This is Part 2 of a two-part series on fifteen nights in Croatia. Catch up on the trip summary or Part 1: Dubrovnik & Korčula first if you’re just joining.
From Korčula we drove north — a long enough haul that we broke it up with a first, brief evening in Split before continuing on to Plitvice the next day. Then back down through Trogir, and into Split properly for the rest of the trip. This part covers all of it: waterfalls, a heat-flattened afternoon, and a storm that turned into one of the best sunsets of the whole two and a half weeks.
Split, First Look
Just an evening, really — enough time for the cathedral bell tower to catch the last of the light and wander through People’s Square as it slid into golden hour. A preview of a city we’d come back to properly in a few days.
Plitvice: Turquoise Lakes and a True Treat
An early start after a basic, nutritious breakfast at Plitvička Selo, then in through Entrance 3 — boat first, then onto the trail. The first two and a half hours were pure magic: lake after lake in a turquoise that looks color-corrected until you’re standing right in front of it, waterfalls threading through green at every turn, damselflies and moths posing just still enough for a decent photo. The boys were enjoying the winding walkway through the park, and I was simply grateful to have the privilege of enjoying such abundant, lush natural beauty.
We broke for sandwiches, and that’s about when the day got a little more real: a restroom hunt that frayed everyone’s patience a little, one of the boys sprinting ahead at one point before we regrouped, a stop for ice cream to reset the mood. From there, a bus up to P1 and the start of the ascent — peak heat by 2pm, which called for a second round of ice cream, no debate necessary.
The descent brought the park’s biggest waterfall into view — easily the payoff for the climb — and then a long walk back to P3 that outlasted our water supply well before the end of it.
We made it back to the Airbnb by five, sun-tired and thoroughly walked out. Showers, a good dinner, and then — the correct way to end a day like that — pool, table tennis, and a beer, until everyone just quietly crashed.
Trogir: A Quick, Hot Stop
We broke up the drive back down to Split with a stop in Trogir, and I’ll keep this one short: it was over 100°F, one of the boys hit a full meltdown, and mostly we were just trying to get through it rather than savor it. Which is a shame, because what we did see of Trogir was lovely — an artsy, walkable little UNESCO town, all weathered stone and quiet squares, deserving of a cooler day and calmer kids than we had to offer it. The food was fine. The coffee, though, was excellent enough to justify the stop by itself.
Back to Split: Storms, Substructures, and an Aqua Park
Back in Split for the remainder of the trip, one day settled into an easy rhythm: lunch at Fig Split, then coffee at Meštar O’Kave, where the barista told us a story while we waited (he dreamed of taking over the restaurant next door, and I wished him all the success), and a bookstore detour to get out of the heat that turned up “Menu for Happiness,” a book about food detectives that was too good a find to leave behind. An afternoon wander through the Palace’s quieter alleys, empty at midday in the heat, and dinner at Casa Sol that evening.
Then the sky did something none of us expected: a storm rolled in fast over Žnjan, and just as fast rolled back out, leaving behind one of the best sunsets of the whole trip. We took far too many selfies against it, which felt entirely justified at the time.
The boys played in the fountains as the storm cleared, and the night closed out with a moonrise over the water — a reflection streak stretching all the way to shore, calm after all that drama.
Another day went to Diocletian’s Palace properly — the substructures below the palace, cool and cavernous, and the bell tower and Peristyle above it in full sun, a city that’s been continuously inhabited inside a Roman emperor’s retirement home for over a thousand years.
We let the boys loose on a floating aqua park out in the sea one afternoon — more nerve-wracking for me watching from shore than it seemed to be for them. Later I wished I’d joined them too!
At this point, we were avidly following the FIFA World Cup Round of 32, and watched the Belgium game while scarfing down Sette Sorelle pizza — Belgium won, Salil was happy, he’d been rooting for “Waffles.”
Our last day in Croatia, we decided to take it easy: a relaxed, delicious brunch at Mendula, followed by some more shopping at Okaidi for the kids. Then we stumbled onto a small restaurant tucked behind the square — Pusti Me Proć, “if you got stuck, you’re in a good place.”
We finished a bottle of Nobilo Grk over a multicourse dinner that ran past three hours — a perfect, slow evening, a light breeze carrying lilting violin music across the square, and a romantic night under the stars on the Airbnb balcony after we’d put the kids down for the night.
Four regions, one dancing peacock, and a family that’s already asking where we go next.