Plitvice Lakes National Park

Feel your team needs an enduring lesson in patience and perseverance? Take them to see the astounding beauty of Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes National Park, where Nature has painstakingly sculpted a unique paradise over thousands of years.

Nature At Work

Plitvice Lakes National Park is Croatia’s oldest and largest national park known for its stunning natural splendour. Located about a 2-hour drive south of Zagreb, the park features 16 interlinked lakes representing a marvellous natural architectural phenomenon. The waters flowing over the limestone and chalk deposited travertine barriers over the ages, forming natural dams which in turn created this series of beautiful lakes, caves and waterfalls. The lakes are renowned for their dazzling colours, ranging from turquoise to emerald green to grey. The colours change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the slant of sunlight.

World Treasure

The Plitvice Lakes became a major tourist attraction in the late 19th century. The first hotel was built there in 1896, and it had a conservation committee as early as 1893 — the predecessor of today’s national park authority. The area was declared a national park in 1949. In 1979, it became one of the first natural wonders to be inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List in recognition of its "outstanding natural beauty, and the undisturbed production of travertine (tuff) through chemical and biological action." The Plitvice Lakes are today one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in Croatia, with more than 1,200,000 visitors recorded each year. The popularity of this park is also boosted by the special means of transport used to ferry visitors around: the panoramic electric trains and the noiseless electro-powered boats. An 8 km network of pathways and wooden walking trails allows visitors to easily access the numerous waterfalls and rocky lake shores.

The Enchanted Wood

Due to its range of microclimates, varying levels of altitude and differing soils, a wide variety of plant communities flourish in Plitvice. The national park features a mixture of Alpine and Mediterranean vegetation, and is densely forested — mainly with beech, spruce and fir trees. The fauna-rich forests are home to the rare European brown bear and Eurasian otter. Wolf, lynx and wild cat can also be found, along with many more common species. At least 126 kinds of birds inhabit the park, of which 70 have been recorded as breeding here. Elusive avians include the Eurasian eagle-owl and long-fingered bat.

It is impossible to say whether the park is more beautiful in the spring, when the flowers in its meadows are in full bloom and when the trees have turned green again, or when the riot of autumn colours is reflected in the waters of the lakes. Or indeed during the winter calm, when ice petrifies the waterfalls and the surrounding trees are heavily laden with snow.

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