9 Best Sights in Northern Dalmatia, Croatia

Founded in 1832, Zadar's Archaeological Museum is one of the oldest museums in this part of Europe. It occupies a plain but pleasant modern building beside the convent complex of Crkva svete Marije (St. Mary's Church). It is home to numerous artifacts from Zadar's past, from prehistoric times to the first Croatian settlements. The third floor focuses on ceramics, weaponry, and other items the seafaring Liburnians brought home from Greece and Italy, whereas the second floor covers the classical period, including a model of the Forum square as it would have looked back then. A smaller exhibit addresses the development of Christianity in Northern Dalmatia and contains rare artifacts from the invasion of the Goths. On the first floor, you'll find an exhibit focused on the early Middle Ages, taking you to the 12th century.

Zadar's star attraction, this massive cylindrical structure is the most monumental early Byzantine church in Croatia. Initially called the Church of the Holy Trinity, it was probably inspired by plans outlined in a book by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio (On Ruling the Empire). Centuries later, it was rededicated to St. Donatus, the bishop here from 801 to 814. Legend has it that Donatus, an Irishman, was the one who had it built using stone from the adjacent Forum. The stark round interior features a circular center surrounded by an annular passageway; a sanctuary consisting of three apses attached to the lofty mantle of the church walls, set off from the center by two columns; and a gallery reached by a circular stairway. During the off-season (November to March), when the church is closed, someone at the Archaeological Museum next door may have a key to let you in.

The whimsically named The Greeting to the Sun is a 22-meter circle of multilayered glass plates set into the stone-paved waterfront. Under the glass, light-sensitive solar modules soak up the sun's energy during daylight hours, turning it into electrical energy. Just after sunset, it puts on an impressive light show, illuminating the waterfront in shades of blue, green, red, and yellow. It was installed in 2008 and was created by local architect Nikola Bašić, who also made the nearby sound art project, the Sea Organ.

The largest archipelago in the Adriatic, Kornati National Park comprises more than 100 privately owned islands, primarily by residents of Murter, who purchased them more than a century ago from Zadar aristocrats. The new owners burned the forests to make room for sheep, which ate much of the remaining vegetation. Although anything but lush today, the islands' almost mythical beauty is ironically synonymous with their barrenness: their bone-white-to-ochre colors are a striking contrast to the azure sea.

However, owners do tend vineyards and orchards on some, and there are quite a few small buildings scattered about, mostly stone cottages—many of them on Kornat, which is by far the largest island, at 35 km (22 miles) long and less than a tenth as wide.

In 1980 the archipelago became a national park. It was reportedly during a visit to Kornati in 1936 that King Edward VIII of England decided between love for his throne and love for Wallis Simpson, the married woman who was to become his wife a year later. No public transport currently goes to Kornati, so visiting is only possible as part of an excursion or with a private boat, and tickets must be purchased beforehand. Pick up tickets from the official website or through the various tour groups in Zadar or Murter. The entrance ticket is included in the price of excursions departing from Zadar.

A series of seven waterfalls are the main attraction here, the most spectacular being Skradinski buk, where 17 cascades of water fall 40 meters (131 feet) into an emerald-green pool. Moving upriver, a trail of wooden walkways and bridges crisscrosses its way through the woods and along the river to the Roški slap (waterfall), passing by the tiny island of Visovac, home to a Franciscan monastery that can be visited by boat. On the islet, there is also an old mill with a museum that demonstrates the different ways the mill was used centuries ago. From here, it's easier to understand how the power of these waters inspired Nikola Tesla, whose boyhood home is not far from the national park. In 1895 the first hydroelectric plant became operational here, only two days after Tesla’s hydroelectric plant on Niagara Falls. This made the residents of Skradin the first Eastern European citizens to have electricity.

More than 860 species of plant life have been identified throughout the park, and more than 200 bird species live there, making it one of Europe's most valuable ornithological areas. Something many visitors miss is a hawk training center, where you can observe birds of prey being trained by ornithological experts. For bird enthusiasts there is also the Guduća Nature Reserve, where various species are closely studied and can be observed from boats. The Krka National Park office is located in Šibenik. For more active travelers, there is a 8½-km (5-mile) hiking trail, going Sitnice–Roški slap–Oziđana Cave, that takes about 2½ hours and has educational panels along the way explaining plant and animal life, geological phenomena, and historic sites.

