Croatia - Planet Your Way

Plitvice Lakes NP

By Mo Ibrahim | September 25, 2020

Plitvice Lakes NP

Away from the famous touristy Adriatic coast of Croatia, and in the heart of the country, lies one of the most stunning places in the entire Balkans region; and that is Plitvice Lakes NP. This NP has an extensive network of lakes and rivers connected together by majestic waterfalls of all sizes that will take your breath away! To truly enjoy this park, you’ve to hike around its different waterfalls and lakes to gain an appreciation of the entire network of waterbodies, so get your hiking boots ready:) However, as this NP is very popular with the locals and is easily accessible from different parts of the country, its famous hiking trails becomes very popular and crowded in the summer which can take away from the beauty of the place. Yet, don’t get discouraged because, in this blog, in addition to these famous trails, I’ll take you on a journey on one of the off-the-beaten-path trails in the park, in its lesser known part, that is truly stunning; albeit, a little bit strenuous…so lets start!

It is easy to plan your entire day at this stunning NP On Your Own and here I’ll give you some hints of how to do so. Our plan to visit Plitvice Lakes NP included going by bus from Zagreb and then head out of the park to Zadar (click to request info); hence, we faced a little logistical problem…where do we store our luggage while hiking in the park?

I did my research and found a place close to the park’s entrance where you can store you luggage for a fee (click to request info), and it was a life-saver; otherwise, I would have had to change my plans! Having this problem sorted out, we took an early bus from Zagreb to beat the crowds and it took nearly 2:30 hrs to arrive at entrance 1 of the NP. The park has a network of trails as you can see in the map.

Our initial plan was to start from entrance 2 of the park, hike trail “E” and them do a mountain trail that will take us to an amazing viewpoint. Unfortunately, the weather was bad that morning, rainy & foggy, so we changed our plans and decided to start from entrance 1 and hike the easy trail “A” (highlighted in the map), hoping that the weather will clear later during the day.

Trail “A” starts at entrance 1; its an easy and popular trail which makes it very crowded and it feels like walking more than hiking. The trail immediately takes you to the lower lakes in the park and you cross several bridges as you zigzag your way around these lakes.

Towards the halfway mark of the trail, you reach two small waterfalls which are nice, yet not that impressive especially in such kind of weather.

The trail takes around 2 hrs to complete and, by the time we finished, the weather cleared a bit and we decided to head to entrance 2 to start our true hiking adventure…the Medvedak hiking trail!

As you can see from this map, this trail is on the other side of the park, which is the off-the-beaten-path one, and its an 8km long trail (if taken all the way from entrance 2 to 1) and rises to an elevation of 889m. The trailhead (point 1) lies in a secluded area of the forest by the lakes.

From here, it’s a 3.85km uphill to point “3” which will take you approximately and hour to complete. From this point, you’ll start appreciating the stunning bird-eye views of the park and the waterfalls panorama that will unfold ahead of you!

At this point, there is a detour of 1km uphill to reach Medvedak Osti, the highest point on the trail, to witness a stunning panoramic view of the entire park, so take this detour and you won’t regret it:)

Unbelievable view…isn’t it!! So take your time, rest and have a picnic, and admire this beauty for as long as you want!

When you take the tough decision to head down, you’ll walk back to point “3” from which you’ll hike 2.5km to point “4”. At this point, you can either return to entrance 2 via the trail to points “2” and “1”, or continue for 2km to point “5” and entrance 1, which we did. Unfortunately, again, by the time we were halfway between points “3” and “4”, it started to rain again so had to hurry down before the trail gets slippery and couldn’t enjoy that part of the hike much.

It took around 3 hours to hike the entirety of this amazing trail and we reached entrance 1 on time for our bus to Zadar.

All in all, the scenery in this NP are out of this world, but it gets very crowded in the summer and to truly appreciate it, you have to head off-the-beaten-path to the less-explored part of the park and hike its trails…so enjoy:)

Split

By Mo Ibrahim | September 17, 2020

Split

Split is another Croatian town that isn’t as touristy as Dubrovnik, yet it is a worth a visit for its lovely old town and the adventure opportunities its surrounding area offers, the latter being the main reason I passed by this town as I planed a rock climbing adventure in the surrounding mountains! So this blog post will be divided into two main sections: the first will take you on a tour around Split’s old town with its major attractions which you can do On Your Own and the second will be about the tough and challenging rock climbing adventure, so lets start:)

I arrived at Split via a bus, which has frequent services from around the country (click to request info). I arrived from Dubrovnik and the trip was comfy and took around 4:30 hrs, but remember the border trick I mentioned in Dubrovnik’s post, you’ll have to go through the entire process again on your way back! The bus station in Split is just outside the old town walls; I arrived late at night, so went directly to my accommodation for a much-needed sleep before the tough day ahead.

