Entrance fee

• Adults 110 Kuna (app. 15 Euro) / winter (01.11-31-03) 70 Kuna
• Children over 7 years 55 Kuna (app.7.5 Euro) winter / 40 Kuna

Entrance and Parking:

The park has two entrances with large parking areas (fee 7 kuna/hour), at the entrances you find maps with predefined tour/routes which you can follow:

Entrance 1 is starting point for program A, B, C, G2 and K (which is the largest tour).

• A (2-3h) is lower parts of national park, only walking
• B (3-4h) is lower part of national park including sailing on lake Kozjak
• C (4-6h) Walking, bus to upper parts of national park and sailing on lake Kozjak
• K (6-8h) Walking around Whole national park.
• G2 (3-4h) Walking Sailing and bus, lower and mid part of park.

Entrance 2 is starting point for program E, H, F, GI, and K.

• E (2-3h) Upper parts of national park, only walking
• F (3-4h) Like B tour. Only different starting point
• H (4-6h) Like C tour. Only different starting point
• K (6-8h) Walking around Whole national park.
• G1 (3-4h) Walking Sailing and bus, Upper and mid part of national park.

When is the best time to visit park:

National Park Plitvice Lakes is a beautiful sight whole year, so I can’t really recommend best time to visit, in the summer the park has around 11.000 visitors a day so I can get a bit crowded, so I personally prefer to visit the park at other times of the year.

Here you can see our summer photos of the park: Plitvice Summer photos

Here you can see some autumn photos of the Park Plitvice Autumn

Staying overnight at Plitvice:

HOTELS:

The following hotels are inside the park area, so by staying overnight here you have the National park at your “doorstep”. – But you also pay for that!!

Hotel Bellevue - 60 rooms (38 double, 16 triple, 6 single)
Hotel Jezero - 210 rooms + 7 suites + 5 disability
Hotel Plitvice - 51 rooms + 1 senior suite
Hotel Grabovac - 31 rooms (23 double, 8 triple)

CAMPSITE:

6 km north of entrance in the city/area Korana you have a large campsite. With 42 “bungalows”, 550 camping units on a land plot of 35 hectares.

PRIVATE ACCOMODATIONS:

The cheapest option for an overnight stay is private accommodation, in the area around National Park Plitvice Lakes, there are plenty of private accommodations to choose between; personally I like to stay in Korona which is beautiful area 6 km from entrance nr.1, here you have pure nature, small waterfalls outside the window and here you might ending up looking first hand at a bear!!!

Here is where we stayed at our last visit to National Park Plitvice Lakes:

You can contact owner at info(at)sankorana.com, his name is Ivica.

Other thinks which might be useful to know.

• No need to say you need to bring some good walking shoes, around the park you will walk on wooden paths, with lots of short steps, so good footwear is a must.
• Bring plenty of water and consider bringing your own lunch; you can buy food and drinks at the park, but prices are relatively high and in summer I can get crowded at the park restaurants.
• Notice the park is very clean, so do yours to keep it that way, there are plenty of garbage dumpsters.
• Stay at that marked paths, mind you are in park with wild animals, like bears, wolves and 19 different kinds of snakes.

Hope this was helpfull, Enjoy Plitvice!!

The parks unique flora and fauna, was one of the main reason why UNESCO in 1979 appointed the National park as a World nature heritage site. On the official homepage of the National park you find detailed information about plants and animals in the park Plitvice homepage

At our last visit here in the beginning of October, the national part was “dressed” in the autumn colors, green, yellow and brown, I think it was quite beautiful?

What do you think?

If you plan to visit National Park Plitvice, maybe you should have look at our  guide to National Park Plitvice

• In the beginning of the second millennium, the city capital and seat of the Croatian kings – which also so explains why the city is referred to as that kings city or Zvonimirov grad.
• During the Balkan war, the city was occupied by the Serbs and made capital of the republic of Serbia Krajina, the Croatian forces liberated the city under the Operation storm on the 5^th of August 1995, the 5^th of August has later been declared a national holiday – the Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day. And is celebrated each year with a 3 days event in Knin.

The city has one of the largest fortification in Dalmatia, (The largest I have seen down here), during the last decade large parts of it has been completely restored. For the entrance of 20 Kuna you can visit not only the fortress but also the museum inside the fortress. Be aware that there is limited parking available close to the entrance.

