5 Best Sights in Excursions South of Zagreb, Zagreb and Environs

This 8,000-acre park is home to 16 beautiful emerald lakes connected by a series of cascading waterfalls, stretching 8 km (5 miles) through a valley flanked by high forested hills that are home to deer, bears, wolves, wild boar, and the Eurasian lynx. Thousands of years of sedimentation of calcium, magnesium carbonate, algae, and moss have yielded the natural barriers between the lakes. Since the process is ongoing, new barriers, curtains, stalactites, channels, and cascades are constantly forming and the existing ones are always changing. The deposited sedimentation, or tufa, also coats the beds and edges of the lakes, giving them their sparkling azure look.

Today a series of wooden bridges and waterside paths lead through the park. The only downside: because it's so lovely, the trails can get crowded from June through September. That said, there's no litter along the way—a testament to both respectful visitors and a conscientious park staff. There's also no camping, no bushwhacking, no picking plants, and absolutely no swimming. This is a place to look, to spend a day or two, but not to touch. It is, however, well worth the higher summer entrance fee and the lowered fees during the rest of the year. Plitvice Lakes is not just a summer but a year-round spectacle, with blooming flowers in the spring, sunset-color foliage in the fall, and magical-looking frozen waterfalls in the winter.

The park is right on the main highway (E71) from Zagreb to Split, and it's certainly worth the three-hour trip from the capital. There are three entrances just off the main road, about an hour's walk apart, creatively named Entrance 1, Entrance 2, and Auxiliary Entrance Flora. The park's pricey hotels are near Entrance 2, the first entrance you'll encounter if arriving by bus from the coast. However, Entrance 1—the first entrance if you arrive from Zagreb—is typically the start of most one-day excursions, if only because it's within a 20-minute walk of Veliki Slap, the 256-foot-high waterfall. Hiking the entire loop that winds its way around the lakes takes six to eight hours, but other hikes range from two to four hours. All involve a combination of hiking and being ferried across the larger of the park's lakes by national park service boats.

There are cafés near both entrances, but avoid them for anything but coffee, as the sandwiches and strudels don't offer the best value for your money. Instead, buy some of the huge heavenly strudels sold by locals at nearby stands, where great big blocks of homemade cheese, honey, and olive oil are also for sale. Within the lake grounds, there are more than 10 restaurants and bistros offering a mix of local and international cuisine.  At the boat landing near Entrance 2, you can rent gorgeous wooden rowboats for €13 per hour (capacity is four people) during the warm season.

The look of the city's rectangular main square is largely Baroque and positively lovely, all the more so because some building facades show art nouveau influences. In particular, the pharmacy building at No. 11 has two angels presiding, appropriately, on top. Also overlooking the square is a 17th-century parish church. Enjoy a coffee and a slice of kremšnita at one of the cafés dotting the square.

A fairy-tale village of water mills and waterfalls, this relatively little-known gem is known as the Mini Plitvice for good reason. Rastoke sits at the intersection of the mighty Korana River and the smaller sparkling Slunjčica. Some 23 waterfalls are nearby, the most famous of which are Buk, Hrvoje, and Vilina Kosa (Fairy's Hair), along with plenty of babbling rapids. The geological makeup of Rastoke's waterfalls is identical to those of Plitvice, just smaller in scale. Legend says this peaceful retreat is home to vile (fairies), who love to bathe in the Vilina Kosa waterfall. A handful of restaurants (for the best freshwater fish around, try Ambar in nearby Slunj) and charming rentable apartments and rooms await. There's also a 7½-km (4½-mile) walking trail (one-way). As Croatian writer Ratko Zvrko (1920–1998) implored, writing of Rastoke, "Here you should stay, and further don't be steered! Here, where life into streams is canalized, here, in this roar of wild waters you hear, lies peace for the soul and feast for the eyes!" The village is 105 km (65 miles) southwest of Zagreb and 33 km (21 miles) north of Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Located in a pretty streamside park by the square, this museum tells the story of the town's past. It sits in a manor in which members of the 19th-century Croatian National Revival once gathered and is also the spot where Ferdo Livadić's and Ljudevit Gaj's song "Croatia Has Not Yet Fallen" was first sung (this later became the anthem of the movement). The museum warrants a quick 20-minute walk-through, especially if you're a history buff; it tells the story of Samobor's past chronologically, across two floors, including a geological viewpoint, Roman times, the development of local crafts and the famous Samoborski Fašnik carnival, and 20th-century events.

At the center of this old part of town, accessible by any of several bridges over the moat, is the main square, Trg Bana Josipa Jelačića, one side of which, alas, has a great big empty building with some missing windows. At the center of this otherwise largely barren square is an old well dating to 1869; long filled in, it is ornamented with allegorical imagery.