I woke up early to beat the summer heat, had a nice breakfast at one of the restaurants by the port, which is the area known locally as “Riva” and it’s the perfect spot to start your day.

After finishing my breakfast, I started my walking tour inside the old town

till I reached St. Dominich church. Throughout the way, you’ll get the feeling of an authentic Croatian town surrounding you as you keep meeting friendly locals. Arriving at the St. Dominich church, you’ll have to admire its impressive structure and you can climb up its bell tower to have an amazing view of the town; unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to allow me to climb up:(

The next stop in this self-walking tour was the center and the highlight of the old town, which is Diocletia Palace. This palace has an open courtyard where you can sit and enjoy watching different groups of tourists come and go, and at certain times there will be a nice and small changing of the guards’ ceremony.

By the time I explored this palace, it was almost noon and the heat was scorching, so it is time to rest and enjoy the authentic atmosphere inside the courtyard. The last stop in this tour was the town’s Pzar, which is housed under the palace. It is a nice place to shop for souvenirs and escape the summer heat:)

After finishing this self-walking tour, it was time for the main adventure of this visit. I organized this rock climbing adventure with a local adventure company (click to request info) and everything was well-planned; albeit, our guide was not the nicest guy and didn’t show much interest in helping us navigate the rock walls…Man we are not professional climbers! Anyways, we booked our adventure at 4pm and it was a 2 hour one. Everything was on time and we were guaranteed 2 climbs each (party of 2) at least.

The first climb was a massive vertical wall which looked extremely daunting at the beginning! This didn’t deter me and I got roped up and did a safety check for a couple of steps up (always recommended to make sure that you are well supported) and all was good.

I started my way up slowly as I was getting used to the rock surface

and I made it to the halfway up.

It is an amazing feeling being able to almost walk on a vertical wall:) I took a quick rest while enjoying this feeling and off I continued. With every step up, it was getting harder and harder and to pull yourself and challenging to find a place to stick your feet into! Despite of its toughness, the adrenaline that was pumping in my veins kept me going till I reached the top!!

The next climb wasn’t as vertical as the first one, but it was more rugged and technically challenging.

It was hard to find the best path up as in some places the rock face is bulging to the outside and you have to be careful while navigating it.

During this climb, I got stuck halfway to the top and couldn’t find my way up and, by this time, all my muscles were aching as the long hot day was starting to take its toll on me, so I decided to stop and head down.

After this climb, we did another small one to an old structure carved into the rocks. Overall, the feeling of walking on a vertical wall and the adrenaline rush that you experience while rock climbing is something that can only be felt, not described! This adventure is tough mentally and physically, so when you reach the top, it feels that you conquered the world…so enjoy:)

This marked the end of my visit to split and it was time to take the train back to Zagreb (click to request info).

Zadar

By Mo Ibrahim | September 13, 2020

Zadar

Although this blog is about a town visit, unlike my normal adventurous ones, but I honestly fell in love with this town and I felt that I’ve to write a blog about it:) I can even admit this, and if you know me then you’ll know it’s a big deal…after a few hours of being in this cute town, I decided to abandon a hike that I planned in the area in order to have more time to enjoy this marvelous town!! What also makes Zadar special is that its off the radar for the typical tourists, mainly only locals visit this town, so it will allow you to enjoy the closest experience you’ll get of the authentic Croatian culture.

I arrived Zadar by bus, the bus station is located just outside the walled part of the town and its just a 10 min walk till you reach the old town gates and start your amazing adventure in this cute little town.

Similar to other old towns across Croatia, the old town of Zadar is pedestrian only and upon entering the old city from Kopnena vrata Land Gate, you arrive at Kapetanova kula, or the captain’s tower.

From here you will start walking the maze of the old town streets and get immersed in the true Croatian culture, so I recommend that you abandon your map and allow yourself to get lost in the city’s small streets and alleys. From Kapetanova kula, you can start your tour from the city’s main street, which is very narrow by the way:) and visit its beautiful squares and churches.