How to find Knin:

Knin is found on the road D1 from Zagreb to Split, if you are coming from National park Plitvice as we did, you have a 2-2.5 hour to get to Knin.

Another option is to take train from Zagreb to Split.

Here you can see all our pictures from the fortress in knin

Feel free to add usefull information about Knin in the comments. - Thanks.

Historically Dubrovnik has always been very special, as the city was a republic it had a very interesting political system, the major / governor was elected for a period of only one month, this was done to avoid corruption and keep focus on working in the interest of the republic. – I am sure a few citizens around the world could benefit from a similar system in their country.

See more pictures from Dubrovnik here: Dubrovnik Pictures

Before the Balkan war Dubrovnik was the absolute top destination in Croatia, the war, where large parts of the old town was damaged, was of course a major set back for the city, but meanwhile the city has regained its position as one of the major tourist spots in Croatia. The old town of Dubrovnik has been completely rebuild, only visible evidence left from the Balkan war is the many new red roof tops in the old town.

When we go to Dubrovnik we normally take the coastal road from Split, which takes about 4 to 4.5 hours by car, the trips offers a magnificent view on the coast and the Dalmatian islands. If you follow the coastal road you will have to pass through Bosnia and Herzegovina about 60 km north of Dubrovnik, so please remember the following.

• Passport
• Not to bring any items, which are applicable to custom?
• It is wise not to speed in Bosnia, as you most likely will meet the police with a “laser pistol” checking your speed.

Alternative to going by car (or bus) is taking the local ferry line, which goes from Split, via Hvar and Korcula to Dubrovnik; we tried this once and can absolutely recommend it, although the trip takes around 9 hours.

Here is a fee tips which might be useful for a trip to Dubrovnik:

1. Parking

• Parking in Dubrovnik is relative expensive (1.5-2 Euro/hour) there are 3 parking spaces close to the wall, but before you decide to park on one of those you might read below where to find the no charge parking space, just 500 meters from Pile Gate.

This is how you find the no charge parking space:

• Follow the signs direction centre and later direction Hotel Hilton, when you pas Hilton on your right hand side, continue for about 150 meters, on your left hand you will see some green containers, here you have to turn left, follow the small road up hill and you are there (The best time to find a free space is early morning and late in the afternoon).

2. What to see or do while you are in Dubrovnik?

• The e wall which is the absolute highlight.
• The many churches inside the wall and the Cathedral.
• Visit the city part Gruz where you find the green market and lots of small streets with the most beautiful private gardens in Dubrovnik, (In this part of town you also find the largest supermarket – Konzum).
• Take a daytrip to National Park Mljet.
• Drive to Mline and Cavtat which is south of Dubrovnik.
• Rafting trip in Montenegro.

3. Prices and other useful stuff

• Dubrovnik is much more expensive then e.g. Split, but still 20-30% cheaper then e.g. Copenhagen
• The city beaches can be quite crowded, so get there early or go to the city part Babin Kuk instead.
• In main season June – September, you should book accommodation before you arrive, otherwise you risk ending up far away from the city centre.
• Ask your land lord for a pick up in the Airport, as it is quite expensive with a taxi.

Hope these few tips will be helpful on your trip, and I of course would be delighted of any feedback, which could be helpful for other travellers.

Here you can see a list of other interesting thinks we right about: Croatia Travel stories

And here you can see our 3000 pictures from Places we visited in Croatia: Pictures Croatia

The staff at the observatory was very friendly and helpful with information, as we arrived before it got dark; we had a guided tour in the building before we went to the roof and looked at Jupiter, Venus and the moon through the big telescope, especially the look at the moon was very interesting, as the detail level which you get through the telescope is quite impressive.

Information about the Star village:

• To find the observatory you have to take the road from Split direction Omis (South), just a few km south of Split you turn left and go direction Žrnovnica, from Žrnovnica you have to go direction Gornje Sitno, as there is no signs you might have to ask, follow the road for about 6-8 km, until you see the sign saying Zvjezdano selo Mosor (which is the place you are heading for), about 2.5 km before you reach your final destination you will make a right turn on the main road, and follow a gravel road which will take you to the star village 700 meter above see level.

