degree of crowds in early october in oldcity dubrovnik/platvicka lakes
 

a friend of mine visited dubrovnik and platvicka lake/waterfalls in mid september and found both terribly crowded: from 10AM to 4PM Dubrovnik had hughe crowds due to day visitors from the cruise lines. Likewise the waterfall was also mobbed. Does the volume go down markedly in early October?

We were there in September 2006. I don’t know if a lot more tourists visit Croatia now, or we are more tolerant when it comes to crowds, but I would not call any of the places you mention “mobbed”.

Dubrovnik was busy during the day, especially the wall walk, but wonderful in the evening. We had a couple of great meals there, but the best was in the Istria peninsula, off the road, in some lady’s front yard. Only 2 tables, only 2 dishes (a veal dish and a truffle pasta dish), with tomatoes salad, just picked from the garden and fresh baked bread. Absolutely delicious…

I think October must be less crowded, and the weather still nice, so if you are afraid of crowds, go in October. You will love Croatia, don’t let the other tourists scare you. After all, we are all tourists…

Dubrovnik was pretty crowded during the daytime in early October 2009, but the weather was unseasonably warm, I was told. At night it was much more pleasant, less crowded. But I too wouldn't let the crowds deter you. Instead, decide what it is you want to do in Dubrovnik. The most common activity is walking the city walls. I'd do it early in the day, as early as they open, not just to avoid the crowds but also the heat if it happens to be warm when you are there. You may wind up doing excursions during the daytime anyway while the tour groups are doing their walking tours of Dubrovnik.

Here's what it looked like walking inside the old town during the day:

http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...k-croatia.html

Sometimes more crowded than that, sometimes less.

Plitvice as I have said above will probably get crowded after 10am especially on a weekend or whenever a tour comes through. If you can stay overnight and get into the park first thing in the morning, you can avoid most of the people.

I think the tourism does drop quickly in October on the Dalmatian Coast, partly based on the weather; I hit Korcula about mid-October and it was just about dead, like the restaurants had forgotten to close up, even on a Saturday night. Dubrovnik suddenly got really cold after I left and the Buza Bar closed for the season, so that's when the season really ends there I guess!

We were in Dubrovnik the first weekend in October last fall. There were still lots of tourists, mostly from some big cruise ships. The walls and Stradun (the main street from the harbor to the entrance to the walls) were very crowded in the middle of the day, but the smaller side streets and the museums were not bad.

andrew I saw your photos of multple sites in the balkans. My plan was arrive in sarajevo oct2nd, leave early afternoon oct3rd making our way to mostar but stopping at konica, jabonica. Overnight in mostar, tour mostar oct4th in am, making our way towards dubrovnik that afternoon/evening, staying in dubrovnik that night and two additional nights; leaving for split the next morning oct7 stopping at ston and looking at maraska. Initially staying overnight in split and leaving for plitvic lake evening of oct 8(initially afternoon oct9th going to zagreb). Staying in zagreb a day or two. Problems: october very rainy in dubrovnik. Worse if wet and chilly in plitvic-will be not enjoyable. One member of party of four must leave early. Also my wife is not too enthusiastic of temperatures in the 40s(farenheit). Seems to be a lot of effort to do plitvic. Particularly if must cut out possibly a day of this schedule (the B-H part I cant shorten). Does one send more time in split and just fly back to usa from split? Your thoughts. Or just skip plitvic, spend overnight in zageb and fly back from there. Your pictures are super and quite helpful. Captures the charm of dubrovnik, split and mostar. Looks to me plitvic for all the effort may not be such a winner.

Hi Jack
I was there in early Oct. on a weekend and I didn't consider the park crowded. There were lots of people but you could walk anywhere with no problem.
It wasn't hot either which I would not have liked

Hi Jack. I live in the Pacific NW near the Columbia River Gorge, near beautiful waterfalls and scenery - and seeing Plitvice still blew me away. The park is huge with big turquoise-colored lakes full of trout (as maybe you can tell in part from my pictures) and dozens if not hundreds of waterfalls. I thought the effort was well worth it, to me, to see it. It seemed unique, and it was a nice contrast to the other kind of scenery I had been enjoying (mostly towns and beaches).

September and October are shoulder season in the Balkans, and of course the later you get in the year the higher your chances of rain. When I was there in early October 2009, the weather was perfect, even unseasonably warm, until about October 13, the day I hit Korcula, when it started to rain and cool off, and I had rain there and in Split, my last stop. Then again, I also had sunny weather in both places after the storms. But you can never fully predict the weather - that has probably happened in late September too.

I guess I would urge you to plan on Plitvice but be flexible enough to change your plans at the last minute in case the weather is terrible by the time you get to Split. Even so, I wouldn't necessarily cancel Plitvice unless it's probably going to be raining all day; a lot of the walking in the park is still possible I think even with some drizzle. Some of the walking is on wooden boardwalks through marshes, not just dirt paths. You can probably dig up comments from people who have seen the park during or after rains and find out how muddy it would be.

I got great photos of Dubrovnik, walking the walls in the late afternoon (around 4:30 - 5:00 in later September). I couldn't get going early enough to beat the cruise ship crowds in the morning, but they all left by 3 o'clock.

mimar can you some of the pics

I'm working on putting my photos on the Internet. I'll add the Dubrovnik ones when I get time and then post the URL here. Thanks for your interest.

Shooting later in the day (or early in the day) with the sun lower in the sky makes for better pics. I had the warm tones of the lowering sun as well as really clear air. Dubrovnik is very photogenic.

Here finally is the link to my photos of Croatia: http://tinyurl.com/3av6vuu.

We did Plitvice end of Sept once and it was crowded but not terrible. We latter went in July and it was crowded and parking hard to find, but not bad. The place is big and seems not a problem with large crowds.

What we did notice in July many came in shorts from Dalmatia and unprepared for the sudden downpours (July), bring an umbrella and a large zip lock to protect your camera, the climate is much different than Dalmatia.

Andrew, thank you so much for posting your very honest and unique pictures. They have answered so many questions I had about Dubrovnik. Mimar--beautiful pictures, too.