Split, Zadar, & Plitvice Lakes

Croatia has been on my radar for a while with its surge in tourism since the Game of Thrones days. As a fan of the show myself, I of course wanted to visit King's Landing, but in making a week out of my trip, I found so much more than just that! In fact, nothing in this particular blog is GoT related, and all was still awesome.

As always, I created a hectic itinerary, but since I was traveling alone this time, there was no need to clear it with anyone else. I definitely rediscovered my love of solo travel here and can recommend Croatia as a super safe destination.

Day 1

Zadar

I had gone to a wedding in London the day before my flight but was lucky with a midday departure that gave me time to kick my hangover on the way to Stansted. RyanAir had direct flights into Zadar, which was not a town I was originally going to include on my itinerary until I realized it was closer to Plitvice Lakes than Split was.

Very happy it worked out that way, because Zadar is so pretty!

The bus from the airport took us right into Old Town (stay on when it gets to the larger terminal and it will continue on to the waterfront), and I found the Downtown Boutique Hostel nearby. This was one of the nicest dorms I've stayed at. The all-female room was huge and carpeted, with curtains and outlets at each bunk, stairs to the top bunks instead of ladders, and floor lockers that were so gigantic you could fit your whole suitcase in them (plus with separate keys given at check-in, no need for padlocks).

Once I got settled, I went for a walk around. The Old Town area is small enough to see all in one evening, surrounded on three sides by the sea. The waterside is super lively with merchants, bar stalls, and even a DJ or two later on.

The highlights were the Roman Forum ruins...

...the sea organ which has holes cut into the steps that make music when the waves roll into them...

Trust when I say sound would make a big difference here.

...and the Greetings to the Sun solar floor. You have to come back around sunset when the lights start to glow, but it was also absolutely packed with people at that time.

Day:

Dusk:

I had dinner on the patio of a vegan place called The Botanist, petted a bunch of cats around town, and enjoyed the sunset (Hitchcock claimed Zadar's was the best in the world) before calling it a night.

Day 2

Plitvice Lakes

I booked the first bus out of Zadar to get to Plitvice in the morning. It left from the main terminal at 8 AM, and it was already getting hot as I trekked across town with my giant backpack.

All of my buses throughout this trip were through Flixbus, although some were actually run by local operators. I had no issues with any of them leaving on time, and all had luggage storage in the bottom. The nicer ones had outlets at the seats too.

It took two hours to get to Plitvice, and the bus stop is right in front of the entrance. I went with Entrance 1 (there are two to choose from) which takes you around the lower lakes, although I did Route C which covers part of the upper as well.

Next to the entrance are a cafe, souvenir shop, and a wooden building where you can store your luggage if you ask for the key at the info center. After dropping off my bags and getting a coffee, I started my hike through the park.

The good: Waterfalls everywhere!

The park is huge, and you'll see massive waterfalls coming down the cliffs, smaller ones streaming into the clear turquoise lakes beside the paths, and whole walls of falls beside one another.

The weather was much cooler than at the coast, around 80 for the day, which was nice for hiking.

I also liked how Route C was broken up. There are a few stops with bathrooms and cafes. After the intitial hike over the lakes, you take a boat to the next part (not exciting, just a 10-15 minute ferry to cross the water), and then you'll start going uphill for more waterfalls and finally a walk that's mostly forested. It ends at another outpost stop where there's a shuttle bus to take you back near the entrance.

The bad: The people. So many fucking people. It was worst near the start, because Routes A, B, and C all overlap. There was a long line for the boat too, but more space to walk after that because the trails diverge.

The major problem with the crowds was them blocking the walkways. They're wide enough for about two people, yet still you'd get couples slowly walking side by side or people stopping right in the middle of the path to take photos. I was ready to start shoving people in the lake.

Originally, I'd booked the last bus out, but ended up changing it a week before my trip to the 3:15 PM so I'd get into Split earlier. I'm so glad I did, because it was the perfect amount of time for the Route C hike (5 hours). I was grabbing my luggage out of storage ten minutes before the bus came, no rushing or waiting around.

The bus to Split was, unfortunately, pretty miserable. It went all the way back to Zadar, then was basically another two hours from there. Still, I'm glad I took the time to see Plitvice. Krka was another option halfway between Zadar and Split, so it would have been more convenient, but it doesn't look as spectacular.

