Bus from split to Zagreb, Croatia that stops at Lake Plitvice Lakes

You can definitely make a one-day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park from Zagreb. The public buses take you very near the entrance to the park--perhaps even right inside the park. However, if you attempt this during the busy season, you will not have a very good visit. The park gets slammed by visitors during day-tripping hours. It severely affects the quality of the experience. It is far, far better to squeeze out enough time to spend the night before your park visit in or near the park. Plan on entering the park when it first opens the next morning.

The two (?) hotels in the park are probably overpriced. There are some smaller places outside the park. I don't know whether any are within walking distance or exactly where they are located vis-à-vis the bus route. Perhaps some of them provide transportation to the park. I'd start by checking booking.com.

There are also public buses from Split to Plitvice. I believe that's a longer trip and the buses are less frequent. I'm not sure it would work well as a day-trip. In any case, you'd have the same problem as with day-trips from Zagreb--severe crowding.

I suspect that during high season it would be possible to use two separate buses to travel between Zagreb and Split (or vice versa) with a long layover in the middle of the day so you could visit the park. However, that puts you in the park in the middle of the day when it is least pleasant.

Thanks for the help. I would be going around Jun 9-10,2019. I may just skip it since I am going to Ljublijana and Lake Bled and am just getting done with a 15 day tour from Budapest through Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia ending in split and it seems like too much. I can now take the train from Split to Zagreb, spend a couple days in Zagreb and then move on to Ljubljana and Lake Bled. At Lake Bled, they have the Vintgar Gorge.

If your trip ends in Split, you could easily take a bus to PL, stay the evening, tour the park starting the next morning, and take a bus to Zagreb. PL is right between the two.

Welcome to reality. It hits practically every traveler at some point during the planning process. This year I dropped one country and about half of another after my trip had started! You'll still have a great trip.