Hello to kawh from Sebastopol, CA:

I'm hoping that you might just read the forum, and find this post, and request...

I just wanted to say thank you for pointing out Rastoke / Slunj on the way to Plitvice Park. We are due to stay in the Bungalow our first night in Croatia, the 3rd of June.

Where did ya'll stay when you were there, what were your accomodations? I figure that we'll arrive later afternoon and then depart next morning for Plitvice, where we could stay the night or back track and stay another night in the bugalow. We head to Split after 2 nights in the area.

I hope that you can give me some feedback. I'm charmed by the pictures, but have found some info in guidebooks to downplay what seems to be a real find. Is the food good? Do they have a good dinner?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks!

Stayed at Rastoke a few weeks ago. Say hello to the lovely Sanya, who is in charge of the place, ask to see her family pics of the reconstruction....

Don't bother with the standard breakfast, everything is packaged, i.e.the jelly & butter, a real disappointment. However, the mushroom omelet on the menu was delicious. Then my daughter bought her own cereal at a supermarket, and we purchased the milk at Rastoke.....We ate dinner there every night, and the trout and chicken dinners were wonderful. There is another place to eat a few hundred metres down (Petros), but we didn't try it.

We had the room above the restaurant, which is shown on the the website. We saw the bungalow, it looks cute. The place is popular for locals and motorcyclists to come and have a drink or dinner. Most of the staff was very helpful and treated us like residents! They warned us about the police stopping us on the way to Plitvice. We followed the speed limit-trap carefully, but sure enough we were busted for not driving with our lights on! The cop stays near the ATM machine a few ks up near a gas station.....

We ate lunch at Marco's restaurant (on the road to Plivitce); we went to the caves there and if you are into caves you will enjoy these;

We were there on MayDay weekend and the lines at Plivitvce were incredible and people kept cutting in line. Apparently they were overwhelmed with the crowds. But we had a great trip.

Hi Willy,

Thanks for the heads up on the cops and keeping the lights on!

We're staying in Rastoke that first night for sure, because I will be jetlagged and not "ready" for Plitvice. But I wonder if we should stay in the park, or nearer to the park the next night. I want to spend a full day in the park, and then possibly about 3 hours the following morning. Did ya'll go back and forth from Rastoke? How was the "commute"?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions, and I will pass on a friendly "hello from Willy" to Sanya.

Hi 4:

My daughter, who lives in Italy and is 6 mos pregnant, is partial to the charm factor vs convenience factor. Also we have decided that the "baggage drill" is another element when we decide on travel plans. So better to stay in one place and maybe drive a little more than shlep the bags for one night in another place. Therefore, we decided to do the 30k drive to the Lake P Park, rather than move hotels. Don't know where you are coming from, but Rastoke would be perfect for recovering from jet lag.

But as I mentioned before, we did get a driving ticket...We felt like we were targeted because we had Italian license plates........ The road speed limit changes form 50k>40K > 60K> to 40K> 50K> etcetc......within a few meters....be very very careful, and don't forget to drive with your lights on.

We saw the hotels at the P. Park, and were glad we decided not to stay there for all the reasons I'm sure you've researched. We hiked the whole park in one day. When we were on line at the gate, we met a wonderful Croatian doctor (& her husband) who worked at the Natl Health Institite. They advised us to take the "C" tour which involved walking, little buses & boats. It was really crowded that day but we managed to have a wonderful trip. We purchased sandwiches at one of the shops in the parks near the gate, and had a picnic. This worked out fine for us though lots of folks brought their own lunch-food.

I am decidedly against the schlep factor, but in a new country for me, and quite adept at schelping, I wonder...

I teach at a university, and have plenty of opportunity to travel. Because I am the contemplative, journal keeping, sketcher, photographer type... I like to settle into a place. These whirlwind two week tours are relatively new to me - I usually spend several weeks in one place. I'm just not really used to "trying to see everything".

It is a compromise to spend one or two nights here, 3 nights there, 1 night next, 4 nights somewhere else...

I call this type of travel "reconaissance" (surely misspelled) If I fall in love with an area, I'll go back there for longer spells. I wouldn't spend less than four weeks in Prague or Florence these days...

Thank you for your feedback. I'm finally relaxing a bit into the fact that much of our trip, but not all of it, will be on the wing.

I'm sure that when we get to Slunj / Rastoke, it will be easy for us to make our decision.

Thanks again!

J