• Observatory is open to public Friday and Saturday evening – you don’t have to announce your arrival

• Group and School classes can sleep at the observatory, where they have 20 beds. And give course in Astronomy

• The Observatory is mainly financed by the 10 kuna entrance fees and the fees from school classes staying overnight, so if you can afford it, I am sure they would appreciate a few kuna extra.

• Official webpage Zvjezdan Selo

Our visit to Vis was not only for pleasure, my friend Shane, from Lifejacketadventures, had convinced me to help him bringing his kayaks, from Biševo back to Komiža, where he normally stores them when he is not on a trip – so I actually had to work!!

So Tuesday morning at 7.30 we met in Komiža with Shane, his family, and a Swedish girl - Johanna, who also was going to help with the kayaks. From here we took a fishing boat (taxi boat – 25 kuna) which was loaded with goods, tourist, the skipper and his bodies. The sailing time to the first drop of point at the east site of Biševo was around 40 minutes, as we had to go to a bay on the west site of the island we got an extra 20 minutes sailing trip.

Well arrived at the Island, we went to visit some friend of Shane’s, Lile and Davor who has a small house 50 meters from the beach, Lily and Davor are some very interesting people, they are actually from Zagreb, but spend 6 month’s a every year on the Island, where they among other rent out small cottages and have a environmental project running called “Mali Zeleni I Biševo” (the little green at Biševo) you can read about their project here http://www.bisevo.org

The morning we spend with swimming in the nice bay, where Lili and Davor last year removed around 20 tons of garbage!! At noon we went to next bay Porat to have lunch, as you can see on the picture here, we also had a nice place to swim.

As 3 PM it was time for the hard job, Shane, Johanna and I prepared our selves for the kayak trip back to Komiža, I must say I was bit nervous to back in a kayak again, as the last time was (and also first time) was at Vogalonga 2008, but as we first started paddling I forgot about that.

The first stop on our Kayak trip was Modra Špilja(The blue cave) as you can see the cave does not look like much from the outside, and when you get in there in a 6 meter long kayak without a flashlight it is a bit scary, but very beautiful.

After the blue cava we started our crossing direction Komiža, the weather was very nice so we had no problem with the waves. At about7 PM we reached Komiža I was very tired, but glad that I took the trip, as it is not everyday you get the chance to sit in kayak 20 NM from the mainland.

A few thinks about Biševo

• The Main attraction – Modra Špilja (The blue cave) – can be visit by organized trips (Price 100-140 Kuna) or you can take fisher boat as we did.
• Biševo has some very nice Sand beaches – the fisher boat from Komiža would e.g. take you to Porat in the morning and return in the afternoon around 4 PM.
• Only 7 people live the whole year on Biševo.
• Rainwater is the main water supply on the Island
• The wine from the Island should be great.

A little bit about the Islands:

Vis the fishermen’s Island is one of the few place on the Adriatic coast where the slogan; of the Croatia tourist board “Mediterranean as it once was” fully comply.

Since WWII, where the island was liberated by Tito’s partisans army and until 1995, the Island was home to a large Army base, as you can see on the photos below, parts of the large scale tunnel system from that time, is still relative intact.

After the reopening of the island, for visitors, the island has year for year been attracting more and more guests, but kept on a level which are not destroying the amazing nature on the island.

The Island has a long Maritime tradition, and fishing was until recently the main industry on the Island, both in the main town Vis and in Komiža on the south west side of the island you still can find several small fisherman’s boats, although meanwhile the sailing boats and yachts who arrive in the afternoon for and overnight stay on the Island, by far has outnumbers them.

Well now back to our trip: well arrived at our accommodation; after 2^1/2 hour on the ferry, we went for a walk at the promenade and had a look at the menu cards on the restaurant along the promenade, eventually we decided to eat at Dionis, which turned out to be good choice.

The next following days we spend enjoying some of the marvelous beaches, and took a round trip on the island which, where we among other visited the Pick of the island Hum, which is still restricted military area.

On Tuesday we went to the island of Biševo, which you can read about here: Kayak from Biševo.

