A week in Croatia: Split, Plitvice & Zagreb

Drive from Srebreno to Split

We left Srebreno for Split after breakfast. As soon as we started, I realised that I would need petrol before starting 3 hour drive on wrong side of the road (yes Croatia like most of Europe has cars with left hand drive). Last I drove a LHD car was almost 10 years ago and I was a bit unsure of how I will deal with it over a long drive. While it was a comedy of errors to get to the nearest fuel station due to double white lines in most places, I managed to refuel before embarking on the journey. 

Thankfully one no longer needs to cross the border when driving from Dubrovnik to Split. The Pelješac Bridge, which opened in July 2022, connects mainland Croatia to the Pelješac Peninsula, providing a route that bypasses Bosnia and Herzegovina. Earlier it meant crossing a border where Schengen visa is not accepted and from what I heard BiH insists on IDP (International Driving Permit) as well. 

Beautiful views all along the route

It was a lovely drive overall with amazing views. Initially I was sticking to speed limit of the highways (130 kmph) but since almost every car was overtaking me and roads were wide & everyone was following lane discipline, soon I was also driving at 160-170 kmph. My co passenger wasn't very happy about it though :). We also crossed many long tunnels on the way - one was 5 km long!!! (they mention the length as one is entering the tunnel).

The 240 km drive to Split took us a little over 3 hours and I was glad that we chose to drive instead of taking a bus - i mean where would you get the kind of roads where you can drive at 170 kmph and not feel a thing! 

Split

We had chosen a hotel with its own basement parking as old town of almost all European cities are crowded and getting a parking there is a nightmare. Our plan was to walk or uber from hotel to old town and beachfront.

We chose AC Hotel - a new modern construction with spacious rooms, a gym on a high floor with lovely ocean views and sauna & steam. After recovering from driving "wrong" side of the road and after sun had calmed down a bit, we stepped out and walked to old town which was barely 2 km from our hotel. My favourite past time in Europe is walking and Split was no exception :)

Split waterfront at night

After spending some time admiring the buildings like Diocletian's Palace, we decided to make way to waterfront. This is when the city truly came alive. Lined by restaurants, Split waterfront is the hub of all tourist activity. We spent hours walking and enjoying the harbour and its amazing views. As the night approached, the buildings lighted up the entire waterfront beautifully. Some large cruise ships were also docked - all lighted up and made up for lovely light sources middle of the water.

Around 11 pm, fully spent, we decided to uber back to the hotel which was another interesting experience as GPS wasn't working well in old town and it took a few phone calls before we could be in the same location as our uber.

Split at night

Due to paucity of time, we had planned only one night in Split, so we left for Plitvice National Park next day after breakfast. And this time it was very easy to fuel up at the station right across the road from the hotel :) 

It was to be 2.5 hour drive but took me almost 3.5 hours as a lot of it was not on highways or roads with medians so I had to drive a bit slower and be more alert. Overtaking was difficult and at one place there was construction going on the two-lane road and it cost us 15 min to get through that stretch alone. Last stretch was on side roads as we were staying in a bed & breakfast instead of a hotel inside the park. None of the hotels had great reviews and this B&B came recommended by a friend - and we were not disappointed. But even with narrower roads and slightly longer distance (255 km) than the day before, I wasn't that tired.

Plitvice is the main reason we chose to drive instead of relying on tour operators. The tour buses from Split or Zagreb all land at the same time (11-12 pm) and park becomes very crowded. In order to truly enjoy its immense natural beauty, it is imperative that one enters the park as soon as it opens at 7 am. Which is why we drove to the park vicinity the evening before and stayed overnight. 

We chose to drive to a nearby burger joint for our dinner and enjoyed the same along with some local beers before retiring to our en-suite room with a bottle of rose.

Plitvice National Park

As was the plan, we left the B&B at 6:30 am - the park was just 10 min away but I knew that parking wouldn't be very close to the entrance given the number of visitors that enter the park daily. After parking in the huge lot, and crossing a bridge, we reached the main entrance - there were hardly 30-40 folks at the gate and we were inside the park in minutes. I was glad that I had carried a sweater, as it was a bit nippy in the morning.

View as soon one enters the park

Tourists can choose from different trails based on time on hand and their fitness levels. If one wants to see only lower lakes, Entrance 1 is best and for upper lakes Entrance 2 is better. Since we were covering both sets of lakes (Trail C) we started at Entrance 1 itself and made our way all the way to last upper lake. The trail length was 8 km and it took us 4 hours and included a short scenic boat ride. At the end of the trail, we chose to take a bus back to Entrance 1 instead of walking all the way back. 

Photos cannot do justice to beautiful place but here are some all the same:

As soon as we reached the entrance 1, we saw hordes of tourists descending from tour buses. The viewpoints where we were the sole watchers, had long queues of 100+ folks. Also most tour buses plan so little time for the park that doing both upper and lower lakes is not an option. We exited the park around 11:30 am and decided to drive to Zagreb right away. 

Zagreb

Zagreb is just 2 hours from Plitvice and it was an easy drive except for the last few kilometers when we entered the capital city. The one-ways were super confusing and the hotel had run out of parking, so we dropped our bags at the hotel and went to return our car to the rental agency's Zagreb office. I had chosen this rental agency so that I could pick up car at one place and drop at another without paying anything extra. It's a local rental agency run by really nice people. The guy at Zagreb drop point was so happy to see us arrive 3 hours before appointed time that he chose to drop us back to our hotel as no uber was willing for such a short distance. 

At Zagreb also we had chosen a Sheraton and they upgraded us to a suite. The hotel is furnished old style with carpeted floors and poster beds but we really liked the old school charm. We were here two nights, so first evening we took it easy as it had been a long day and solid hike in the morning. We just walked to the main square, grabbed a bite and a drink and just watched the world go by. 

Next day was spent on local museums, churches and some landmarks. Last morning we were to fly out to Amsterdam in afternoon, so we spent the morning at a park and botanical gardens. 

As luck would have it, the moment we were to board, pilot came out and announced that craft was struck by lightning on way to Zagreb, so our flight stood cancelled. We were provided hotel for the night in Zagreb by the airline though it wasn't as good as the one we had in Amsterdam. Fortunately, we were booked on next day's first flight out to Amsterdam and our Amsterdam hotel didn't cancel our booking as no show as we had informed them of the arrival delays. We reached the hotel around noon and we were able to make our Van Gogh Museum reservations (barely). 

Thus ended a memorable week in one of the most beautiful countries I have visited. I hope to visit it again soon!