Discovering the National Park of Krka

Hi, everyone!

This is my first post and I want to start it off by talking about one of the most special places that I have visited in Croatia.

It is a place which was declared as a national park in 1985, which covers an area of 100 kilometres squared around the river Krka and it has up to 7 waterfalls. In addition to its evident naturistic value, it also has monasteries, churches, remains of Roman buildings... and lots of other examples which also demonstrate its cultural value.

The most advisable thing to do is to go there in the early morning and spend the whole day there, to fully make the most of the park, since there are quite a lot of things to visit. There are even people who stay and sleep overnight in accommodations nearby to the park and dedicate more than one or two days to go around it. It is a personal choice!

We needed the rest of the days of our route to visit other places so we only dedicated one day to visiting the park, but I have to say that if you make the most of your visit, a day is sufficient to see the most incredible sites in the park. Saying that, it is essential to plan well what you want to visit beforehand.

The price

In terms of the price, it varies a lot depending on which season that you visit the park in. In low season it costs around 30 Croatian Kuna, whilst in high season it can cost around 150 Kunas (around 20 euros). I have to say that we received quite a big student discount, so it ended up costing us around 100 Kunas (approximately 13 euros), if I remember rightly. There are also group discounts.

Access to the park

To access the park, we went by car and there was lots of spare space to park.

We got the entrance right there at the time, but that could be a risky choice because in high season they fly away! The best option is to reserve them in advance through the official website.

If you don't have a car, there are lots of trips from Split, Sibenik and other nearby cities which will take you via bus to the park.

Visiting the park

Inside the park, there is an infinite choice of things to do. There is the option of getting there by walking uphill for around 30 minutes, according to what they told us, or to take buses for free which take you to the entrance of the park in around 10 minutes. We decided on the second option so that we could better profit from our visit, but if you go there with time to spare I recommend that you go up by foot as at various points you will be able to enjoy incredible views of the park.

On arrival there are various options, we decided to go on a boat trip to visit the Rog waterfall (Roski slap) and the little island of Visovac; leaving the visit to the Skrandinski buk area for later. Even though we decided on that excursion, there are more options, such as the one to just visit the little Island of Visovac (which takes 2 hours) or to visit the Krka Monastery and the remains of the fortresses of Trosenj and Necven (2 and a half hours).

Little Island of Visovac and Rog waterfall

In our case, the visit lasted 3 and a half hours and we paid 130 Kunas extra to do it. It isn't exactly cheap but as we were there, we thought that it was worthwhile visiting the park in depth.

The boat trip is beautiful, no matter what direction you look in, the landscape is always worth admiring. First off, we stopped at the little island of Visovac, for 30 minutes. On this island, you will find the Franciscan Monastery and the Church of Our Lady of Visovac, built in 1445, which converted this little island into one of the places with the most naturistic and cultural value in Croatia. The monastery boasts a huge amount of books and historical manuscripts such as an important archaeological collection, a collection of religious dress and a collection of ancient tableware.

After that, we continued our journey on boat towards Roski slap. Once we had got there, there were several options: visit the watermills that were located right where we had left the boat, walk through the trail which goes by the side of the Collares waterfalls, visit the Ozidana Pecina cave... We only had roughly an hour left before we had to get the boat back, so we decided to go on the trail until we came across lots of wooden zigzagged stairs and we decided to go up them; without knowing that at the end, without expecting it, we arrived at the Ozidana Pecina cave.

The way up still took a while, since there were quite a lot of stairs which you have to go up to get there. Saying that, the views from there were priceless and it is the perfect way to see the Collares waterfalls from a birds-eye view.

We went inside the cave were there was an exhibition of an archaeological collection, and we discovered that it was here that man had lived from the year 5,000 to the year 15,000 BC. The cave is quite small so you can visit it really quickly.

Then, we went down all of the stairs again and we realised that now we didn't have enough time left to continue on with the hike, but saying that, I do recommend the route that we did since you can view the whole of the incredible landscape from above.

Skradinski buk

After our boat trip, we got ready to visit the most well-known area and where you can find the biggest and prettiest waterfall: Skradinski buk. You can go around the area thanks to the wooden walkways and other routes. The route lasts approximately an hour or even less, and along with it we came across several viewpoints from which you can photograph the incredible landscape.

At the end of the route, we came across the famous waterfall and we made the most of it by taking a dip in it, since it is allowed, and relax a bit after the visit. Just to the side of the waterfall, there is a terrace where they have installed a couple of bars and ice-cream shops, food, souvenirs, etc.

The park closes around 6 or 7 pm in the evening, but watch out! If you don't go in high season the opening hours change and it closes around 4-5 pm, as the sun sets very early there. Therefore, it is recommendable to always take a look at the website to inform yourselves before visiting.

It had been a long day and as it was already getting later, so to get back to the area where the bus will take you back to the bus entrance you have to walk around 30 minutes, if I remember rightly. You can also do the same return route, but the best option without a doubt is to cross the wooden bridge which goes over the river (just to the side of the big waterfall) and continue the route right till the end, since it is a circular route. Also, along this route, we came across some new and beautiful places, like the ones in the following photos.

As a whole, the National Park of Krka had left us in love, as much for me as for everyone that I know that has been lucky enough to visit it before. After the National Park of Plitvice, it is the most important one in the country and a place which has as much unmeasurable naturistic value as it does cultural.

Saying that, so that you don't lose the magic of the area it is always the best option to visit it during low season. If not, as in my case, at the start of June when you can still enjoy it well even though it starts to fill up with quite a few tourists (although barely any when compared with July and August).

And that is everything! I hope that you liked this post and that it is helpful.

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