But the beauty of this town is in its small side streets and their curbside cafes and shops. These streets are so narrow and buzzing with local life that instantly lift your mood and make you cheerful…no wonder I decided to abandon my hiking plans:)

The town is so laid back that you can even sit on the curb and order stuff from a nearby café and enjoy the local environment around you

There is even a small local beach here that you can use to cool off from the heat of the sun during the day

At night, the town is lively and buzzing and locals tend to go out till late. There are a number of cute bars in the old town, especially by the sea, and some more local ones in the new part of the town (outside the city walls), but beware of your surroundings when you venture out there.

I bet you can sense my enthusiasm in my tone here:) I truly fell in love with this town and hope that you’ll too…so enjoy:)

Dubrovnik

By Mo Ibrahim | August 7, 2020

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a world-famous tourist destination and it is on the itinerary of every visitor to Croatia…and for good reason. So even if you are a backpacker or an adventurer on a budget, and you decided to visit Croatia, then you’ve to visit this amazing city. However, despite all the touristy stuff that you can do in the city, there are also some adventures that are off-the-beaten-path that very few visitors to this city know about, and they are not for the faint-hearted!

The first adventure in visiting this city is the way to get there! Dubrovnik is in the far south of the country, so normally people fly or sail there, yet if you are a backpacker on a budget, like me, then the best option is to take a long bus trip. I took the bus from Zadar, which takes around 6 hours, it was very comfortable, and the roads are in very good shape, but the strangest thing I ever experienced happened on this trip! In this trip, you are supposed to be taking a bus between two Croatian cities, but I didn’t know that when traveling by land, you’ve to pass into and out of Bosnia & Herzegovina to reach Dubrovnik…strange, isn’t it!! And since your crossing international borders, then this is accompanied by all the passport control formalities that you experience at an airport, but twice:)

When arriving in Dubrovnik, it is time to take care of your accommodation. The touristy and interesting part of Dubrovnik is the old walled city, but to stay there, you’ll have to break your budget big time. So, I recommend that you stay in the residential part of the city, outside the city walls. Although it’s a modern and not so special area, you can find cheap and comfortable airbnbs there. The only drawback is that you’ll have to take the bus to reach the old city. To do so, you’ve two options: an overpriced touristy bus, or the local one (click to request info), guess which one I took:)

Having taken care of your accommodation, now its time for the fun part!

As I mentioned earlier, Dubrovnik is a very touristy city, so you better visit early in the morning to avoid the tour bus crowds and guarantee an authentic experience. I’ll not talk in this blog about the magnificent squares and churches in this city as you’ll find these in every travel guide, but they are a must to explore when you visit Dubrovnik, just be sure that you are armed with a good city map to optimize your visiting time (click to request info).

I won’t also talk about all the GOT sites in the city that you can visit as these two are in every guide to Dubrovnik, and if you are a GOT fan like me, then it will be fun to check them out and pose for pictures:).

Instead, I’ll focus here on two adventurous activities that are unique to this city and each is considered a once in a lifetime experience. The first adventure is walking the walls of the old city. These walls resemble a small version of the Great Wall of China and very few tourists walk the entirety of its length. With a map that points out the major sites in the city, start your walk at the Pile gate and walk clockwise. The entire walk is about 2km, so take your time, and in the summer, start early to avoid the scorching heat. You’ll have amazing and stunning bird-eye views of the city,

as well as panoramic views of the open sea.

The second adventure and the highlight of the trip is something you won’t expect to find in this tourist hotspot!! Its an activity that very few know about it or dare to do it, in the first place…its cliff jumping into the sea!! I’ve to warn you though, this is a completely unsupervised activity and you are On Your Own, so be careful and do it at your own risk! I’ll not reveal the location of the spot from where you can cliff jump into the sea here to allow your adventurous soul to discover it on its own, but of course, if you need any help, just contact me (click to request info). When reaching the location, you’ll first be scared of the scale of the jumps, but there are multi spots from which you can jump, so take your time, assess them all, gather your courage and do it! Its an amazing feeling:) I did two jumps: the first wasn’t too high, but you’ll have to run & jump!!

It is a bit scary, so take your time and let yourself flyyyyy:) the adrenaline rush I felt afterward is like nothing I experienced before; and if you were reluctant, your fellow adventurers will keep encouraging you:)

The next jump I did was higher, but doesn’t require running which makes a little bit easier, at least for me! So again, gather your courage and let fly:) My advice is that don’t think about the jumps too much, just think of the amazing feeling and let yourself free and you won’t regret it…its an experience of a lifetime!!

Category: Croatia