Description

Experience an exquisite landscape of cascading waterfalls & turquoise lakes amid a glorious expanse of forested hills in Plitvice Lakes National Park. Plus, explore one of the wildest areas of the whole Mediterranean the Velebit Mountains on the untamed Adriatic Coast. A region where wild nature is really coming back!

Until relatively recently Croatia was a virtually unknown location for butterflies. It’s now an established destination that consistently delivers a diverse and spectacular suite of species. It also has a supporting cast of excellent birds, reptiles and amphibians, and all set against the backdrop of the verdant lowland forests, stunning lakes and flower meadows and the sparse, rocky mountains on the Dalmatian coast. The beautiful Plitvice Lakes National Park is one of the oldest and biggest in Croatia and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We will walk around the ‘slaps’ (waterfalls) and explore the lakes for the beautiful scenery and wildlife.

In some years it is possible to amass over a hundred species of butterfly in Croatia in just a week, so this tour combines abundant butterflies with beautiful scenery – a recipe for a relaxing and memorable holiday!

We will be spending our first two nights at a comfortable hotel, which has a lovely market garden and woodland setting. Here we can find a variety of fritillaries and blues, including Queen of Spain and Amanda’s Blues among many others. There is also a supporting cast of Golden Orioles fluting in the nearby poplars and shrikes, cuckoos and occasional Black-headed Buntings. From this base we can explore the extensive hay and flower meadows, woodlands and streams for a great variety of butterflies and other interesting wildlife with plentiful birds, dragonflies and other interesting invertebrates.

From here we will continue the tour heading over the velebit mountains stopping at suitable habitat on route. We will eventually drop down onto the coastal plain of the dalmatian coast to our next base in Starigrad. We will stay here for the next three nights, to explore the Paklenica National Park. We will venture into the high ridges of the spare and dry mountains and also explore the coastal shrubs and grasslands. We can expect a wide range of butterflies including dryad, blue-spot hairstreak, chequered blue and with luck the diminutive but gorgeous little tiger blue.

For the final part of our tour we will explore the Velebit National Park, which lies to the west of where we will be staying for these last two nights. The Velebits have been subject to an extensive rewilding project and is now one of the widest regions in the Mediterranean. It is home to wolves, brown bears and lynx, however our focus will be on the diverse butterflies of this region, although always keeping a lookout for other wildlife.

This concludes our stay in Croatia, a wild and beautiful region largely untouched by the intensity of Western Europe. Our hope is that it will stay this way for a long time.