Plitvice Lakes, Rastoke and Velebit
Nine days among the turquoise cascades of Plitvice Lakes, the mills of Rastoke and the bare ridge of Velebit, with the sea in sight. Lika is one of the few corners of Europe where inland water and the Adriatic fit into a single week without exhausting transfers: in the morning you stand above a travertine cascade, in the afternoon you wind down the hairpins to a pebble beach below Velebit. The route is built for families — the Plitvice ticket covers the boat and the road train, the Baraćeve špilje can be walked with children, and on the coast you can spend three days doing nothing but swimming. It is also a trip where it pays to know the limits: the highest reaches of Velebit are no place for a motorhome, and the season needs watching too.
Set off early and take the classic route through Brno, Vienna and Styria to Maribor. Buy the Austrian motorway vignette and the Slovenian e-vignette before you leave home, so there is nothing to sort out at the border. Stop for the night still short of the Croatian border — the next day is only a short drive and you want to reach Plitvice rested.
Beyond Zagreb and Karlovac you leave the motorway and follow the old road into Slunj. Rastoke is its old milling quarter: wooden mills and cottages built straight onto the travertine stand at the point where the Slunjčica river drops in a cascade of waterfalls into the Korana. The walk around takes up much of the afternoon; the rest of the day belongs to the water, as the Korana can be run by raft or by kayak.
Tickets are bought online for a specific time slot and entry capacity is limited, so book your slot well ahead. The price includes the electric boat across Lake Kozjak and the panoramic road train, so you can put the circuit together around how far the children can walk. In the main season from June to September an adult pays from 40 euros; outside it admission is considerably lower (from 10 euros in winter) and children under seven go free. Parking a motorhome costs 15 to 18 euros a day. Arrive right at opening — the boardwalks are far quieter in the morning.
The caves, known in Croatian as Baraćeve špilje, lie by the hamlet of Nova Kršlja in the municipality of Rakovica, and that is the name to enter into your navigation. The Upper Barać Cave is the one open to visitors, and the Speleon visitor centre beside it has an exhibition on karst. It stays cold inside even in August, so pack a hoodie and sturdy shoes for the children. Keep the afternoon free — after a day at Plitvice, everyone benefits from going nowhere at all.
The road from Plitvice to the Adriatic runs through Otočac and the Vratnik pass and ends in a long descent into Senj. On the hill above the town stands the square Nehaj Fortress, built by the Uskoks in 1558; today it holds a museum exhibition and the ramparts look out over the Kvarner islands. Senj is famous for the bora — when it blows, drive slowly, hold the wheel firmly and do not overtake. For the night, follow the coast road a little further south to Sveti Juraj.
Northern Velebit National Park is entered at Babić Siča above Oltari, open from seven in the morning, or at Alan, which opens at eight. The road up to Babić Siča from the Oltari pass is asphalt and a motorhome handles it comfortably — but above it the climb to Zavižan continues as an unpaved mountain track, and that is no place to take a motorhome. If you have a second, smaller car with you, drive it up to the Velebit Botanical Garden, the weather station and the start of the Premužić Trail. If you do not, head instead for Krasno and the Kuća Velebita visitor centre, run by the park, which explains the mountains to children better than any sign could.
Zavratnica is a narrow cleft in the coast south of Jablanac, hemmed in between the bare slopes of Velebit. You cannot drive down to the water — you park in Jablanac and continue on foot along a surfaced coastal path that even smaller children manage. The water there is astonishingly clear and there is almost no shade, so take hats and plenty to drink. Spend the rest of the day on the pebbles by the campsite at Sveti Juraj, back up the coast road to the north.
Pack up in the morning, follow the coast road north and join the motorway to Zagreb either via Rijeka or via Otočac. The run into Slovenia or southern Austria is a comfortable day's stage, especially if you set off before the coast road fills up. Plan a long midday break with a meal in the motorhome — after a week by the sea, the journey home tends to be the hardest part of the trip mentally.
The final stage leads back through Styria and Lower Austria to home. Keep the afternoon free to clear out the motorhome and flush the tanks. Before you forget, note down which campsites were worth it — Lika deserves a second visit, outside the main season.
Up to 3.5 t: in Austria you need a motorway vignette, which covers motorhomes as well — the digital one costs 9.60 euros for a day, 12.80 euros for ten days and 32 euros for two months. Slovenia runs on an e-vignette, and what matters is how tall the vehicle is above the front axle: over 1.3 metres you fall into class 2B (32 euros a week, 64.10 euros a month), below that into the cheaper 2A (16 and 32 euros). Most motorhomes are 2B. Croatia has no vignettes; toll is paid at toll plazas for the section driven, and a vehicle taller than a car falls into a more expensive category. Over 3.5 t: Austria requires a GO-Box unit with toll charged by the kilometre, Slovenia a DarsGo on-board unit, Croatia again the toll plazas, but in a higher category. Both gated attractions on the route — the Plitvice Lakes and Northern Velebit National Park — charge their own admission, and so do the Baraćeve špilje.
Camp Korana, Plitvička Jezera — the Plitvice Lakes National Park campsite in the Korana canyon near Entrance 1, with shaded pitches for motorhomes · Camp Borje, Plitvička Jezera — the national park's second campsite, quieter and further from the main road; organised transport runs from it into the park · Camp Ujča, Sveti Juraj near Senj — a small family campsite by a pebble beach, terraced pitches for motorhomes, two sanitary blocks with hot water, chemical toilet disposal and a laundry · Eurocamp Rača, Sveti Juraj — the second option on the same stretch of coast, listed in the official offer of the Senj tourist region · Kamp Škver, Senj — a campsite right in Senj, the closest to Nehaj Fortress; check before you arrive that they can take a vehicle of your length · Camp Nacionalni park, Starigrad-Paklenica — the Paklenica National Park campsite; it lies beyond the route described here and only makes sense if you extend the trip south below Velebit
Croatia does not permit wild camping or overnight stays outside registered campsites, so plan the route from campsite to campsite; fortunately the Velebit coast has a dense network of them. The car parks at national park entrances are for daytime use and are not used for overnighting. In the main season from mid-July to the end of August, book a pitch in advance, above all at the national park campsites near Plitvice. Outside the season, expect some of the smaller coastal campsites to open only from spring to autumn.
Fill the fresh water tank and empty the waste tanks at a campsite — Camp Korana near Plitvice and Camp Ujča in Sveti Juraj both have sanitary facilities and a chemical toilet point, and Ujča adds a laundry with hot water. On the mountain part of the route between Plitvice and the sea, that is the stretch over Vratnik, Krasno and Oltari, do not count on a public service point: it crosses a thinly settled karst plateau where the villages are far apart. Set off from there with a full tank and empty waste tanks, and keep the same rule before the day spent in Velebit.
Adria Coral XL
Nine days with children between the lakes and the sea mean a lot of wet gear and a lot of different daily routines — the Coral XL offers five to seven berths and the overcab bed works as a children's floor that you never have to make up in the evening. At under seven and a half metres long it still gets along the winding coast road below Velebit and onto the terraced pitches at the coastal campsites.
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