Split, Croatia – Krka National Park – The Phillips Family Travels

We set the alarm for 6am as we had planned to visit Plitvice Lakes National Park and it was a 3 hour drive away. We woke up, I checked the opening times online only to realise you need to pre-book tickets and they were all sold out for the day! Thank goodness we hadn’t set off on the 250km drive to find this out at the gate! There were very few tickets left for the coming days so we booked for 8am later in the week and decided to go to Krka instead. Tom and Izzy were looking forward to Krka as they knew you could swim under the waterfall.

Krka is about an hour away from Split and as we were up so early we thought we may as-well arrive for opening and hopefully beat the crowds.

We parked at the Lozovac entrance to the park and paid 840 Kuna (approximately £100) to enter. Lozovac is at the top of the park and there were buses to drive you down to the lakes as no cars are allowed. We sat on the bus and waited for what seemed like an age for the driver to depart. A few passengers gave up waiting and got off but we stayed and soon got moving. It transpired as we drove down to the water that the road was so windy and narrow that buses couldn’t pass each other so they had to wait for all the buses to be back at the top before the next batch could drive down.

At the bottom of the road we started walking towards Skradinski Buk, the large waterfall. There are wooden walking trails which you follow and they take you over small lakes and passed little waterfalls. The water was so clear you could see the fish swimming.

^{The walk to Skradinski Buk}

The scenery was spectacular but it was very busy and as the walkways were narrow you did feel as if you were just in a long queue of people. It wasn’t a long walk and we reached Skradinski Buk.

We hadn’t realised how kitted out the waterfall area would be – lots of food stands and places to get drinks. We were able to hire lockers which was great as we could keep all our belongings safe and all get in the water together.

As we got in Stuart realised that the Go-pro case had let in water so he took the broken Go-pro back to our locker and I stayed with Tom and Izzy. They were straight in the water whilst it took me about 15 minutes to get in as it felt cold as it was so hot out.

As you swim out the water is actually really deep but there are some huge rocks underneath which you can stand on (if you can find them – and keep your balance with the under currents). Stu came back and joined us and we swam out to the barrier – you cant go under the falls. At one point a pair of swans swam by us.

^{Skradinski Buk}

We all got out, got changed and decided what snacks to buy from the food stands. Kids and Stu went for crepes whilst I had the healthy option of a fruit bowl. Kids also had slushies. I was pleasantly surprised how reasonably priced it all was.

To get back to the bus we could walk up the other side of the waterfall as the trail was a round route. Despite the heat and it being uphill I actually preferred this part of the walk. There were views across the park and it didn’t seem as busy as when we arrived.