DESTINATION: Croatia

DATES: 13. April 2022 - 18. April 2022

REASON FOR TRAVEL: Pleasure

MODES OF TRANSPORT: Night Train, Car Rental

Easter Break in Croatia

It’s been a long two years, but with the worst of the Corona pandemic slowly slipping into the rearview mirror, we knew that we wanted to get away. Since our trip to Bosnia, Plitvice had been on our list. A lack of travel in the past two years has made us acutely aware of the hassle of air travel today, especially with all the different restrictions and spontaneous cancellations. Furthermore, we wanted to reduce our carbon footprint and decided to go by train. At the end of February, we bought two return tickets from the SBB to Zagreb with a private sleeping cabin.

The train combines wagons from the ÖBB, Slovenian Rail and Croatian Rail. The Croatian Rail cars seemed to be the oldest, but the room was tidy, though crowded, even if just for two people. I’d recommend packing light and a snack, as you’ll only get a bottle of water and then a coffee and a croissant in the morning. Despite a rolling night, I still got seven hours of sleep and awoke on the border between Austria and Slovenia to see the sunrise out the window.

Plitvice in Spring

Via CarJet.com we rented a Fiat500 from MACK RENT A CAR. The nice thing was that the car was brought right to the main station for us and in less than 15 minutes we were on the road to Plitvice. The drive through the Croatian countryside is familiar to much of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire from the architecture, and landscape wise similar to Ontario, Canada. Arriving in the park, we went to our hotel, the Hotel Jezero - a monolithic hotel with 229 rooms, big restaurants, a spa area and a bar. It’s practically situated in the heart of the park, which makes it easy to access the lakes without needing to drive anywhere.

Despite Zurich being in full bloom, Plitvice was just starting to bud. In the two days we were there, we saw the park change shades of green as more leaves unfolded. Unfortunately, the pollen levels were at their pinnacle.