Posted by Elliott Neep on September 20, 2007 at 5:12 AM
Has anybody been to Plitvice Lakes in Croatia? I watched a documentary on the national park sometime ago and am thinking about visiting this autumn. Would appreciate any tips, names of guides, etc.
Posted by Alan Bryant on September 20, 2007 at 5:45 AM
Posted by Elliott Neep on September 20, 2007 at 5:55 AM
Thanks for that, Alan. However, no amount of glossy travel sites and government literature can compare with somebody that has actually been there for photography. I am really looking for a guide or hotspots. For info - this is better:
Posted by Alan Bryant on September 20, 2007 at 6:05 AM
oops sorry
Posted by Andy Astbury on September 20, 2007 at 7:15 AM
I saw that doc too Elliott - it certainly is a breath-taking and most photogenic place
Posted by stuart scott on September 20, 2007 at 9:42 AM
I wish I could help you Elliott as its a place I've wanted to visit for years... since seeing the program in fact.
You can buy the DVD if you do a search for Nature: Land Of the Falling Lakes on amazon etc.
I'd be very interested how you get on afterwards. Have a good trip!
stu
Posted by Mike Read on September 26, 2007 at 4:57 AM
We were there a week or so ago. Stayed three nights in the Hotel Jerezo within the park.
Not quite sure what kind of info you are after.
The hotel was good, the food only OK. We ate a couple of times at the national restaurant up the road a few kms and it was very good.
The main area is quite compact and there is a bus and boat shuttle service to get you around not sure if this runs all year, though it is also possible to walk pretty much everywhere. We went round on Friday and Saturday both quite busy and you encounter lots of people/coach groups walking round as a lot of the paths are duckboards.
Croatia's busy period (August) was past but I'm not sure if Plitvice stays busy as the trees were starting to turn colour.
I think the park opens at 8am, we never quite made it that early! and I didn't see much way of them stopping you entering ealier. Our hotel (connected to the national park) stamped our Friday entry ticket on the Saturday making it valid for the Saturday so we would have had a valid ticket it we'd snuck in.
As we were mainly photographing in bright sunlight and it was busy, nice/proper shots of the waterfalls were difficult (for me!), I hadn't taken a tripod so didn't try many long exposures
despite having a ND filter.
We didn't see much wildlife (certainly no bears/wolves/lynx), I guess the crowds keep them away. We did see several snakes and my wife saw some kingfishers. The second day we were with friends and really were just following the hoardes. The first day we walked to the end of the falls and the crowds did die out and walked back through the woods over a small hill and only saw a few people but also saw little of the waterfalls. We left the park both days around 6pm ( light starting to go) and it was much quieter by then)
The waterfalls/lakes are beautiful and worth seeing, I've never seen anything like them (other than a few days earlier at Krka :) ) For me the main photo oportunites were the lakes/falls and trees/glades with sunlight rather than wildlife. We didn't think about guides and as we were only there a few days and didn't really hike far from the crowds.
Driving on to our next hotel our GPS took us on a single track road for about 12km through the park (didn't see anyone or any cars), not entirely convinced we were allowed on that road but it showed that away from the falls/lakes it is quiet.
We didn't see any hides or any on the maps.
Let me know if you have any specific questions.
Mike
Posted by Elliott Neep on September 26, 2007 at 5:05 AM
Cheers Mike - That was the info and answers most of my questions.
Posted by Mike Read on September 26, 2007 at 5:29 AM
A couple of other points:
We flew Whiz air Luton-Zagreb and they were good. I think from Zagreb it is about 1.5-2 hrs drive to Plitvice.
There are loads of "trout" in the lakes and that can make for nice photos, especially if you can get a waterfall as a backdrop (damn should have tried that, I just took some looking down). A polarizer might help here and in general.
We encountered several tame Robins, (had a hard time convincing some Amercians that they were Robins!) so take some museli from the breakfast buffet and try and get em to pose.
You are not allowed to swim in the lakes (probably not a problem in case you wanted to do
underwater photography!, but I like to swim everywhere I can and I was very tempted to accidently fall in).
If you want any more info our trip took in Zagreb - Pag - Paklenica NP - Krka NP - Skradin - Trogir - Primosten - Plitvice NP - Krk - Cres - Mali lonsinj - Briuni NP - Rovinj - Zagreb
Discussion
8 repliesLooks like a lovely place
http://www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/cpage.aspx?page=default.aspx&pageID=87
You can buy the DVD if you do a search for Nature: Land Of the Falling Lakes on amazon etc.
I'd be very interested how you get on afterwards. Have a good trip!
stu
Not quite sure what kind of info you are after.
The hotel was good, the food only OK. We ate a couple of times at the national restaurant up the road a few kms and it was very good.
The main area is quite compact and there is a bus and boat shuttle service to get you around not sure if this runs all year, though it is also possible to walk pretty much everywhere. We went round on Friday and Saturday both quite busy and you encounter lots of people/coach groups walking round as a lot of the paths are duckboards.
Croatia's busy period (August) was past but I'm not sure if Plitvice stays busy as the trees were starting to turn colour.
I think the park opens at 8am, we never quite made it that early! and I didn't see much way of them stopping you entering ealier. Our hotel (connected to the national park) stamped our Friday entry ticket on the Saturday making it valid for the Saturday so we would have had a valid ticket it we'd snuck in.
As we were mainly photographing in bright sunlight and it was busy, nice/proper shots of the waterfalls were difficult (for me!), I hadn't taken a tripod so didn't try many long exposures
despite having a ND filter.
We didn't see much wildlife (certainly no bears/wolves/lynx), I guess the crowds keep them away. We did see several snakes and my wife saw some kingfishers. The second day we were with friends and really were just following the hoardes. The first day we walked to the end of the falls and the crowds did die out and walked back through the woods over a small hill and only saw a few people but also saw little of the waterfalls. We left the park both days around 6pm ( light starting to go) and it was much quieter by then)
The waterfalls/lakes are beautiful and worth seeing, I've never seen anything like them (other than a few days earlier at Krka :) ) For me the main photo oportunites were the lakes/falls and trees/glades with sunlight rather than wildlife. We didn't think about guides and as we were only there a few days and didn't really hike far from the crowds.
Driving on to our next hotel our GPS took us on a single track road for about 12km through the park (didn't see anyone or any cars), not entirely convinced we were allowed on that road but it showed that away from the falls/lakes it is quiet.
We didn't see any hides or any on the maps.
Let me know if you have any specific questions.
Mike
We flew Whiz air Luton-Zagreb and they were good. I think from Zagreb it is about 1.5-2 hrs drive to Plitvice.
There are loads of "trout" in the lakes and that can make for nice photos, especially if you can get a waterfall as a backdrop (damn should have tried that, I just took some looking down). A polarizer might help here and in general.
We encountered several tame Robins, (had a hard time convincing some Amercians that they were Robins!) so take some museli from the breakfast buffet and try and get em to pose.
You are not allowed to swim in the lakes (probably not a problem in case you wanted to do
underwater photography!, but I like to swim everywhere I can and I was very tempted to accidently fall in).
If you want any more info our trip took in Zagreb - Pag - Paklenica NP - Krka NP - Skradin - Trogir - Primosten - Plitvice NP - Krk - Cres - Mali lonsinj - Briuni NP - Rovinj - Zagreb
Mike