Plitvice Lakes National Park, a natural jewel in the heart of Croatia

Although other continents have impressive lakes and waterfalls, in Europe we can also find some that are truly beautiful.

A bunker beneath a cemetery and a monument featuring a Serbian T-55 tank in Zadar, Croatia
The armored train of Split, a relic of Croatia's war of independence

One of the places where we can see them is in the heart of Croatia, about 12 kilometers from the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the Plitvice Lakes National Park, in the Lika region, a place of spectacular natural beauty that was declared a national park on April 8, 1949, and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on October 26, 1979. For the most part (90.7%), the park is located in Lika-Senj County, with a small area (9.3%) in Karlovac County.

Since 1997, the park has covered an area of ​​almost 300 square kilometers and contains 16 main lakes (Prošćansko, Ciginovac, Okrugljak, Batinovac, Veliko, Malo, Vir, Galovac, Milino, Gradinsko, Burgeti, Kozjak, Milanovac, Gavanovac, Kaluđerovac, and Novakovića Brod) and several smaller, unnamed lakes. In addition, the park has 92 waterfalls of varying sizes. The most prominent are the Sastavci Falls, from whose base the Korana River flows. Although there are free viewpoints to see the park from above, visiting the interior requires payment (you can see the prices by clicking here).

Recently, our friends from the excellent YouTube channel Aventuras Entresierras (which I recommend you subscribe to) visited this beautiful place and show it in the following video (the video is in Spanish but has an English audio track, you can activate it in the player):

As usual, you can see here some screenshots that show just a small part of the natural wonders featured in this interesting video. Here we see the road leading to the national park. It looks very similar to the forests of my homeland, Galicia.

A beautiful view of the nature park from one of the viewpoints. In the background, we see two of the park's lakes: the large one is Gradinsko and the small one is Burgeti.

Two of the electric boats that travel on Lake Kozjak, the largest lake in this park. Tourists have eight boats available to explore this lake: six with a capacity of 100 passengers and two smaller ones for 50 passengers.

One of the park's wooden walkways. It is very well maintained and very well adapted for tourism.

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Images: Aventuras Entresierras.