National Park Plitvice Lakes

National Park Plitvice Lakes | Visitors guide

What is useful to know if you want to visit the National Park Plitvice Lakes?

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.

Tags: Guide, National Park, Places to visit, Plitvice Jezera, Plitvice lakes, UNESCO, waterfall

32 Comments »

Elisa_Croatia says:

30. August 2010 at 22:00

Hey Morten,
I appreciate your blog now more than ever because I’m having friends visiting from the states next month and I’m planning a few trips for them since they are arriving in Zagreb and spending ten days in croatia.

any tips on renting a car: if they rent in zagreb can they return it in pula after 7 or 8 days?Since they are departing from Pula and catching a ferry to Venice?

they are also going to plitvice lakes.
and Dubrovnik. (I;m wondering if I should tag along with them so we can visit Korcula) maybe.

thanks Morten,

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  31. August 2010 at 10:04
  
  Hi Elisa,
  
  I am sure you can rent a car in ZG and return it in Pula, ask by a few companies like, uni-rent, sixt, national etc.
  
  Well if i had option to go Korcula i would for sure not say no if you do so, and pass by Lumbarda i would appreciate if you could bring me 10 liters of the white wine from Winery Zure, directions you can find in my lumbarda story . They have a great creamy white wine which is 30kuna/liter (Not in bottles) but tapped directly from the barrel.
  
  Brgds, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
Kumar says:

28. May 2011 at 13:48

Hi,

What would be the best way to get to Split or Dubrovnik from Plitvice using bus/train?

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  29. May 2011 at 17:38
  
  @Kumar, i am not sure about where the train stops, but the is for sure option to go by bus, there is 3 or 4 daily departures to Split, travel time 6-7 hours, from Split count another 5 hours to get to Dubrovnik.
  
  Reply to this comment »
Aizad Khair says:

3. June 2011 at 12:50

Hi,

I’m looking to go from Zadar Airport to Plitvice Lake. Is there a direct bus? I tried finding for bus companies online and do the booking online, but my attempts have not been successful.

Also, is there a direct bus from Plitvice Lake to Dubrovnik?

Thank you so much for your help.

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  4. June 2011 at 06:56
  
  Aizad, there is for sure no direct bus from the airport, first you will have to take Airport bus to the centre of Zadar, from here you have busses in all direction, i am not sure if there is direction bus to Plitvice, bus i would guess so.
  
  Plitvice – Dubrovnik is a long trip in a bus, first you will have to go to Split, and then continue from there to Dubrovik.
  
  Brgds, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
Paulo - Brazil says:

25. July 2011 at 15:37

Hey, Morten,

Congratz for the blog, very interesting.

I plan to stay in Croatia for one week with my girlfriend in early-September. Our major goal is to visit the park: do you believe two days are enough for that (or just one day is fine)?

Also, do you recommend us to stay in a hotel closer to the park or to the major cities? We will probably rent a car, so besides the park and Zagreb, where else do you think it would be worthy to visit?

I appreciate your help,
Paulo

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  28. July 2011 at 20:58
  
  Hi Paulo,
  
  you can see the park in one day – if you spent 6-8 hours there you more or less can visit all parts of the park. If you choose to stay overnight by the park, i would recommend to go to San Korana, the place i mention in the text.
  
  Well if you have a rented car, you should for sure also visit the Adriatic coast, i am quite sure you would love both Istria and Dalmatia, so it is up to you to pick one of them, or event better, take a drive down the coastal road, stop over when you feel like, in september you can easily find apartments and hotel rooms.
  
  Best, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
Fetty says:

22. August 2011 at 23:37

Hi, Morten

My friends and i will be travelling to Croatia in this early Sept. We’ll be in Zagreb for only one night, and we’re planning to go to Plitvice lakes once we reach Zagreb – our flight is scheduled to be arrived at 9.55 am. From there, we will go to Zagreb bus station and take a bus to Plitvice lakes. I’ve checked the timetable from AKZ Zagreb
But, is the bus service that goes to Plitvice Jazera stops at plitvice lakes as well?

Cheers!

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  24. August 2011 at 20:30
  
  Hi Fetty
  
  Plitvice Jezera is the croatian name for Plitvice Lakes, so the bus should stop there.
  
  Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
Walter says:

23. September 2011 at 14:26

I planning a trip to Croatia in late November, and wonder how Plitvice Lakes will be during that time of year. Will it still be worth visiting? Or will the weather just be too harsh to walk around?

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  26. September 2011 at 11:12
  
  @Walter, Plitvice lakes is amazing all year around to my opinion, dress according to weather condtions and you will love the place
  
  Best, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
simone says:

17. October 2011 at 20:15

We will visit Zagreb on December. We are eager to visit Plitvice lakes, but we have only the 24th. As it is Christmas time, we are not sure wether the park will be open or not. In the website, it is writen that it is open all year round. Could you please confirm this information?
Could you please also suggests a way to get there? Can we go by our own, driving a rental car, even in the winter time? Would it be better to take a bus? We tried a daily tour, but as it is Christmas, it seems that there is no tour available.
We would like to go early and return to sleep in Zagred.
We will very much appreciate your help.
Regards,
Simone

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  20. October 2011 at 18:06
  
  Simone, park will be open also in December.
  
  You can get to Plitvice with bus from Zagreb, travel time is about 2-2.5 hours i would guess, but considering it is winter i might be better to rent a car with winter tires, in that case you are much more flexible.
  
  Best, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
  - simone says:
    
    23. November 2011 at 23:32
    
    Thank you very much. As it will be December 24th, I would like to know what would be the best place to rent a car. Is there a car rental near to the train station? We will be hosted on a hotel nearby.
    
