We were up early and grabbed coffee nearby before getting on the road at 06:00. Our goal was to make it to Plitvice Lakes National Park by 08:00 as I had pre-booked tickets there.

Traffic was light, even on the back roads, and we made it by 07:45. Parking was pretty easy at that hour and we walked to the entrance. We showed our tickets but they wouldn’t let us in until 08:00 on the dot. This was despite the fact that others who bought walk-up tickets could just walk right in.



There are several different routes you can take through the park, including the lower lakes, the upper lakes and both. We started at the lower lakes “Entrance 1” where we parked and had the place relatively to ourselves at first. We saw the main waterfall, Veliki Slap.




We walked along the pathways beside the lower lakes and there had been plenty of rain over the previous few weeks so the waterfalls were all flowing.






We took a boat across one of the larger lakes and started to walk the upper lakes.




It was crazy crowded and not enjoyable, so we turned around and took a short boat ride back to the lower lakes. From there, we took the bus to the start of the upper trail which would lead us back to the parking lot. The upper train was nice and empty, but we could see how crowded it was back where we were walking just a couple of hours before.






We left around 10:00 and the line to get in was really long. We were very pleased we got there early.

We drove to Ljublana and hit a bit of traffic but nothing too bad. We got to the Intercontinental around 13:45 and checked in. I was using my free night from the IHG credit card. They had parking for 16 Euros in a garage across the street, but I decided to spring for the 30 Euros at the hotel as I wanted to be able to leave early the next day and as it was going to be Sunday, I wasn’t sure whether the other garage would be open/accessible.

The room was very modern and had lots of technology. We were given a room on the highest floor and a welcome amenity of fruit.





We got settled and walked down to the old town area. It was just a few blocks from the IC.





We found a place to grab some food and wine as we hadn’t eaten anything except a protein bar all day. We took the funicular up to the castle and explored that for a while. Of course, I had to go up the tower to the top for the views of the town and the Julian Alps in the background.






After we came back down the funicular, we browsed the shops in old town and then walked back to the IC.





The hotel had a highly regarded restaurant so we decided to go there for dinner. Unfortunately, we were the only people there and still were ignored for about 15 minutes by the waiter and maitre’d. We left, but they insisted on charging us for the water we had been drinking for 15 minutes. I got the front desk to remove the charge when we checked out.

Instead, we walked back into town and found a good fish restaurant called Vino + Pibe.



Then we went to Romantica, which is rated as the best gelato in Ljubljana and it did not disappoint.

We enjoyed our taste of Ljubljana, but we decided to get an early start the next day and make a detour to Lake Bled rather than go directly to Zagreb.

Up next: Bled and the Last Border Crossing