Of the five entrances into the park, the easiest and most impressive route of arrival is to drive from Šibenik to the town of Skradin, then take a 25-minute boat ride up the Krka River on a national park ferry (included in the price of entry). The ferry will bring you to the park entrance close to the Skradinski buk waterfall, and from there you can get off and take a walk along the wooden bridges and explore the park further. Note that swimming is not allowed in the park. There are several restaurants and snack bars, plus wooden tables and benches for picnics. For a full meal, your best bet is to return to Skradin, a town that dates back to Roman times and is well worth a look.

The Velebit Mountains stretch along the Croatian coast for more than 100 km (62 miles), but nowhere do they pack in as much to see and do as in this relatively small, 96-square-km (37-square-mile) park at the southern terminus of the range. Here, less than an hour from Zadar is a wealth of extraordinary karst features—from fissures, crooks, and cliffs to pits and caves. The park comprises two limestone gorges, Velika Paklenica (which ends near the sea, at the park entrance in Starigrad) and Mala Paklenica, a few kilometers to the south; trails through the former gorge are better marked (and more tourist-trodden).

All that dry rockiness visible from the seaward side of the range turns resplendently green as you cross over the mountains to the landward side. Named after the sap of the black pine, paklina, which was used long ago to prime boats, the park is two-thirds forest, with beech and the indigenous black pine forming a crucial part of this picture; the remaining vegetation includes cliff-bound habitats featuring several types of bluebells and rocky areas abounding in sage and heather. The park is also home to 4,000 species of fauna, including butterflies that have long vanished elsewhere in Europe. It is also Croatia's only mainland nesting ground for the stately griffin vulture.

The park has more than 150 km (94 miles) of trails, from relatively easy ones leading from Velika Paklenica (from the entrance in Starigrad) to the 1,640-foot-long complex of caverns called Manita peć, to mountain huts situated strategically along the way to the Velebit's highest peaks, Vaganski vrh (5,768 feet) and Sveto brdo (5,751 feet). The most prominent of the park's immense and spectacular caves, Manita peć is accessible on foot from the park entrance in Starigrad; you can enter for €10, but remember to buy your ticket at the park entrance. Rock climbing is also a popular activity in the park. Meanwhile, mills and mountain villages scattered throughout Paklenica evoke the life of mountain folk from the not-too-distant past.

About a half mile down the park access road in Starigrad, you pass through the mostly abandoned hamlet of Marasovići, from which it's a few hundred yards more downhill to the small building where you buy your tickets and enter the park (from this point on, only on foot). From here, it's 45 minutes uphill to a side path to Anića kuk, a craggy peak, and from there it's not far to Manita peć. However, if you don't have the time or inclination for a substantial hike into the mountains, you will be happy to know that even the 45-minute walk to the entrance gate and back from the main road affords spectacular close-up views of the Velebit range's craggy ridgeline and the gorge entrance. Also, be forewarned that if you are looking to escape the crowds, you will be hard-pressed to do so here in midsummer unless you head well into the mountains or, perhaps, opt for the park's less frequented entrance at Mala Paklenica; more likely than not, you will be sharing the sublimities of nature with thousands of other seaside revelers taking a brief respite from the coast.

A further point of interest at the park is the Bunkers, an intricate system of underground shelters built by Marshal Tito in the early 1950s. With relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR then at their worst, Tito used the geographical benefits of the gorges to build a bomb shelter. All the work was done in complete secrecy, and very few people knew of the Bunkers. After Stalin's death, they were closed down and only reopened in 1991.

Although the park headquarters is on the main coastal road in the middle of Starigrad, fees are payable when you enter the park on the access road. Beyond the basic park admission and the supplemental fee to enter Manita peć, the park offers every possible service and presentation that might encourage you to part with your euros, from half-day group tours to presentations and more.

