Mura-Drava Regional Park

The Mura and the lower Drava keep long stretches where the river still moves: gravel bars, sand cliffs where sand martins and bee-eaters nest, side channels, oxbows and floodplain forest, in a corridor that was declared a Croatian regional park in 2011 and then became part of the five-country Mura-Drava-Danube transboundary biosphere reserve confirmed by UNESCO in 2021 - the largest river protected area in Europe, spanning Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia. Hydro schemes and gravel extraction have altered parts of the Drava upstream, and that tension between use and protection runs through the park's whole story.

Highlights

• A river still allowed to move - gravel bars, side channels and oxbows.
• Sand cliffs with nesting colonies - martins and bee-eaters.
• Part of a five-country reserve - confirmed by UNESCO in 2021.
• Hydro and gravel pressure - the argument the park sits inside.

When to go

April to September. A full day.

Good to know

The park is a long thin corridor rather than a destination with a gate; there is no single centre. Access is scattered and mostly informal. Mosquitoes are heavy. Water levels change quickly and banks are unstable.

Nearby

Kopacki Rit is at the eastern end; Varazdin and Medimurje are west.