Zagreb to split with stop at Plitvice

It all depends on you -
Is it easier to get to the rent a car office, check out the car, drive the car, park, drive again, then find the drop off point in Split. Or
Hop on a bus, relax, see part of the park, get back on the bus, relax, get dropped off.

Also consider - are you comfortable driving in a Foreign country, what is the difference in price (don’t forget to add parking fees), if that is a factor, how early does the bus leave vs how early does the rental agency open, what time does the bus drop you off vs what time would you get there driving.

These are questions I always ask myself when considering these options.

Plitvice is a very, very disappointing experience as a day trip. It gets totally blasted during day tripping hours, and if anything it will be worse on September 28, because that's a Saturday; Croatians like to go to the park, too. You will be packed onto over-water walkways (nearly all without railings), stumbling over the feet of the folks in front of you. It will not be the back-to-nature sort of experience you see in promotional photos. If you Google crowds Plitvice, you'll probably get some photos that begin to show you what you'll be facing.

The way to see Plitvice is to spend one night in or near the park, see part of the park late in the day after you arrive and the rest of it early the next morning before the hordes arrive. To give you an idea, I arrived about 10 AM in 2015 and spent an hour in the ticket line. It goes without saying there more people going to Plitvice in 2024 than there were in 2015. This was nothing like the park as it was in the 1990s.

I'd urge you to choose a different mid-day stop. I've never had a rental car in Croatia, so I'm not knowledgeable about the inland possibilities for you. I enjoyed Zadar's historic center.

Thank you both for your comments. Acraven, does it change anything if I correct myself and say that it would be Friday rather than Saturday?

Not enough to make the visit worthwhile, I would say. I went on a Friday nine years ago, and I wouldn't wish my experience on anyone. I imagine Saturday would have been worse (the people in line around me mostly seemed to be Croatians), but the mind boggles at what "worse" would look like. Crowding has gotten so severe that there's now a warning on the park website that if you don't buy a ticket ahead of time, you aren't guaranteed to get in. That change was made between the time of my trip and the beginning of the pandemic. I haven't read online about anyone being refused entry, but they have the right to do it.

It's a really lovely national park. I certainly don't blame people for wanting to go, but there are too many people with the same idea, many of them trying to visit from Zagreb or Split or perhaps some cruise port, so they aren't spread out evenly through the day.

There is a way (from reports by others here) to have a really enjoyable visit to Plitvice. It just means a night spent near the park.

While I totally agree with acraven that a day trip will be crowded, if 1) that is all the time you have and 2) you dont see yourself getting back there ever

Then I will say that something is still better than nothing.

Two thoughts:

• if you are comfortable driving at night, then the later you start at and leave Plitvice, you will escape some of the day crowds.

• consider going to Krka Park instead. It too is on the way to Split.

To do the park later in the day, you prob need to rent a car, which does raise the issue of not being able to return until the next day.

Thank you again! Krka is another option. Less crowded? All of your descriptions of the Plitvice definitely make us reconsider. We are more accustomed to hiking dirt trails meandering through nature. I am now envisioning hoards of people with iPads blocking the way to take selfies!
Would love to hear your further thoughts on Krka

I haven't been to Krka, but a few posters here have, and I don't recall any negative opinions. Nor have I read complaints about crowds at Krka. I am absolutely confident will be much, much less of a mob scene than Plitvice.

This link will take you to threads posted here in the last 2 years that mentioned Krka: https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=krka&utf8=%E2%9C%93

And here's what I got when I Googled "photos Plitvice crowds": pictures of crowds at Plitvice

It would be a mistake to assume the photos are from this year. They could go back years (my experience was at least as bad as any of those pictures, and it was 9 years ago); today's conditions could well be worse.

I was just in Krka last September and it wasn’t crowded at all. It’s a lovely way to spend a morning or afternoon.
Acraven, the last time I visited Plitvice was 1978, they didn’t even charge an entrance fee then.

Yeah, I went twice before 2015--I think once in the early or mid-1980s and once in the early 1990s--so it was obvious how much the experience had degraded. It's only in hindsight that we recognize the Good Old Days.

All things being equal, if you can drive I would maybe recommend driving. My bus trips were kind of rough affairs in hindsight. I mean, they were cheap and got me there, but were not super comfortable. The drive itself was straightforward and through some lovely countryside. The area around Plitvice in particular seems like a popular place for camping and outdoor stuff, and we passed more than one place I would have loved to hop out and snap some photos of. With a car, you could explore a little, stop for a leisurely lunch somewhere… just take a little time and increase the comfort/enjoyment factor.

Stopping at Krka versus Plitvice seems like the right choice too.