Do or dont do Plitvice ?
 

Hi !
We (2 adults and 2 kids of 7 and 11) will be in Croatis in july. We are really thorn between going or not to Plitvice. It seems nice but from what we read it can be hellish in july.

We will come from Istria (Pazin) so more or less 3 hours road and after Plitvice we are heading to Zagreb. We have 2 plans (well 3 if we add not going !)

1) Leave Pazin, stop for lunch in route and arrive for 4 pm. Visit Plitvice until 8 pm (closing time), sleep somewhere not too far and head for Zagreb next morning.

+ : Less expensive from 4 pm, Would alows us to have a day and a half in Zagreb (we stay 2 nights there)
- : Only 4 hours in plitvice (maybe it's enough)

2) Leave pazin, take the whole day to travel To plitvice, go to our lodgieng and get to bes early. Wake up early and head to the park before 8 am. After the park go to Zagreb for 2 nights.

+ : give us the whole day to visit the park
-: More expensive, have to be there early, lot of people, less time for Zagreb

What would you do ?

Thanks !

Well, I went before it got so popular, but I thought it was wonderful. I needed most of a day to see all of it, but I took a lot of photos.

We were there last May,and while it is an exquisite site,truly,you are marching along on wooden walkways in line with many,many tourists taking photos.Perhaps we were on the most heavily traveled paths.....but it was not possible to stop and savor your surroundings.I suggest you check out the less traveled options,and base your decision on those.

Plitvice is unlike anywhere else(I believe) on the planet. Unless you plan to go to Croatia again, I say do not miss. Your arrive late stay little plan mght be good because I can see kids possibly getting bored if the day there is planned for too long.

Sorry Papineau, I cannot help because we have both completely different preferencies.
I remember that you peferred Varazdin to Split and the motorway Udine - Treviso - Verona - Bolzano - Ponte Gardena/Lajen (250 miles) to the Dolomites road via Tre Cime National Park - Misurina - Cortina - Falzarego Pass - Pordoj Pass - Ortisei (140 miles)
But whatever you will decide: do what YOU like, it's YOUR holiday.

Personally. we found Plitvice to be one of the biggest highlights of all our European trips. As melproffit said. "Plitvice is unlike anywhere else." Here is our day there. Our photos do not do it justice.

https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/cha...d-in-plitvice/

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...d9766576ee.jpg

From the, "Our Croatian friends say..." file. Early May and most of September are the most pleasant; any other nice time of the year is (over)crowded with tourists. Our daughter spends a week or two with our friends just about every July (she is close friends with their daughter from school), and they avoid Plitvice entirely. It being that school holidays and such don't align with a "less-busy" time to see Plitvice, we have lived here (Vienna) for six years and have never visited Plitvice.

This said, the holiday is yours, and you know your family and their travel styles best.

Thanks everyone,

We will take a night from Istria (will be thjre 4 nights instead of 5), and will put it for Plitvice. W ewill sleep there the night before and get up early to avoid a part of the crowd. We will see. Our vacation will be in july-August for the nest 25 years, so we have no choice there !

Neckervd: What a strange answer. What is the point between Dolomites and Plitvice ? I already state that we dont have time from Split, it's not a matter of preference but a matter of time. By the way we wont go to Varazdin. We would have take the road you have said but it's not practical for us, something you just dont want to undersatnd I think.

Beware the Slivovitz! (:

" We would have take the road you have said"
I don't know which itinerary you mean, because I made dozens of proposals according to your continously changing priorities.
Of course, it's easier to give good answers, if one understands what people really want.
But in your case, I just answered your questions.
And I told you many time that's YOUR holiday, that you must do wnat YOU like.

neckervd: I already told you that I appreciate your answer and help. You seem to be a bit angry taht i' have not take all your answer with full consideration, since I told that we will go from Kovbarid to Verona you go in all my thread saying more or less '' you chose this instead of this and I wont help you because of that''. IT,s kind of a childish way to answer.

