Trek Lika–Senj and Karlovac counties — between Zagreb and Zadar, Croatia

Plitvice Lakes: The Full Traverse

One day walking the length of Croatia's oldest national park on boardwalks laid across sixteen terraced turquoise lakes, with an electric boat over Kozjak and the 78-metre Veliki Slap at the end.

Duration: 1 days
Distance: 18 km
Ascent: 400 m
Difficulty: Easy
Best season: Late spring and early autumn, May–June and September–October (full water, thinner crowds). July–August is hot and sells out; winter is beautiful but many boardwalks close

Plitvice is a staircase of water. Sixteen lakes descend one into the next down a wooded limestone valley, separated not by dams but by barriers of travertine — porous rock that the water itself builds, grain by grain, as moss and algae pull chalk out of solution. The process is still running. Radiocarbon dating puts the start of it 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, and when UNESCO inscribed the park in 1979 it cited exactly this: outstanding natural beauty, and the undisturbed production of travertine.

The walking is genuinely easy — the park’s 296.85 km² spans 367 m at the Korana bridge to 1,279 m at Seliški vrh, but the lake route uses barely any of that range. What makes it a full day is length and crowd density, not effort. Almost all of it is on wooden boardwalks, many with no handrail, running inches above water so clear the trout beneath you look suspended in air.

This route describes the classic full traverse: Upper Lakes first, boat across Kozjak, then the Lower Lakes canyon to the great waterfall.

Getting there. Buses from Zagreb (about 2 hours) and Zadar stop at both entrances. Entrance 2 is the southern one, closest to the Upper Lakes; Entrance 1 is northern, at the Lower Lakes and Veliki Slap. They are about 3 km apart, connected by the free shuttle.

Good to know:

Start at Entrance 2 and walk downhill and north. Everyone else starts at Entrance 1, so you walk against the flow all day and finish at the waterfall instead of fighting for it at 10am.
Book online in advance. High-season adult tickets run around €40 and summer days sell out. The boat and shuttle are included.
The electric ferries across Kozjak are part of the route, not an add-on — roughly every 20 minutes, 7:00–19:00.
Boardwalks are narrow, one-way in places, and slick when wet. No swimming anywhere in the park, and stepping off the boards onto the travertine is prohibited — it is the thing you came to see and it breaks.
Brown bears, wolves and lynx all live here. You will not see them on the lake route.

Day 1

Upper Lakes to Veliki Slap

Entrance 2 (Ulaz 2) → Entrance 1 (Ulaz 1) 18 km ↑ 400 m

Navigate this day

Downhill and north through the Upper Lakes, across Kozjak by electric boat, then into the Lower Lakes canyon to the great waterfall.

Segments

Prošćansko jezero and the Upper Lakes 5 km ↑ 60 m 📍 Map

Entrance 2 → Galovac

Forest path and boardwalk

Drop through beech forest to Prošćansko jezero, the highest lake and — with Kozjak — one of the two that together hold about 80% of the park's water. The boardwalks begin here, threading between the pools on the softer, greener, more wooded half of the system. About 2 hours.
The travertine terraces 4 km ↑ 30 m 📍 Map

Galovac → Kozjak south shore

Boardwalk over open water

The best of the Upper Lakes. Boardwalks run directly across the terraced barriers, with water sheeting over travertine on both sides and cascades falling under your feet. This is where the turquoise is most intense — the colour shifts with light, mineral content and angle, so the same pool looks different on the way back.

About this place

Travertine is a form of fresh water limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and rusty varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot spring or in a limestone cave. In the latter, it can form stalactites, stalagmites, and other speleothems.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0
Electric boat across Kozjak 3 km ↑ 0 m 📍 Map

Kozjak south shore (P2) → Kozjak north shore (P1)

Lake crossing by boat

A silent electric ferry — no petrol engines are allowed on the water — takes about 15 minutes to cross the length of Kozjak, the park's largest and deepest lake at 47 m. It is the natural break in the day and the only time you sit down. Boats run roughly every 20 minutes and the fare is in your ticket.
The Lower Lakes canyon 4 km ↑ 40 m 📍 Map

Kozjak north shore → Novakovića Brod

Boardwalk under cliffs

The character changes completely. The valley narrows into a limestone canyon and the boardwalks are pinned between grey cliffs and falling water, past Milanovac, Gavanovac and Kaluđerovac. Šupljara cave sits in the wall here, with rock-cut stairs climbing between two lakes. Louder, darker and more dramatic than anything upstream.
Veliki Slap and the climb out 2 km ↑ 270 m 📍 Map

Novakovića Brod → Entrance 1

Boardwalk, then stepped path

A short spur runs to the foot of Veliki Slap, where the Plitvica stream drops 78 m into the canyon — the tallest waterfall in Croatia, and the point where the lakes hand their water to the Korana. Then the only real climb of the day: a stepped path up the canyon wall to the viewpoint above Entrance 1, with the whole lower system laid out behind you.

About this place

The Korana is a river in central Croatia and west Bosnia and Herzegovina. The river has a total length of 138.6 km (86.1 mi) and watershed area of 2,301.5 km2 (888.6 mi2).
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Neoneo13 · Public domain