Croatia is famous for its off shore islands. Running the length of the country are medium to small islands with very quiet and picturesque towns. There is also one medium sized town that is considered a must see when visiting Croatia. Ton and I have been talking about the best way to get out to some of these islands, some are easily accessible for François using vehicle ferries, but the ferries are not particularly cheap. Other islands are not vehicle friendly as the roads on the islands don’t extend beyond the edge of town and the ferry is pedestrian only. We did not want to pass up the opportunity to see these islands but were unsure about the best way to get it done.
Yesterday while walking thru Split we came across a bunch of tour operators offering basically the same five island tour with two offshore cave tours as a bonus. One of the cave tours is the Blue Cave which is part of a Croatian NP and one of the top 5 destinations in the country. The tour operator did warn us that both caves depend on the sea state and could be canceled if the conditions were unfavorable. While we are not opposed to structured tours it is generally not our favorite way to see things. The other thing was the tour required a show up time of 7:40 am at the Split waterfront which for us meant a 6am wakeup to catch a city bus to downtown. But after talking it over we decided it was a good way to get a feel for the off shore islands to see if we wanted to ferry François over.
That is a long way to say we signed up for a boat tour and were up at 6 am to catch a bus downtown. The bus ride was easy and fast and we were downtown by 7 am so we found a bakery to have a pastry and coffee before heading over to our boat for the day.
We started our day with a bit of a disappointment as due to a strong on shore wind the Blue Cave was closed for the day which was going to be a highlight. Instead of starting at the Blue Cave we headed for Budikovac Island which is the home of the Green Lagoon. The captain of the boat told us and the other 10 passengers to settle in as it was about 90 minutes out to Budikova. Budikovac island is pretty small though it has been producing grapes for wine for over 1000 years and the wines from there have been famous enjoyed by both Roman emperors and Marshall Tito who was the head of the communist government when Croatia was part of Yugoslavia.
Our next stop was Stinivac island which has what is reported to be the best beach in Europe. The beach is reached by entering thru a small cut in the rocks. When the sea is not too rough you can row small boats in from off shore, but not today. The younger members of our boat swam in to get a look. Ton and I had to be content with enjoying the view from the boat.
The green cave on Rivnik Island was our next stop, but the captain warned us that it was unlikely that we would be able to go in because of the rough water. However, when we got there he was able to tie the boat off to the mooring, but the guides who usually led the tours were not there as it was unsafe to enter by boat. However, it was safe for swimming so once again the younger customers all jumped in and had a good time while Ton and I stayed in the stomach churning bobbing boat and watched them have fun. The captain came up and apologized to me and said the rest of the trip would be ok.
Our next stop was a small port town called Milna on Hvar Island for lunch. The ride over was just long enough for our stomachs to settle down so we could enjoy our lunch. The lunch was quite good and reasonably priced, we have not had a bad meal yet in Croatia.
After lunch we headed over to the highlight of the day. Hvar is another of a seemingly endless string of beautiful small port towns and one of the most visited places in Croatia. At one time it was the center of the Dalmatian tourist industry and while it is still extremely popular people are starting to spread out and explore other parts of Dalmatia.
We enjoyed exploring for a couple of hours. The hills are pretty steep so we made up for our time sitting on the boat by climbing up and down the medieval allies around town. It is a charming town with nice restaurants and coffee shops every few feet.
Our last stop of the day was the port of Milna on the island of Milna. If you were reading carefully you will remember we had lunch in Milna, just not this Milna. For a small country Croatia has a lot of towns with the same name. Ton and I had a circular conversation earlier in the trip about Novigrad, she was talking about one Novigrad and I was talking about another. It turns out there are 5 Novigrads. We were discussing a good campground with a friend of ours in the town of Zedar, but confusion reigned when I told him it looked nice and was only 20km’s north of Split. He said no it was 20km’s north of Dubrovnik. We were both right and both are nice campgrounds. In the islands off shore there are 6 Milna’s according to our captain.
We pulled into Milna #2 for an evening drink or gelato. Ton and I opted for the Gelato and a walk along the waterfront. It was a pretty town and the sun was setting as we went around. We enjoyed the walk quite a lot.
The last 45 minutes back to Split were pretty rough as the seas had been building all day. It was just rough enough to be interesting, but not so rough as to be scary so we enjoyed the ride.
