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Old 13 Jul 19, 03:15 PM  
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DisneyDaffodil
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Split Croatia June 2019 ~ Day Two ~ Krka National Park

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This morning we had set our alarms for 6:50am as we had to be up and ready early to catch the 8am bus from Split to Skradin (where Krka National Park is). We all quickly got ready and drank a coffee in our apartment before leaving and heading down to the bus station, which was around 5 minutes walk away.
We had bought the tickets for the bus online in advance, as we had read that they can sell out and didn’t want to miss out on going here. The tickets had cost £44 for returns for the three of us, which worked out cheaper than an organised trip and allowed us to choose what time we wanted to travel there and leave at.
The bus station in Split is very busy but well organised, so its easy to find the bus that you want. It is useful to know the final destination of the bus you are catching as this is what is displayed on the signs above the bus stop and on the front of the bus. Also, if you’ve booked in advance, its good to know what company you’ve booked with (it says on the top of the ticket) as there are many bus companies running to the same destination and the tickets are not transferable between companies.
Our bus arrived on time and we were able to find seats together towards the back of the bus, despite it being quite full. The bus was air-conditioned and comfortable. The journey took an hour and a half and the scenery that we passed was beautiful and I enjoyed watching it and listening to music while we drove.

The bus dropped us off in Skradin and we were confused for a few minutes as we had no idea which way to go. Thankfully there were a few other people from our bus looking as confused as us, so we weren’t the only ones. It wasn’t too far from the bus stop though and there was a sign post a few metres from the bus stop. I was desperate for the toilet at this point and we didn’t know where there would be public toilets around, so we decided to go and buy the tickets for Krka National Park and hope there were toilets in the information centre (which there wasn’t) There was a ten minute queue to buy tickets. These cost £63 for the three of us and was definitely worth the price.
We left the information centre and headed down to the waterfront. I tried to take photos here as it was really pretty and a picture of the boat we had to catch to go to the National Park but we were very quickly ushered onto the boat as they were almost leaving (despite the fact that the woman in the information centre had told us it would be another 15 minutes until the next boat)

The boat journey took around 30 minutes and we travelled along a very pretty lake, where there were swans and beautiful scenery. Despite it looking nice, this felt like a very long journey to me as I still needed the toilet.
We quickly disembarked when we arrived in the National Park to find the nearest toilets for Georgia. There were nearby so we all went here, which cost us around 60p each.
Now that we had been to the toilet, we decided to actually explore Krka As you enter the park there are many food stalls selling sandwiches, ice creams, drinks and hot food. Rob and I were instantly distracted by the ice cream and decided that 10am was a good time for todays ice cream. When they pointed it out, I assumed they were just showing me it for later but no, they decided that we immediately needed an ice cream. I wasn’t going to object haha. Rob and I had a raspberry ice cream and I had oreo ice cream. These were delicious and we ate them as we wandered over to the waterfalls.


Today was another boiling hot day, which made it difficult to walk around in at times but also made the waterfalls and lakes appear even more beautiful. The first waterfalls are the only waterfalls that you can swim in so it’s busiest here. We spent quite a while on the bridge here, eating our ice creams and taking photos. It was so pretty and so different to anywhere else we’ve ever visited.






After a while of looking at the waterfalls we started to walk up the flights of steps to take us to the top of the waterfalls. We took frequent breaks at every level to take photos and catch our breath. Although there was a lot of steps, we usually would have been okay climbing these, although here the heat was very intense and made it difficult to breath when walking uphill.






We were all exhausted by the end of the steps, as it was so hot, and we sent Dad up the final set before us to see how much more there was as we didn’t know if we could manage to walk much more in that heat. Thankfully, he called us up as that was the last set of stairs. I’m so glad that we did manage to do it, even if we were all sweating and dying of thirst by the time we reached the top. The views from up here were amazing and we spent quite a bit of time cooling down and taking photos here.


