Hello. I posted this days ago. Surely someone, somewhere, must know something. If no one has an answer perhaps a staff member can help us? In several places, including I think Rick Steve's guidebooks, I've seen info where busses going from Plitvice Lakes to Zagreb won't stop if they're full, or won't bother even going to Plitvice Lakes. I've tried contacting Split, Zagreb, Plitvice Lakes, Croatian tourist boards & the bus companies. Basic reply is "oh well, if the busses don't want to stop, they won't." Please can someone help? We must get the "supposedly" scheduled bus at either 4:45PM or 5:00PM from PlitviceLakes to Zagreb on Tue., June 19 2012 in order to catch night train to Venice (which must be paid for & reserved in advance!) Does ANYONE know of a transfer service in Plitvice Lakes area that can take passengers to Zagreb or AT LEAST to a nearby TRAIN STATION going to Zagreb? Transfer services w/driver is available from Zagreb, but they add $100 to the cost because they have to send the driver FROM Zagreb TO Plitvice. Our family will be in Eur 30 days, w/expensive rail passes and we really don't want to pay such an additional large amount of money when the country has busses! Also, would anyone be interested in signing a petition to send to Croatian bus company "www.akz.hr" to get them to offer pre-paid, reserved seats to passengers, so that both the BUS COMPANY and the PASSENGER can know ahead of time if a bus is sold out, and not just be left at the side of the road? PLEASE HELP!!!
We rented a car for our one night at Plitvice Lakes to avoid the potential bus problem. Cost was pretty reasonable and gave peace of mind.
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I agree with Pauline. Rent a car. There are agencies that will pick you up at the train station. Also a lot can happen between now and June 2012. The bus company and schedule might be completely different.
I think your best bet is to rent a car within Croatia. Having been there to those places with the same uncertainty as you, I wish I had a rental car. The only way we were able to get things figured out is that we met another person in the same boat as us and 3 people were better than 1 or 2. You would think that with such a large tourist destination in the area that they would make it simpler, but I guess not. A lot of people to the area come in tour groups during the day so bus service is so infrequent. It is worth the trip though, Plitvice was a beautiful, magical place. I'll def sign any petition!