We will be in the Plitvice area in September. We have read that it’s best to go in in the afternoon and then finish the next morning to avoid the most crowded times. Do we need to buy a ticket for each day to do this? What time in the afternoon would you recommend entering? We can be there by early afternoon with no problem but can’t check in until our guest house until 3 PM. Should we go to Plitvice first and then check in later?
Posted by
Massachusetts, USA
1613 posts
We visited Croatia in September 2019. This was our procedure to avoid the worse crowds at Plitvice:
I purchased 2-day tickets online several months in advance. Our entry time was 4:00PM. You can pick up your tickets 30 minutes prior. We hiked the Upper Lakes the first day. The hike took us about 2 hours; we are slow walkers and stopped a lot to take photos. The next morning we hiked the Lower Lakes. We were on the trail by 9:00AM. According to my notes, we drove out of the parking lot by 12:30pm, and there were about 20 tour buses. So we did beat the crowds by doing this.
I have read that if you stay in a hotel inside the park you don't have to buy 2 tickets to visit 2 days. I believe you get your ticket stamped by the hotel. However, when I was planning our trip, I read in several places that the hotels inside the park aren't very nice; they are outdated; and the food is awful. So we stayed just outside the park at Plitvice Miric Inn, and we loved our stay here. Their breakfast buffet is one of the best we've had anywhere. At the time, for an additional cost, they were serving dinner. It was one of the best meals of our trip. However, I think Plitvice Miric Inn has now stopped offering dinner. You might want to check them out.
https://www.plitvice-croatia.com/
Large tour groups stay at the hotels inside the park.
Posted by
TX, USA
4128 posts
I hope someone who has been in the last year or so will chime in. I was there in September, 2021, and things hadn’t picked up after Covid yet, so my experience isn’t as relevant. But for what it’s worth, I spent the previous night in an apartment about a 10 minute drive from Entrance 1, arrived about 8:30 in the morning, did the C path, and left the parking lot at 3:00 for Split.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8399 posts
The hotel we stayed at in the park was just fine. A little bit of a 70’s time warp on decor but food was good and being on that first shuttle to the upper entrance made a world of difference in the morning.