There were so many different species of insect around the waterfalls and lakes. I loved watching all the butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies and other insects around here (and trying to take photos of them despite how fast they were flying)

I was starting to worry when we were walking up the steps if we were going to be able to manage all of the walking, due to the temperature, but after this we were all ok throughout the day ( as it was mostly flat from here on and much shadier)
I stopped to take photos by a very cute pink flowering tree and we watched a frog in the river by here who was loudly croaking (this was where I started to really enjoy the national park, as it was really peaceful here and much less crowded then the waterfalls)




We then walked on to the lakes. These were stunning. They seemed so tranquil and we spent a long time appreciating the beauty of the park. I really loved the lakes as they were so natural and spectacular without any human intervention. We walked along wooden platforms/pathways along the lakes, sometimes with water on both sides or waterfalls right next to the pathway. It was so wonderful to be that close to the lakes, without barriers or fencing (which also made it easier to take photos) It truly had a magical woodland/lake feeling to it like something from a Studio Ghibli film. We could spend hours talking about this lake part of the national park (but we decided that would be boring to read) so we’ll just show you our photos instead so you can appreciate the beauty yourself. If you look carefully in the last of these set of photos you can see a beautiful orange butterfly flying in front of Rob that none of us noticed at the time, but noticed when we looked back at the photos












After hours of wandering, we walked back down a flight of steps to the bottom by the big waterfalls again. We were all starving now (it was about 1:30pm and we’d been walking since we’d arrived at 10am) We found a space on the grass although it was very crowded in this area and left Rob here while we went to buy lunch. While we were gone, a lizard scurried onto our towel even though Dad was sat next to him. Throughout our whole meal the lizard continued to run around us and a few times came very close to walking over our legs.


For lunch we each had a baguette and a cold drink. This came to around £20, which was a little more expensive than some of the meals we had in Croatia but it was expected as there wasn’t many options there. Georgia and I had ham and cheese and Rob had tuna and they were all delicious so we were happy to pay more for them. I forgot to take photos of these baguettes as I was wayyyy too hungry. Sorry. They looked like baguettes though, so I’m sure you can imagine them.
Georgia and I then went back to a smaller area with a waterfall where you could walk into the water and go under a waterfall. There were lots of people taking posed ‘Instagram’ photos here, which felt a bit awkward so we just paddled in the water to see what it was like and then left. I did go under one of the waterfalls though and it was freezing, so I don’t know how people were posing for such nice photos. I would have just looked like I was shivering if I did that
We then all wandered around to the main waterfall and enjoyed watching people here. It seemed really difficult to get in and out of the water, as it was very steep. I did find an easier way to the far right of this area, where you walked down a small river into the lake so it would be easier to get into the water this way than going the steep way that most people seemed to be trying. I walked down this river part to take some photos but didn’t go into the lake, as it was quite deep and rocky (so I didn’t want to hurt my feet or fall)

We walked back to near the entrance and all bought a cold drink and sat on a bench to drink them. I had water and Rob had a coke and I had a red slushie which was really refreshing. However, I forgot to take photos here again (I promise, this is the only day of the holiday that I forgot to take photos) Here’s a photo of a leaf instead.

It was now around 3:30pm so we decided to catch the boat back to Skradin even though our bus wasn’t booked until 5pm. We knew we had to be there for that exact bus though so wanted to be safe and we’d already explored all of Krka National Park. We paid another 60p each for the toilets before catching the next boat back.

