The unique Plitvice National Park is one of the highlights of Croatia and receives millions of visitors every year. In the summer, tourists arrive with thousands a day, but in the winter it’s a completely different scene. There are no large groups of tourists in the wintertime and it’s an entirely different experience than in the summer. I recently spent a week and a half in Croatia in the winter and in this article I will tell you what you can expect from a visit to Plitvice Lakes in winter.
About Plitvice National Park
The Croatian name for the national park is Plitvička Jezera, or the Plitvice Lakes. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and for good reason. The 16 lakes and 90 waterfalls are breathtakingly beautiful and are a real treat for nature lovers. The park is located about a two-hour drive outside the capital of Croatia: Zagreb.
The park consists of a lower part (lower lakes) and a higher part (upper lakes). Transport between the lakes is possible on foot, by boat and by shuttle bus. Depending on the season in which you visit Plitvice, some parts of the national park will be closed for the time being.
About Plitvice in winter
If you are going to Plitvice National Park in the winter (November to March) there are a few things to keep in mind. Below I will list them one by one so you can decide whether you think a visit to Plitvice Lakes in winter is worth it.
- The Upper Lakes are closed, so you can only visit the lower part of the park.
- Forget the photos of the lush green trees covering the turquoise lakes, most of the trees are bare and brown. Or white, if you are lucky and see Plitvice Lakes covered in a layer of snow.
- Many hiking trails are closed in the winter. For example, during my recent visit (end of March) the entire canyon was closed because it was freezing, making it dangerous to enter those trails. As a result, we could only walk the part above from the entrance to the large lake and back.
- Many restaurants are closed and/or have limited opening hours. So bring enough food and drinks for your day.
- The lower part of Plitvice Lakes is located at an altitude of about 700 meters above sealevel and it can be quite cold. I was there on a sunny day, but the temperature was still around freezing. Warm clothing plus a hat, scarf and gloves are definitely worth packing.
How I enjoyed Plitvice Lakes in winter
Let me start by saying that I had booked a tour to Plitvice without high expectations, partly because I knew that I would probably get a completely different picture of the park in winter than the summer images on the internet show you.
Upon arrival in Plitvice, the guide immediately told us that there was a chance that we would not be able to enter the canyon because of the cold and this turned out to be the case. As the wooden planks were frozen and there was a layer of sleet on them, it was extremely dangerous to walk here. The canyon was therefore closed. I was quite disappointed at first, but I also knew that this can be the case when you are here in winter.
What pleasantly surprised me was that there were hardly any other tourists. In total, I probably saw just some 50 during my four-hour visit to the park, a fraction of the thousands of visitors who visit every day in the summer. Our guide told me that winter is actually the best time of year to visit Plitvice Lakes because now you can take pictures in peace and enjoy the landscapes without being run over.
Fortunately, the boat across the lower lake was still going, so we still saw this part of Plitvice Lakes. The bare trees gave the landscape a somewhat dark view, but the absence of large groups of tourists was an absolute plus. There were no queues anywhere and I could even get on the boat.
Another reason to choose Plitvice in the winter is that the entrance fee from November to March is only 10 euros per person, in the summer months this is no less than 40 euros per person! If you go with a family, it makes a considerable difference! The rates, opening times and more information about Plitvice can be found here.
How to get to Plitvice Lakes in winter
I booked a tour via GetYourGuide because I didn’t know what the conditions of the landscape would be. There had been snow the day before and to be honest, driving through the snow with a rental car was not really my thing. The tour left at 08:00 from the center of Zagreb and I was back in the city at 17:00. On the way we made a stop of about half an hour in the village of Rastoke, which means we spent about four hours in Plitvice, enough to get an impression of the national park and to visit all the sights that were open.
Check hier availability and prices for the tour I did here.
Would you rather go on your own with a car? Then Plitvice is easy to reach with a rental car. Please note that in the winter you’ll need to rent a car with winter tires because it can be icy and slippery on the road. View the best rates on Booking.com.
Conclusion and disclaimer
Although Plitvice is not as lush in the winter as it is in the other months of the year, I still found it very worthwhile. I really enjoyed the absence of other tourists and the peace that reigned in the park as a result. If you are in Croatia in the winter, I can definitely recommend a visit to Plitvice Lakes in the winter.
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