Wednesday we had planned to take a whole day trip with a boat from Komiža, price 220 kn p.p. (kids half price). The boat would first take us to Modra Špilja(The blue cave) on Biševo and then around Vis island, with stops in several bays and a visit to the Zelena Špilja (The green cave) on island Ravnik, the afternoon would be spend with swimming at Stončica beach before returning to Komiža. Unfortunately we all woke up sick from a virus Wednesday morning; so we had to cancel the trip and spend the day recovering.

On Thursday we took a walk a long the Promenade all the way from the ferry harbor to the eastern part of Vis town which is a 25 minutes walk along the water, on the way we visited the Archeological museum Issa, which is situated in the Baterija build by the Austrian / Hungarian empire. The Afternoon we spend at the beach in Milna which together with Stončica beach and Porat Beach on Biševo, was the third excellent beach we tried in a week.

Pictures Beaches in Croatia

Friday morning I had very special experience, our house neighbor; a 70 year old man, took me for an exclusive guided tour in the military tunnels north of Vis town, which was extremely interesting. At noon we left the island with the ferry, and headed back to Split after a really relaxing holiday.

What to see/do on Vis

• Archeological museum in Vis town 
• Tito’s military tunnels and the English fortress
• The peak of the island by Hum which offer magnificent panorama view on Komiža
• Take a round trip on the island, visit wineries and some of the numerous bays, here you for sure can find places where which are not to crowded.
• Rent a bike, in Vis there is at least 5 agencies offering all kind of bikes for adults and kids, the round trip of the Island Is only 28 km, so even though there is some very steep climbs, it is doable.
• Remember to bring fins, diving goggles and snorkel, I guarantee you will like what you see when you put your head under the water.
• And much more ………….

Eating out:

Vis as being the fishermen’s island is one of the top places for fish dishes in Croatia. Both in Vis and especially in Komiža there are some excellent fish restaurant, on the middle of the island, there is several restaurant offering Peka (traditional Croatian dish), with free selection of meet (Octopus, fish, lam, veal), as Peka takes 60-70 minutes to prepare you should order it before arrival. A very nice think is that some of this restaurant offers to pick you up and bring you back after the meal.

Other useful information for a Viš trip:

• Car ferry to island 3 times daily during main season, visit jadrolinijas home page to see schedule also check schedule for Catamaran ferry to Vis.
• If you can avoid bringing car do that, parking in limited and you can rent a car 100 meter from the ferry arrival for around 300 kuna a day.
• Bus to Komiža leaves Vis city just next to where the ferry arrives (In schedule with ferry arrivals).
• Everything is a bit more expensive on Vis maybe 10-20% higher compared to Split, so don’t plan to buy your new clothes collection here, when you any way will end in Split on the way back.
• Try the local wines (Mainly Plavac); they are really good and much cheaper then what you find in the supermarket.
• Vis is for relaxing not for partying so don’t expect to much going on during the night (During July /August nightlife is on beach in Komiža)

Hope this gives you appetime to visit the Island of Vis once in the future

Here you can see all our nice pictures from the Island Vis

So at 10 PM we left with the busses from Spilt, In Trogir we picked some more party guest, the atmosphere on the bus was great, especially after people got a few glasses of the homemade punch which we where selling at the bus.

Well Arrived at Aurora, the most Horrible news arrived, Morales was cancelled (His plain did not arrive from Italy), which of course was a big disappointment, but looking at the crowd outside of Aurora, it was clear that this night would bring a mega party anyway, so we stayed partying till 6 AM.

On Friday we then took the hard core party guest, to the second Morales night, and this time he was there! so everybody hat great party until 07:00 in the morning where we headed back to Spilt.

You can see all our pictures from the event(s) on Facebook – Splitpartybus

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In and around the city Omiš there is quite a few companies arranging rafting, canyoning and wild water canoe on the river Cetina, this Saturday we had booked attour with our new cooperation partner, so I of course was existed to see if the where better in organising, then the other companies I tried till now.

TIP: The meeting point for rafting can easily be found, after crossing the bride in Omiš (arriving from Split) turn left and follow road 5 km direction Radmanova Mlinice (Radman Mills), 800 meter after passing Radmanova you find the meeting point Isletište Luka on your right hand side.

