5km outside of city and called it a night.
Plitvice National Park
Since we arrived so late the night before we got out of having to pay for a Plitvice National Park parking day pass which can be pricey during the high season. The entrance to the Plitvice National Park was about a 5 minute walk from our car so we were already off to a good start. The price for students is about 11 Euro and it includes bus rides through the park and one ferry ride. Online we found advice on which was the best route to follow but if you want to avoid the massive crowds follow our route and you will have the best views of the park with the sun always in the perfect spot for photos:
Start early to avoid the crowds and begin your day by taking the bus from Parking Lot 2 to STR 3
Hike to P2 and check out the small rivers, lakes and stunning views from the highest part of the park.
From P2 take the ferry to P3 and stop for lunch. The kitchen doesn’t open till 11:30 so be the first in line at 11:15 and you can have first pick at the meat fresh off the grill.
By noon the park is packed so try to make your way to the Big waterfall before 1pm when the sun is at the highest point in the sky to see a cool rainbow effect in the waterfall.
Close out the hike by walking the rest of the way to Parking Lot 1 and hop on the bus back to Parking Lot 2
The whole hike should take you 6 hours, give or take a few, and plan to be back by 3pm because the heat is brutal in the summer.
We left the park at 3pm and were set on reaching the coast before sundown. We arrived in Zadar much faster than we expected so we stopped in the city center to explore a little bit. We enjoyed a couple of Zadar’s famous pizza sandwiches and made it to the beach house before 8pm just in time to witness our first beach sunset of the trip.
Rastoke Croatia - Our Road Trip
We left Zagreb first thing in the morning and our next stop was Karlovac on our way to Rastoke Croatia. We saw a sport fishing competition at the river and we met the Croatian national team coach. He didn’t speak very much English and preferred speaking German so Ina did most of the talking but he told us about the sport and a little history about the town of Karlovac. Karlovac has 4 rivers that flow through the town and the locals often joke about the 5th river that is made of beer because of a famous brew there called Karlovako.
For a small town there is so much to see and we decided to spend the afternoon at the Vrbanicev Park and walked around Lake Korana. The views in Karlovac are simply amazing. Lake Korana is so cool because it has its own mini waterfall and on the south side of the lake there are 3 diving platforms, the highest of which looked about 13 meters high. If I were to come back to Karlovac in the mid summer I’m sure the lake would be packed.
Waterfalls Rastoke Croatia
After a short coffee and snack break at the Green Cafe we headed to another small city along the way called Rastoke Croatia. Rastoke is easily my favorite little town so far. The old town is famous for its many mills and beautiful waterfalls. We spent a little over an our hiking the short trails and relaxing in one of the small parks which was very beautifully landscaped. You can tell the people of Rastoke take pride in their town as they are eager to share their history with you.
Unfortunately, we had to pass over visiting Slunj because we spent a little too much time at the waterfalls in Rastoke Croatia and we headed for Plitvice National Park. We arrived at the camp grounds a little late and were unable to book a room so we found a safe area and set up camp in the Audi and spent the night in the car. The Audi’s bucket seats aren’t the most comfortable but when you’re planning a road trip on the fly sometimes you have to just roll with it… Get it? Roll with it.
Read more blog posts about our Croatian Trip here: Croatia