When we got back to Skradin, we went into a little supermarket nearby and got a couple of bottles of water. We sat in the shade in the park here and drank these drinks before heading back to the bus stop at 4:30pm so that we’d be early, in case the bus arrived.
This is where the day started to go wrong. The bus did not arrive at 5pm. We were a little worried but knew that it could be a little late so continued to wait. After another 15 minutes, Rob and I went to ask the man in the bus information kiosk if he knew how long it would be and he said that it always came around 5:30pm instead. We waited until 5:30 when a bus arrived. We thought it might have been our bus, however, when we asked and showed our tickets they told us it was the wrong bus company and that we’d have to wait for that bus. They were as helpful as they could be but had no idea when that bus would arrive. By now the attendant had left the kiosk too so we couldn’t ask him. I was starting to get very worried as I didn’t think our bus was going to arrive so we started to plan what to do instead. We asked the bus driver if they had another bus that would arrive later and they said there was one from their company at 6:30pm that we could pay around £30 for all of us to catch.
Then we decided to call the bus company, as I’d found their number on an email, to see where our bus was. The woman I spoke to was very helpful and told me she’d call me back after she’d spoke to the bus driver to find out where he was. She rang me back five minutes later saying that the bus had been extremely delayed between the last stop and the one in Skradin but that they’d be with us by 6:05pm. It was now 5:50 so we were relieved that there were two options of catching a bus soon. Thankfully, the bus we had booked arrived at 6:10pm so we were very pleased to make the journey back to Split. It felt like a very long journey back but we got to Split at 7:30pm.
We would still recommend using the public buses to Krka National Park as the organised trips had limited time in the park and we preferred the freedom of doing it ourselves. However, we think it would be better to not pre-book tickets as then you can catch any buses with spare seats in Skradin, as 3 buses from different companies with spare seats had left for Split in the time we’d waited and we’d been unable to get on them.
Rob and I decided to head to the shop to get some meats and cheeses for a simple meal in the apartment as we were all too tired to go out that evening. I decided to head back to the apartment, as I didn’t want to walk all the way to the supermarket and I could take the heavy bags off mum and dad. I climbed the 6 sets of stairs and unlocked the door. I walked into the cool, air-conditioned apartment. And then couldn’t go any further. I couldn’t get the key out of the door haha. I tried everything, reclosing and relocking the door, turning it, shaking it, trying to pull it at every angle. Nothing worked. I even resorted to messaging my friend in the UK and putting it on my instastories, as if that was going to help me. So, I had to stand in the doorway of our apartment, even when the woman who lived upstairs walked past me with her pet dog and stared at me standing there awkwardly and very suspiciously. About 15 minutes later, Mum and Dad arrived. Dad took 2 seconds to take the key out, leaving me embarrassed and very confused about how he did it. I never did figure out how to get the key out of the door.
We quickly sat around the kitchen table and ate some of the meats and cheeses that we’d bought.

I loaded the dishwasher and we all showered before sitting out on the balcony (on the floor for me as there were only two chairs out there) and I enjoyed a couple of glasses of Malbec, Rob had a few lagers and I had a glass of apple juice. We discussed our plans for the next day, where we planned to tackle the dreaded buses again, before heading to bed.

The next day we caught the bus (again, although this time more successfully) to Trogir and then spent the evening on the Riva in Split.

Edited at 12:50 PM.
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Old 14 Jul 19, 07:23 AM  
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Melbatb
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What a fabulous day and such stunning scenery! I can see why you were all very enchanted with it!
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Old 14 Jul 19, 08:19 AM  
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Such a beautiful place. The waterfalls look stunning. It sounds like you really enjoyed the day, even if the walk up the stairs in the heat was a bit hard. I'd have been a bit worried about being stranded when the bus didn't turn up, thankfully it was fine in the end.
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Old 14 Jul 19, 08:20 AM  
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Glad you enjoyed the park, it is breathtakingly beautiful I think. Some lovely photos of you all too, love your daffodil yellow top! 🥰

