Private eclectic experience of Rastoke and Plitvice Lakes National Park

Karlo was amazing. He was very thoughtful and planned the entire day very well. Little gestures from his side, his thoughtfulness towards the minute details throughout the day, his knowledge about the history and the lakes really impressed us. We would highly recommend this tour to everyone. Must visit with Mr Karlo. He became very good friend at the end of the tour rather than just a tour operator. Will surely plan more tours with the company. Really an awesome experience.

We lucky to have Karlo as our tour guide. Ask for Karlo as your tour guide. A next level travel guide. Above and beyond hospitality…

We booked our trip to Plitvice National Park and Lakes through Trip Advisor having seen favourable reviews on Google. I had casually taken a look at things to do that would get us out of the city and this seemed like a great tour. I didn’t really do too much research about the Park as I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise as to what the unique features of the area were and so I was looking for our guide to explain a little about the park and its history etc. and was just hoping for a nice memorable day away on our vacation (to break up the time we had otherwise allotted to exploring the city itself). To say I wasn’t disappointed with the day we had would be an understatement. We were taken on our Tour by Karlo… owner of Bespoke Croatia Tours. He was a seemingly nice chap who initially made contact with us by WhatsApp to discuss our pending tour. Karlo spoke exceptionally good English and communicated with us very well (from the Pre trip WhatsApp messages he sent us). Prior to attending he explained a few key things about our tour and kept in touch to answer any questions that i had. When we were eventually collected at our hotel and went on our trip it’s needless to say that Karlo was the same in person as he was on messenger. Very articulate, knowledgeable and a really nice guy. He made our trip into the most amazing day out possible. Not only was his knowledge and the information that he offered about the area, informative and interesting, but he had been extremely thoughtful in planning our trip to ensure that every single aspect of the day was just right. And in many things the experience we received was above and beyond what i would hope to expect. The Mercedes car he arrived to pick us up in was new, clean and of a very good standard. Exceptionally comfortable, spacious and tidy. His driving also was impeccable (we had previously taken a trip in Slovenia, which whilst lovely in general, the minibus ride we had felt like an extract from the movie “Taken”). Throughout the journey to the park we chatted about Croatia, the Park itself, the local area and about life in general. As I have said, Karlo was a really personable guy and we felt super at ease in his company. When we got to Plitvice we were not disappointed either. The park is stunning. I won’t say too much about that (perhaps some folks are like me and want to be “wowed” by the surprise), but what I will say is that you won’t be disappointed by the Park itself I don’t think. Prior to our trip Karlo had generously prepared some food for us - initially as it was a rather early start (6am) he had prepared a selection of warm traditional Croatian dumplings for our breakfast, which were delicious. Along with this he had thought to bag us up some sweet and savoury snacks to eat during the walking section of our tour. And lastly he had thoughtfully prepared a picnic lunch for us consisting of traditional Croatian charcuterie style Cured Meat / Cheeses / Sausage. Not only was the selection really, really tasty and lovely (which of course was fab in itself) but we were also surprised to learn that much of what had been packed had been provided / made by Karlo and his family too. Home cured meats and churirzo style sausages along with a tasty chutney preserve that went well really with the flatbreads that Karlo had brought along. We even sat and had a cup of red wine at the Park during lunch that Karlo had thoughtfully brought along. This was a brilliant, brilliant day and I wanted to write this (probably very verbose) review as it’s easy to take all of the effort and additional (not necessarily often thought of) touches that Karlo thought to include for granted. Karlo is a brilliant guide but more importantly he is such a lovely chap, that I wanted to leave him a nice review by way of our heartfelt thanks. If this review serves as a prompt and recommendation for anyone looking to book with Karlo - please do. I am happy to talk to anyone about our day if that helps too… I could not heap enough praise on Bespoke Croatia tours and you won’t be disappointed with a day in Karl’s company. Hope this review is helpful.