Changing plans is something normal when planing a 28 days trip, and once again I have appreciated your first answers.

You are right. I just wanted to show you that you are trying to maximize miles and time spent on roads (all outside the Dolomites).
If I try to understand your itinerary, I get this (without sidetrips):

Venezia - motorway - Sevegliano: 70 miles
Sevegliano - Trst - Osp: 50 miles
Osp - Pazin: 50 miles
Pazin - Plitvice: 140 miles
Plitvice - Zagreb: 90 miles
Zagreb - Ljubljana: 90 miles
No comment about these 500 miles (more with sidetrips to the coast or to the caves)

Ljubljana - Bohinj: 50 miles
Bohinj - Kranjska Gora: 40 miles (80 miles via Kobarid - Vrisc Pass);
Kranjska Gora is 150 miles from Waidbruck/Lajen, along the direct itineray (trough the Dolomites), 350 miles along the itinerary that you will take:
Kranjska Gora - Vrsic - Kobarid: 40 miles
Kobarid - Udine: 30 miles
Udine - Sevegliano: 20 miles
At Seveglliano, you have closed the Croatia - Slovenia ring and backtrak on the same motorway up to Venice and then to Verona: 135 miles
Verona - motorway - Waidbruck/Lajen: 120 miles
From Waidbruck, you will backtrack along the same motorway via Verona up to Venice airport (the sidetrip to Malcesine will not change much): 190 miles. You can of course drive via Valsugana, but it will take more time.
BTW: neither Widbruck/Lajen nor your itinerary are in the Dolomites, but it's easy to do day trips into the Dolomites from Waidbruck.

Neckervd: i’m not sure that I fully understand what you arectrying to say. You said thatbI want to maximise miles and time on the road....you mean too much time is pass on the road ? And why you dont comment those first 500 miles ?

If I take the more direct road that goes thru the Dolomites that would mean to skip vrsic pass and Verona. We wouldn’t have time to see Verona from our departure date from Val Gardena ( august 3 and our flight back home is the 4) and do Vrisc pass - Dolomites road on the same day is a bit too much for the kids ( a lot of curves so they tend to get a bit sick).

I think that your main problem is with that stretch from Kobarid to Verona, you cant understand why someone would chose that road instead of going thru the Dolomites. I understand that, but with that time in Slovenia and those 7 days in Val Gardena we are guessing rhat we will see a lot of mountains and that a small city break in Verona can be nice too.

" If I take the more direct road that goes thru the Dolomites that would mean to skip vrsic pass"
Of course not!
You might continue from Bovec to Tolmezzo or so and sleep there instead of Kobarid,
or you could do Vrisc Pass the other way round (Bohinj - Tolmin - Kobarid - Vrsic Pass - Kranjska Gora - Mauthen or so).
" We wouldn’t have time to see Verona from our departure date from Val Gardena ( august 3 and our flight back home is the 4) "
Why?
Waidbruck - Verona is about 2 hrs by car and Verona - Venice airport is about 1 1/2 hrs by car. I cannot imagine that you will need a full day for the visit of Verona
" Vrisc pass - Dolomites road on the same day"
Nobody had this crazy idea.

Neckervd: thanks once again, II like a bit more that kind of tone in your answer !

I still would like to know waht you meant by ''you are trying to maximize miles and time spent on roads '' Is it a good thing or not ?

Visiting Verona the day before our departure is an idea we got at first, but we are not that much confortable to drive from Verona to VCE on the day of our departure, it seems to be a long way to travel to get to the airport if anything happens.

Kobarid was on our list beacause of the WW1 museum, maybe it can be skipped, but if we skip Verona that would mean to put those 2 nights somewhere else.

And vrsic pass, is it the same in both directions or it's better to start from Kranjska Gora ?