This 8,000-acre park is home to 16 beautiful emerald lakes connected by a series of cascading waterfalls, stretching 8 km (5 miles) through a valley flanked by high forested hills that are home to deer, bears, wolves, wild boar, and the Eurasian lynx. Thousands of years of sedimentation of calcium, magnesium carbonate, algae, and moss have yielded the natural barriers between the lakes. Since the process is ongoing, new barriers, curtains, stalactites, channels, and cascades are constantly forming and the existing ones are always changing. The deposited sedimentation, or tufa, also coats the beds and edges of the lakes, giving them their sparkling azure look.

Today a series of wooden bridges and waterside paths lead through the park. The only downside: because it's so lovely, the trails can get crowded from June through September. That said, there's no litter along the way—a testament to both respectful visitors and a conscientious park staff. There's also no camping, no bushwhacking, no picking plants, and absolutely no swimming. This is a place to look, to spend a day or two, but not to touch. It is, however, well worth the higher summer entrance fee and the lowered fees during the rest of the year. Plitvice Lakes is not just a summer but a year-round spectacle, with blooming flowers in the spring, sunset-color foliage in the fall, and magical-looking frozen waterfalls in the winter.

The park is right on the main highway (E71) from Zagreb to Split, and it's certainly worth the three-hour trip from the capital. There are three entrances just off the main road, about an hour's walk apart, creatively named Entrance 1, Entrance 2, and Auxiliary Entrance Flora. The park's pricey hotels are near Entrance 2, the first entrance you'll encounter if arriving by bus from the coast. However, Entrance 1—the first entrance if you arrive from Zagreb—is typically the start of most one-day excursions, if only because it's within a 20-minute walk of Veliki Slap, the 256-foot-high waterfall. Hiking the entire loop that winds its way around the lakes takes six to eight hours, but other hikes range from two to four hours. All involve a combination of hiking and being ferried across the larger of the park's lakes by national park service boats.

There are cafés near both entrances, but avoid them for anything but coffee, as the sandwiches and strudels don't offer the best value for your money. Instead, buy some of the huge heavenly strudels sold by locals at nearby stands, where great big blocks of homemade cheese, honey, and olive oil are also for sale. Within the lake grounds, there are more than 10 restaurants and bistros offering a mix of local and international cuisine.  At the boat landing near Entrance 2, you can rent gorgeous wooden rowboats for €13 per hour (capacity is four people) during the warm season.

Comprising 35 pipes under the quay stretching along a 230-foot stretch of Zadar's atmospheric Riva promenade, the Sea Organ yields a never-ending concert that delights one and all. Designed by architect Nikola Bašić with the help of other experts, the organ's sound resembles a whale song, but it is, in fact, the sea itself. It's hard not to be in awe as the sound of the sea undulates in rhythm and volume with the waves.

This nature park encompasses Telašćica Bay, which cuts 7 km (4½ miles) into the southern tip of Dugi Otok with an indented inner coastline that is a series of smaller bays and a handful of islands. Flanked by high vertical cliffs facing the open sea to the west and with low peaceful bays on the other side, it has a variety of vegetation. Relatively lush alpine forests and flower-filled fields, as well as vineyards, olive groves, and one-time cultivated fields give way as you move south to bare rocky ground of the sort that predominates on the Kornati Islands, whose northern boundary begins where Telašćica Nature Park ends.

Aside from Telašćica's other attractions, most of which are accessible only by boat, one of the park's key highlights—accessible by land on a 20-minute drive from Sali—is the salt lake Jezero mir, which formed when the sea filled a karst depression. Small boats (generally with 8–12 passengers) bound for both Telašćica Nature Park and the northern fringes of Kornati National Park leave the east side of Sali's harbor (i.e., where the Zadar ferry arrives) at approximately 11:15 each morning and return by 6 or 6:30 in the evening. Verify ferry times at  www.croatiaferries.com. The best way to arrange ferry passage is in person—by going to the harborside square near the post office around 8 pm on the day before you wish to leave, when boat captains gather there looking for passengers for the next day's excursion (which means at least a one-night stay in Sali). However, the tourist information office in Sali can put you in touch with operators by phone as well.