    Reply to this comment »
    - Croatia Expert says:
      
      25. November 2011 at 12:32
      
      @ Simone, sorry i can´t answer that question
      
      Morten
      
      Reply to this comment »
      - simone says:
        
        25. November 2011 at 12:47
        
        Thank you anyway. Regards, Simone
Kieran Jaines says:

11. November 2011 at 14:55

Hi my name is Kieran

i am a pupil at cordeaux and i was just wondering why people like to visit plitivice lakes, i would also like to know how many people visit here

Thanks for your help in my Education

Kieran Jaines
Pupil in Cordeaux School
Lincolnshire
England

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  15. November 2011 at 12:26
  
  Hi Kieran
  
  No doubt most of people visit plitvice lakes because it is very beatiful and a unique nature experince. Every year more then a million people visit the nationalpark
  
  Regards, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
Mary Pecker says:

10. December 2011 at 03:17

I will be travelling on July 4th 2012 from Split to Zagreb via Plitvice National Park (hoping to stay 2 nights in Plitvice). I am trying to find out if it is possible to get a bus from Plitvice to Zagreb on July 6th as we fly out of Zagreb that evening. I have heard that the buses can be unreliable. Is there anyway of guaranteeing 2 seats on a bus that day as we don’t want to miss our flight that evening?
Would it be better to do a day trip from Zagreb to Plitvice? If so how expensive are they and are there any you would recommend?

Look forward to hearing from you

Mary

Reply to this comment »
Terry Lo says:

21. December 2011 at 02:43

I will be in Opatija with a group of 18 people in April 2012 with a tour which does not plan to visit Plitvice Lake. We would like to arrange for a bus tour to Plitvice Lake ourselves. I have emailed many tour operators and no one responded. Do you have any recommendations on how we can arrange this?

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  22. December 2011 at 11:49
  
  Hi Terry, that is often the problem, i dont think there is any easy solution for that, I my selves is corrently working on http://www.buscroatia.com to improve exaxtly that issue, but we are still not finished
  
  Regards, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
Mochi says:

7. February 2012 at 22:04

Hi, I am planning to drive from Dubrovnik to Plitvice lake in one day and having hard time finding detailed driving direction. There were a couple of directions online but both different. Can you please suggest the detailed route to take? I also would like to know the tolls(how much and where?)through the route. Thank you for your help!

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  14. February 2012 at 12:42
  
  Hi Mochi,
  
  for finding the route use google maps or similar service
  
  Here you can find the prices for road toll in Croatia
  
  Regards, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
Ben says:

8. March 2012 at 07:38

Hi,

We are planning to visit Plitvice Lake in late March from Zagreb. We will be taking buses from the early morning to and returning in the afternoon. Hopefully, you can answer couple of questions for us.

1. Do buses stop at both Entrance 1 and 2 for drop off and pick up? The reason I asked because on the park website it said only entrance 1 is opened as of now.

2. Going back to Zagreb on a weekday afternoon would there be a risk of not able to catch a bus due to crowds?

Thank you in advance

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  9. March 2012 at 09:58
  
  Hi Ben,
  
  if the park website says that only entrance one is open at this time of the year, then that must be the case. aks when you arrive there.
  
  Here in March i can hardly imagine there should be any problems with crowds on the bus, so i think you should not worry about that.
  
  Best,
  
  Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
RM says:

8. March 2012 at 21:29

Dear Croatia Expert,

We have read your blog with great interest.

May I ask for your kind advise for the following:

(i) My wife and I are visiting Plitvice lakes on SUNDAY, the 11th March (sorry, we are not giving you much time to respond). At this time of the year, which of the several tours would you recommend?

(ii) Is there a guided tour that I could take? We will reach the lakes by our own car, but are looking for a guided tour inside the Park.

Thanks, regards and a big God Bless,

RM

Reply to this comment »
- Croatia Expert says:
  
  9. March 2012 at 10:00
  
  Hi RM,
  
  Well i thin all of the tours are beatiful, it is more a question how much time you have availble.
  
  Guided tour? do to that fact that we now have low season, i am not 100% sure if there is a guided tour, i would call the park admistration or see if the can arrange something upon arrival.
  
  Enjoy Plitvice (I know you will)
  
  Regards
  
  Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »
- Angela says:
  
  20. March 2012 at 19:51
  
  Hello,
  
  I will visit Plitvice Lakes on April 1st (sunday) and I would like to know if you can recommend me an specific tr ail (There are several programs in the website of the park and I don’t know which one to take). Any other recommendation will be highly appreciated.
  
  Thanks!
  
  Angela
  
  Reply to this comment »
  - Morten Smalby says:
    
    23. March 2012 at 18:14
    
    Hi Angela
    
    all tours our nice and beatiful, so it depens on how much time you like to walk?
    
    If you are staying in the area, San Korana is very nice
    
    Best,
    
    Morten
    
    Reply to this comment »
Christine says:

31. March 2012 at 15:20

I am looking to travel to croatia from may 1-6 with some friends. We are planning to go to dubrovnik, split and the lakes. Since we can only stay at the park a few days what are the best places that we need to go to and what is the best way to get from place to place and where would you recommend staying within a tight budget?

Reply to this comment »
- Morten Smalby says:
  
  1. April 2012 at 13:50
  
  Hi Christine
  
  depend on how many you are, you could consider renting a car (By 4 persons it is not that expensive), alternativ you can also get around by bus.
  
  In the area of Plictice you have several small villages, normally you should be able to find apartments where you pay around 100 kn a person.
  
  Best, Morten
  
  Reply to this comment »