The tallest Plitvice falls.

From the bus station in Split, which is right by the docks with all the boats, I found my way into the Old Town to Hostel One. I didn't find this hostel to be all that impressive itself. It was really big with three floors like a typical chain, although it was nice that the bunks in the dorms had outlets and curtains. The female room had a sink beside the bunks, then a separate ensuite bathroom and shower. What was good about this was the location. It was basically a block or two from the promenade by the water and right in the middle of Old Town.

I only went out once more that evening for dinner at a veggie spot called Barakokula, but wow, this was the best meal of my trip! I had their "sexy tofu" which was glazed tofu (in some kind of Asian sauce) on top of sweet potatoes and spinach. It just had an insane amount of flavor, my jaw was dropped. I also got a few ginger lemonades while in Croatia, and I loved that they were more bitter than sweet.

Another bonus of traveling alone: No one to stop me from visiting every vegan restaurant in town.

Day 3

Split

I started off the next morning in Split at a cafe called Ciri Biri Bela where I was early enough to be the first one on their cute enclosed patio. My avocado and egg bagel sandwich there was good.

I'd read to hit up Diocletian's Palace as early as possible to avoid crowds (especially from cruise ships) so that was my next stop. The crowds were indeed already showing up, so I tried to strategically avoid the tour groups when choosing the order I visited the sites. You can buy a pass to see anywhere from a few to all of the areas, but it was such a minimal difference in cost (like 5 euro) that I bought a pass for all of them.

It doesn't take long to see everything. There's the treasury which is like a tiny museum of artifacts, the circular Temple of Jupiter, the underground crypt of St. Lucy, the pretty cathedral, and the belltower which you can climb to the top of for nice views of Split.

My plan after that was to explore Split... but that took maybe an hour, tops. Old Town is tiny, and while it was cute, I really wasn't sure what to do with my afternoon. What I wanted was to see some of the islands, but most of the tours are full day, and I didn't think the cost of the ferry to Hvar was going to be worth it either just to do a few hours there.

My hostel was advertising a party boat that went to some swimming spots, but I only needed to pull up the photo gallery on their website full of 18 year olds in bikinis making out and doing shots to decide I was way too fucking old for that. Instead, I headed to the promenade and stopped at a few of the booths offering half-day island tours.

All of them were pretty much offering the same itinerary at almost the same price point, but I found one that advertised an underwater museum stop, and the fact that they provided goggles, life jackets, and underwater phone cases, plus were BYOB, sold me on them. I booked myself a time slot, then went to change into a swimsuit, hit a gelateria, and buy some takeaway beers for the trip before coming back to meet the group at 2:30 PM.

There were only a dozen of us on the boat, and it was split nicely with a seating section at either end, which let the group of loud 20-something Americans on a bro trip isolate from the rest of us. (I actually did talk to them once we were all a little tipsy, and they were nice despite their volume.) It was a good age group, all of us in our 20s-40s, and there was a nice drinking vibe with music while not being a crazy party.

Our first stop was an old city called Trogir, where they let us choose between a half hour tour/half hour free time or just taking the whole hour to ourselves. We all ended up on the tour except the American boys who (no surprise) decided to go straight to a bar.

Trogir was tiny, so even when our tour was up, it only took me ten more minutes to cover the rest of the island and hop in some shops.

Bought this local drink which was really good!

Our next stop was the underwater museum, which was my favorite. I'm a terrible swimmer, so I got myself an attractive orange life jacket and paddled my way out to the sculptures. I could still see them pretty well even from 15 feet or so up, and there seemed to be something of a religious theme with a lot of crosses.

I still had time afterwards to embarrass myself by struggling up the inflatable water slide (those handholds are not made for tiny arms and legs!), but one of the guys from the tour climbed up with me and took a video of the slide down, which was a lot smoother but not as cool as the actual flip he did off the top after me.

The final stop was the Blue Lagoon. The water was extremely clear, but after a quick paddle, I decided I was over swimming and went over to the resort area instead to sit on the loungers and hang out with a German couple.

To cap it off, the sunset on the ride home was gorgeous!

Such a great day, and I ended it with an excellent jalapeno-blueberry veggie burger on the patio of a restaurant called Fig.

It was a good start to my trip in Croatia, but I broke it up with a little detour into Bosnia which I will cover in my next blog before we come back for Dubrovnik.