Krka National Park.

Krka is the second-most-visited national park in Croatia after Plitvice, and the more accessible of the two from Dubrovnik. The park follows the Krka river through a deep karst canyon north of Šibenik, where the river drops over a series of travertine barriers — porous limestone formed by mosses and algae over thousands of years — creating seven sets of waterfalls along its length. The largest, Skradinski Buk, is a horseshoe of cascades 45 metres wide that spills into a wide pool; the older Roški Slap, further upstream, is a longer set of stepped falls with old water mills still standing on the banks.

It is a long day from Dubrovnik. The drive is three and a half hours each way on the motorway — we leave at 6.30am, partly to beat the heat (summer afternoons in the park can be uncomfortable) and partly because Krka is busy. By 10am we are at the Lozovac entrance, which puts us at Skradinski Buk just as the park opens its visitor flows for the day. The hour from 10 to 11 is when the falls are at their photographic best.

Inside the park, the main loop is a 1.7-kilometre wooden walkway that follows the cascades from the upper level down to the main pool. Swimming was permitted in the pool until 2020 and has since been closed — but the walkway is genuinely beautiful, with viewpoints at every level and the chance to see endemic plants and birdlife. Allow 90 minutes for the loop, longer if you want to linger.

From Skradinski Buk a small park boat (included in the entrance ticket) takes you upstream to Visovac, a tiny wooded island in a wide section of the river. The island has been home to a Franciscan monastery since the 15th century, and you can step ashore for thirty minutes to walk around the cloisters and the small museum. The boat ride itself is the highlight — the canyon walls rise above you, the water is the colour of strong tea, and the monastery sits on its island as if drawn from a fairytale.

After the boat we walk back to the Mercedes for lunch — typically at a konoba in nearby Skradin, the small medieval town at the mouth of the canyon, where the river broadens into a bay before it reaches the sea. The drive back is three and a half hours, with one stop for coffee. You arrive in Dubrovnik between 6.30 and 7.30pm, having had the most heavily booked but most photographed day of the trip. For nature lovers, it is the right call.