Looking forward to tomorrow’s post, we didnt do Trogir. You did well to manage the buses etc, we got picked up at our hotel, and then in the park by bus when we went. Krka is so worth a visit.
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Old 14 Jul 19, 09:29 AM  
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Originally Posted by Melbatb View Post
What a fabulous day and such stunning scenery! I can see why you were all very enchanted with it!
It was scenery overload 😀 We had problems deciding which photos to put on the report as Georgia took so many. She has said it’s possibly the most beautiful place we have visited in the world (so far 😉 )
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Old 14 Jul 19, 09:32 AM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
Such a beautiful place. The waterfalls look stunning. It sounds like you really enjoyed the day, even if the walk up the stairs in the heat was a bit hard. I'd have been a bit worried about being stranded when the bus didn't turn up, thankfully it was fine in the end.
The steps were hard as I’m certainly not fit 😀 but it was definitely worth it. I was stressed over the bus but we felt better once we had alternative plans if it didn’t turn up. I thought buses at home were unreliable, but that bus was over an hour late! 😂
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Old 14 Jul 19, 09:39 AM  
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Originally Posted by Loopylooloo View Post
Glad you enjoyed the park, it is breathtakingly beautiful I think. Some lovely photos of you all too, love your daffodil yellow top! 🥰

Looking forward to tomorrow’s post, we didnt do Trogir. You did well to manage the buses etc, we got picked up at our hotel, and then in the park by bus when we went. Krka is so worth a visit.
Thank you, I do love yellow 😀 .

We were pleased we caught buses as it gave us more freedom. As we took a slow pace through Krka, I felt an organised bus would be a bit rushed for us. I would do it the same way again but not prebook a certain bus company. We got to the bus stop at 4.30 and there was a bus with space on it ready to go to Split, but we couldn’t get on as it wasn’t the one we’d booked which was so frustrating.

We are hoping to get Trogir day written and posted this week before we set off on our next adventure to Vietnam 😀 There will be a couple of weeks break then, but we will complete the trip report this summer I promise 😀
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Old 14 Jul 19, 09:34 PM  
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What lovely photos,your daughter certainly knows how to capture a lovely shot.i wish my photos came out with such good quality!
The park looks stunning & we are definitely paying it a visit.
So would your advice be,to just turn up to the bus station & catch the next available bus & the same on the return.do they run regularly & is there a place to buy the return tickets at the bus stop,or do you pay on board.
Sorry for the questions,I’m just trying to get a clear picture in my head,of the best way to do it.
You all certainly look like you really enjoyed your day & those steps certainly looked worth the effort,when you got to see those beautiful views.
Look forward to reading your next instalment
Tracy x
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Old 14 Jul 19, 09:50 PM  
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Originally Posted by tracy99 View Post
What lovely photos,your daughter certainly knows how to capture a lovely shot.i wish my photos came out with such good quality!
The park looks stunning & we are definitely paying it a visit.
So would your advice be,to just turn up to the bus station & catch the next available bus & the same on the return.do they run regularly & is there a place to buy the return tickets at the bus stop,or do you pay on board.
Sorry for the questions,I’m just trying to get a clear picture in my head,of the best way to do it.
You all certainly look like you really enjoyed your day & those steps certainly looked worth the effort,when you got to see those beautiful views.
Look forward to reading your next instalment
Tracy x
Thanks, Georgia does love photography and it’s been a hobby of hers for years. Krka is so beautiful though, you will definitely get some nice photos 😃

Based on our experience, I would perhaps buy a single to Krka in advance online for the time you want to go as morning buses are busy and can fill up. We went on the 8 am bus and it was full (and that was in June so not quite main season). I wouldn’t buy our return in advance again though as it ties you to one bus (if it turns up 😂 ) You can buy a return ticket from the small kiosk in Skradin by the bus stop or buy it from the driver when the bus turns up. The only worry about this in main season is availability of seats on the return bus as although there are regular buses, it is a very popular place to visit. When do you go? Is it September? I would imagine it may be quieter again then so you should be able to get a seat on the day. Personally I would only prebook in high season

Edited at 09:53 PM.
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Old 15 Jul 19, 12:13 AM  
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That’s very helpful,thank you!
We go sept 5-12,so the schools will be back by then,so may be quieter.
It’s certainly gave me a clearer understanding,of how to go about it ourselves,rather than a tour,so thank you again
Tracy x
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