Plitvice Lakes and Rovinj

While we spent the first portion of our trip traveling by boat/ferry, our remaining travel would be over land. Today we would complete the first two legs of our drive, from Split to Plitvice Lakes National Park and finally to Rovinj, on the coast in the Istria region, where we would spend the night.

We left our Airbnb first thing in the morning to pick up our rental car. A manual transmission ensured that Patrick would be doing all the driving, With Maggie on navigation, we split from Split and headed north and inland towards Plitvice.

Plitvice, a UNESCO heritage site and one of Croatia’s largest and most renowned national parks, is an amazing place to see. Though the weather was overcast, it was pleasantly warm during our visit, which was perfect as we would be doing quite a bit of hiking. We arrived around noon, parked our car, and got in line for tickets. Many tourists opt to stay the night prior in the Plitvice area so they can be first in the park, though with our tight schedule this was not an option. As such, we found ourselves waiting in lines a few times.

TIckets in hand, we made our way into the park. We had about 3 hours to explore, enough time to cover half of the marked trails. Plitvice is separated into two halves. We opted to tour the Upper Lakes section of the park, per recommendation from our handy Rick Steves guide.

The park is known for its cascading lakes, waterfalls, lush vegetation and blue-green crystal clear water. We began our journey taking a small ferry ride across a river to the base of the Upper lakes. Our hike would take us up, over and around a dozen lakes. The verdant scenery was a perfect place to practice our photography skills, Patrick on his DSLR and Maggie on her iPhone. Check out the snaps below!

At the end of our hike, we trekked back to our car to complete the rest of our journey for the day. Back on the mountainous coast, our drive took us on many bluffs, narrows and hairpin turns, much to Maggie’s chagrin. We arrived in Rovinj just in time to see the sunset over the harbor. We would spend the evening exploring the small peninsula town, which was no more than half a mile wide. Rovinj is also home to Croatia’s first and only Michelin-starred restaurant, Monte, which Two for Takeoff was lucky enough to sample and will detail in an upcoming post.