Family day out: Forest Fairytale in Croatia

Šumska bajka (Forest fairytale in English ) is an excursion site near Lič ( Gorski kotar area of Croatia). It’s close to Rijeka and not that far from Zagreb as a matter of fact. It is close to Roswell near Fužine (the film set of Winnetou film) which we visited last summer. I’d heard nice things about Forest Fairytale so we visited it in November.

I typed in our destination in Google maps but if it weren’t for the road signs we would have stopped in the middle of nothing because Google announced you have reached your destination. But there was a sign stating that our destination is further 600m down the dirt road. Don’t expect your car to be clean after driving to the Forest Fairytale. As the name suggests this site is literally in the forest.

The owner welcomed us and the other visitors with a glass of homemade strong, liquor while the kids got candies. The main attraction are deer and wild boars. You get a basket of bread that you give to the animals which are kept in enclosure. However, they come right to the fence and you can even stroke them (deer not the wild boars). Before we got to the animal enclosures a big, fat black-white cat already grabbed our kid’s attention. There are also giant wooden sculptures of fairy tale characters and supposedly the biggest wooden statue of Santa Claus in the world. Swings, see-saws, toboggans and kids’ trampolines are scattered all over the site. There are also barbecues for rent and tables and chairs for a picnic. Everything is wooden and handmade.

Our kids climbed all over the Easter rabbit and jumped on the cart while we were talking to the owner. Then we took our basket of bread and headed to the animals. It was sunny but the grass was still wet from the night. There are 8 deer, two bucks with big antlers and a couple of does and their cute fawns. Our kids were apprehensive a bit when the big buck approached the fence but later they relaxed. The animals seem to be well accustomed to the people and well taken care of.

The boars are separated in two enclosures. You can see a couple of smaller (younger?) boars in one enclosure and a huge boar is kept in another enclosure. The small boars behaved like dogs and followed us as we walked by the fence after we gave them some food.

The kids ran around and played with the ball. They went on swings and see-saws too. I explored the small house for rent at the premises. It was great because there were only a few other visitors at the time so we really had a proper forest experience. We all enjoyed our visit. Afterwards we went to Fužine for a lunch.

For more info about Šumska bajka (Forest Fairytale) click here or here for some basic info in English.

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