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Plitvice Lakes planning

Posted by on

We will be in Croatia in early October and I am looking for some information about Plitvice. Here are my questions:

1) How crowded is the park in early October (we would go to Plitvice either Oct. 10 or 12)?

2) We would only spend one afternoon at Plitvice and may not arrive until about noon. Would we have time to see both the Upper Lakes and Lower Lakes?

3) If we could not see both Upper and Lower Lakes, which is better to see in an afternoon?
4) If we are not sure of arrival time, will there be an issue with buying tickets after we arrive, given the dates and times above?

Thank you so much for any advice you might offer.

Posted by
662 posts

Since Plitvice is kind of isolated, people who are staying there the night before
can go in first thing in the morning and have the benefit of relative lack of crowds.
So if you arrive midday, it's far more likely to be busy.

In addition, Croatians visit the park just like other tourists do, and more of them go
on the weekends. So showing up Saturday midday is probably as crowded a
time as you can get in October. And I think there is a chance tickets would be
sold out on a Saturday. My vote would be for Thursday the 10th.

But, you can definitely see both Upper and Lower Lakes in one (slightly long)
afternoon. Use the boat between P2 and P3. And make sure you know when
the last shuttle is, as GeoffB notes, if you are going to end up at a different
entrance than where you parked. Earlier this year, the rule was you could only
ride the boat once.

As a sidebar, it's 2 hours to Zagreb and 3 to Split, and if you end up staying to
closing time, will you be able to get to where you want to go afterwards?

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