" I still would like to know waht you meant by ''you are trying to maximize miles and time spent on roads '' Is it a good thing or not ? "
I just meant what I said: the motorway solution (toll roads!) you prefer is 200 miles longer.
The drive on motorways is faster and easier than on mountain roads, but less scenic (view to trucks and noise protection walls instead of scenic villages and mountain peaks).
I don't judge, it's up to you to make a choice.

"Visiting Verona the day before our departure is an idea we got at first, but we are not that much confortable to drive from Verona to VCE on the day of our departure"
If I had a plane at 13.30 and had to check in 2-3hrs before, I would do the same. But you could easily drive from Verona to a airport hotel the evening before, it's only a 1 1/2 hrs drive.

Kobarid: Kobarid is only 10 miles away from the Bovec - Tolmezzo itinerary I suggested.
But I didn't know that you plan to visit the WW1 museum (Kobarishki muzej). That will need at least 2 hrs or so, more if you drive up to the trail going down to the Italian line of defence on both sides of the Soca river.
But I think that you could proceed the same day up to a place in Italy nevertheless. The distances aren't that big.
I suppose you know that there are other WW1 museums in the Dolomites like:
Lagazuoi (Cortina d'Ampezzo - Alta Badia) Lagazuoi 5 Torri - How to get here - Falzarego Pass - Giau Pass - Dolomites - Cortina d'Ampezzo
Belvedere in Lavarone (Trento) https://www.trentino.com/en/highligh...ns/war-museum/
Breaks at such (parly open air places) pourraient être des stops bienvenus le long d'itinéraires autrement un peu longs et intéresser tout votre famille.

neckervd, encore une fois, merci !

What we are loooking is to negociate something with the ohouse owner in Lajen so we could stay there 6 nights instead of 7. That way we could go From Lajen to Verona on august 2, sleep there have the full next day and on august 3 go sleep somewhere not far from VCE. When you say ''If I had a plane at 13.30 and had to check in 2-3hrs before, I would do the same'' Same as what ? sleep in verona the night before or sleep near VCE ?

If that plan works we would do 2 nights in Kobarid region (soca valley).and from there go thru the Dolomites. And sleep somwehere on july 26. Cortina seems the biggest bu also the most expensive choice. any idea of fine place in that region for a one night stay ? We will have do the Vrisc pass the day of our arrival in Kobarid.

Thnaks again !

" When you say ''If I had a plane at 13.30 and had to check in 2-3 hrs before, I would do the same'' Same as what ? sleep in verona the night before or sleep near VCE ?"
Sorry for the confusion. It should be:
Si j'avais un vol à 13.30, je ne dormirais ni à Vérone ni à Padoue, mais près de l'aéroport.

" Cortina seems the biggest bu also the most expensive choice. any idea of fine place in that region for a one night stay ? "

If you want to visit the fortifications in the Lagazuoi area (see my previous post) you will have to travel through Cortina d'Ampezzo, Cortina IS expensive, but therre are tons of hotels between Mauria Pass and Falzarego Pass, for example:
around Lozzo di Cadore (SS52-SS51bis): 4 hotels
Vigo di Cadore: 4 hotels
Pomeggie di Cadore: 4 hotels
Calalzo: 3 hotels
Tai di Cadore: 15 hotels
between Tai di Cadore and San Vito di Cadore: 13 hotels
San Vito di Cadore: 15 hotels
Zuel: 8 hotels

If you prefer the Northern itinerary via Sexten - Innichen - Bruneck, you will find a lot of accommodation at
Padola: 6 hotels
Sexten: 20 hotels
Innichen: 23 hotels
Toblach: 25 hotels
Niederdorf: 14 hotels
Welsberg: 19 hotels
etc. etc.

Easiest way to find their names and websites, resp links to booking.com:
Open google map, enter the name of the village at the top left corner. Once you got the map of village, replace the name of the village by "hotel" and press the search bottom again.

Very unique experience. I recommend it. I was 13 when I visited Plitvice for the first time and enjoyed it a lot.