Žumberak Croatia - Samoborsko gorje Nature Park

Time is quickly passing by, when every day looks just the same. Our everyday is made from little fragments, repeating periodically, so predictable. We do love them, those little fragments, little rituals, so predictable, so familiar, so secure. Yet, many of us like to taste an adventure, something new and radical, when we go to our holidays. We book the apartments for the last minute, change our favorite destinations and carry nothing but necessary in small backpacks. There are some of us with families, children and pets, who need their vacations planned till the last detail, apartments to be comfortable, equipped with almost everything one can think of, and a warm dish waiting for them in every time.
And all of us want to have splendid holidays, and to rest completely of predictable everyday, and to take long-lasting good memories of the places and events we’ve experienced.

Žumberak - Samoborsko gorje Nature Park is a place for all of us, weather You like it to be planned strictly or not. It is a part of Croatia settled on the hills of Samobor’s and Žumberak’s mount, touching the border with Slovenia, and covering an area of around 350 square kilometers. It is a place whose natural beauties, diversity of animal and vegetative life, cultural heritage and preserved traditions, made it so attractive and worth saving. Thus, in the year 1981. Nature Park was founded, and today it is turning to a place of great expansion in eko and rural tourism.
The landscape of the Park is almost all above 400 meters above the sea level with the higher peak Sveta Gera at 1178 meters above sea level. Little and bigger hills are changing place in wide greenish distances, with almost half of the area covered with tick forests of chestnut and beech. The rest is taking a face of flower meadows spreading the scents of freshness and sweetness. The Park is rich with water; there are 337 springs and 260 river and creek flows crisscrossing pastures and woods, many of which turns to underground streams due to the karsts geomorphology of the soil. There are 130 known caves and pits discovered on the area. Both, surface and underground, have rich and wild animal and vegetative life with numerous species, some of which are jeopardized. The Park is their refugee and shelter, place where their population can only rise.
It is different with people inhabiting the area. There are 4000 people living in 132 settlement in the area, and that number is decreasing. There is no single town in the Park and it is strictly rural. The main city Zagreb is distanced just 30 kilometers, and cities like Jastrebarsko, Krapina and Bregana, one of the main Croatian border crossing with Slovenia, are easy to reach due to state roads. Expansion of tourism is way to stop depopulation of the area since the region has so much to offer.

Besides just walking, hiking, cycling, fishing, Park has few eco-villages, where a tourist can find lodging, restaurants, meet traditional ways of living and, see and spend time with domestic animals, which will especially cheer the little ones. There You can practice riding horses in riding school or arrange car tours through the Park. There are many interesting locations of archeological significance, since this area was inhabitant since Paleozoic. Some parts of the park are even more protected; they are founded as a reservoirs, keeping under special guidance forests, fish colonies and monuments.
So, You can enter Croatia and than turn right, take off the road to the Croatian sea or some other more famous tourist destination. Or You can contact some of the rentals in the villages like Sošice, Oštrc, Tomaševci, Kalje, Stojdraga, Cernika, Jurkova and other, or rent an apartment in more urban places like Tuhelj, Stubica, Krapina, even Zagreb, and make a base for Your investigation of the Nature Park Žumberak - Samoborsko gorje. What ever You choose to do, You’ll have the best holidays, enjoying grass tickling on Your face, sweet tunes of little birds around, and a fresh sound of spring waters running through Your trilled ears. This is a place for reunion with nature and a place for tasting excellent food, venison and fish specialties prepared with care in a traditional ways. You’ll meet Croatian hospitality and wish Your vacation never ends.