At 14:00 everybody was assemble at the meeting point, in our case 37 people from Latvia and a few people from other nations, from the meeting point we where transferred by bus to the starting point 9.5 km up river, here we got the our equipment, lifejacket, helmet and paddle and of course the obligatory safety instructions.

At 15:10 everybody was in the boats and we started our trip, the rafting tour on Cetina is divided in to 3 parts, where the first and the third part are the relative quite parts, and the second is part with the most wild water, at the beginning our of guide gave us a thoroughly instruction in how to manoeuvre the raft in different situations.

After we learn to manoeuvre the raft and follow the commands given by our guide, we started the real rafting as you can see on the pictures here.

INFO: At the middle of the trip there is a passage with a waterfall, which for safety reasons required that you leave the boat and follow path for 200 meter, to a pick point below the waterfall. Our new cooperation partner, although offers and alternative for those who likes a bit more excitement, they have permission to take guest to a small cave which leads to the pick up point.

My friends and I of course took the “extreme” route through the cave, to enter the cave we although had to cross a small lake with only 10 degrees warm water, S… it was cold, but we all manage to get to the other side and through the cave.

When everybody was back in the rafts we continued further down river, here we had entertainment from a Latvian lady who manage not to do like the guides specifically told us to, with the result, that she of course fall in the water, we also so raft from other organisor flipping over, luckily in both case nobody was injured.

At 17:30 we stopped to swim and jump from a big rock, after finish swimming we continued to the end point Isletište Luka where we arrived at 18:30

My friends who had there first rafting tour on this Saturday was totally excited about it, they even ask me if I wanted to go again Sunday, personally I think we had a great trip, not only because of the rafting but also because beautiful nature you get to see, our new cooperation partner was by far the most professional I tried until now, so I think we have picked the right one (-:

Here is some general information’s about rafting:

• Rafting on Cetina is possible from April to October
• Water temperature in the river seldom gets higher then 18 degrees Celsius
• Person from 8 years to 60+ can participate in the rafting
• Rafting on Cetina is category 2, which is average for the difficulty. (Calm water is 0).
• Remember extra clothes as you will get wet
• Wallet, mobile, camera etc, can be given to the guide who will store it in dry box on the raft.

Price and booking

• Price for rafting through organiser with all licences, new equipment and well educated instructors / guides is 32 Euro. Pick up in Split can be arranged but is charged extra.
• The following is included in the price, insurance, transfer to meeting point, fresh fruit, snack and water.
• You can book rafting with our cooperation partner by sending a mail to info@soltium.hr specifying, date of rafting, time and number of participants.

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The Stari Grad Plain on the Adriatic island of Hvar is a cultural landscape that has remained practically intact since it was first colonized by Ionian Greeks from Paros in the 4th century BC. For 2400 years this area has been used for Wine and Olive growing, The landscape features ancient stone walls and trims, or small stone shelters, and bears testimony to the ancient geometrical system of land division used by the ancient Greeks.

With the adding of Stari Grad Plain, Croatia now holds 7 UNESCO sites:

6 of the Croatian UNESCO site is on the list for world Cultural herritage

• The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik

• Historic city of Trogir

• Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basilica in the Historic Centre of Porec: 

• Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian

• Old City of Dubrovnik

• Stari Grad Plain

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The last site is on UNESCO list for world Natural herritage

• The Plitvice Lakes National Park

In addision to these 7 sites, Croatia has several sites on the Tentative list

• Zadar - Episcopal complex (2005)
• Historical-town planning ensemble of Ston with Mali Ston, connecting walls, the Mali Ston Bay nature reserve, Stonsko Polje and the salt pans (2005)
• Historical-Town Planning Ensemble Tvrda (Fort) in Osijek (2005)
• Varazdin - Historic Nucleus and Old Town (the Castle) (2005)
• Burg - Castle of Veliki Tabor (2005)
• Lonjsko Polje Nature Park (2005)
• Velebit Mountain (2005)
• Frontiers of the Roman Empire Croatian Limes (2005)
• Lubenice (2005)
• Primošten Vineyards (2007)
• Hermitage Blaca (2007)
• City of Motovun (2007)
• The historic town of Korčula (2007)
• Kornati National Park and Telašćica Nature Park (2007)

Here you find all our favorit links from Croatian - Links about Croatia

Traveling to Croatia

www.solitum.hr