The Best Way to Spend Three Days on Hvar, Croatia

Let’s go back to our 30th anniversary celebration back in June. Because I’m going to be kicking myself forever if I don’t write all my favorite things about this newly beloved land. And I have loved reminiscing as I have put together this post. I am so very grateful we got to take this trip while Lucy was tucked safely into her college prep camp for visually impaired kids. She was learning so much as were we. Today let’s talk about the Best way to spend three days on Hvar, Croatia.

Because I’m telling you, that is an incredible spot that I would recommend over and over again.

We took a boat ride to explore the Pakleni Islands from Hvar and took an epic day trip to explore the island on bikes. We also just soaked in the culture and colors and ancient beauty that island had to offer.

I have already documented these things from our anniversary trip so far:

• One Week in Beautiful Portugal
• A Guide to Seven Days in Croatia
• Two Days in Dubrovnik, Croatia – My New Thin Place

The Island of Hvar

And THEN, after all that jazz above, we took a ferry to the island of Hvar.

Why Choose Hvar from all the other Croatian Islands?

There are so many awesome islands in Croatia that look well worth exploring. But as we did our research, we felt like Hvar would be the best vibe for what we were looking for. It’s a little more popular with lots of avenues to take boats and bikes and cover more ground.

Hvar did not disappoint with it’s ancient stone alleyways, it’s main square, all the picturesque boats bobbing along in the harbor. Oh and the huge, ancient Fortica Fort perched high up on the mountain. Can you see it up there on the mountain in the photo above?

I talked about the best ways to get around to the islands of Croatia in my 7-Days in Croatia itinerary post. But as a refresher, they have made it super easy to get from one island to the next with big Croatian catamaran ferries.

It’s a three hour ferry ride to Hvar from Dubrovnik.

Here’s the harbor as we walked it from our ferry to our hotel:

Another gorgeous square paved with ancient stones and lined with beautiful stone churches and steeples.

Where to Stay on Hvar

Once we arrived, we lugged our bags up and down the mountain through all kinds of steps and cobblestones to find our hotel. Little did we know there was an awesome path right along the water that we could have taken. But luckily we found that later and utilized it well!

It’s such a personal preference as to where to stay. There are all kinds of Airbnbs as well as apartments for rent. Places close to the water and places a little more removed. But we chose a hotel based on availability. And ours was really the only one available since we were a little late to the game. We really liked it. Especially once we found the stone pathway that led from the main harbor to where our hotel was. I loved that walk.

Here are photos going both directions:

I love that there are little built-in ways to get into the water at every turn.

I mean, who knows when you’re going to want to take a little break and go lounge in the sun on a lounge chair overlooking that gorgeous blue expanse?

Once we got situated, we headed back to the old town for dinner.

We had dinner at a place called Fig in a little alleyway and I’m going to be craving that food probably forever.

Watermelon and feta salad and flatbread filled with lambs lettuce that was SO good.

A Boat Tour from Hvar

The next morning we headed into town to take a boat tour to explore a bunch of neighboring Pakleni Islands.

There are SO many tours you can choose from to do this type of thing. We chose this Blue Cave & Vis Island speedboat tour from Hvar and really loved it.

We shared the boat with like 12 other people from all over the world and loved getting to know them a little.

Like we did in Portugal, we went in and out of caves along the coast, our boat making some pretty tight fits. And we got to get in and swim/snorkel wherever we wanted, much to Dave’s delight.

A Little Boat Tour to Blue Cave

We made a stop to see the famous Blue Cave of Croatia. It’s a cave that glows blue from the inside because of how the sun reflects on the sand below.

I must say, it was pretty incredible. We took a smaller boat and magically squeezed into that tiny opening, all of us ducking to miss the rocks swallowing us in.

Here are all the boats waiting to get in as one is coming out.

And we’d better get a look at how it looked for the boats to come out of that tiny spot:

Yow.

Inside it was so magically blue, quiet and sacred. So surreal to be enveloped in all that blue.

A Few Hours on Vis Island

We stopped on the island called Vis and had a couple hours to explore and grab lunch.

…lunch followed by gelato, of course.

It was yet another magical place that was so fun to explore.

I loved imagining living there, following these paths each day.

Having this kind of view.

Wow.

Stiniva Cove on Vis Island

We made a stop at Stiniva Cove, a pretty famous beach that won for the most beautiful in the world I think in 2017.

The only way to get there is to hike in or come by boat and swim. So we stopped here:

…and took a swim into that white rock beach surrounded by a C-shape of cliffs.

They filmed Mama Mia there and I can see why, it was so pretty.

I couldn’t swim in with my phone/camera so you’ll just have to take my word for the beauty in there!

Back at the boat with some sea life someone found…

A Quick Stop at Green Cave

We also took a little swim from our boat into Green Cave.

It was not nearly as grand as the Blue Cave, but it had one little hole in the top creating a pretty cool shimmering spot in the water of the cave. Once again, no camera with me to capture.

The Pakleni Islands are pretty cool, lots of beauty all around and spots where we could jump in and snorkel to end the day.

Evening back in Hvar

We got back and had dinner in another incredibly picturesque alleyway.

We explored a bunch of other alleyways as well. Oh man I love this kind of ambiance.

Then we sat on a curb, perfect weather, talking about goals while eating our nightly gelato and people watching with all the incredible yachts and travelers criss-crossing in front of us.

A Bike Ride from Hvar Town to Stari Grad

The next day we rode bikes from our little old town to Stari Grad on the other side of the island. This was a tricky one because Dave’s eagerness to go sputtered out after we kept getting warned that it was probably too hot and too far. But my friend (@lillieeatsandtells) had hyped it up and I was pretty determined to get there. I mean, we were renting ebikes for crying out loud, how hard could it be?

It turned out that those warnings we got were true, it was indeed very hot and it was far and very mountainous.

But oh man did I ever love pedaling up all those steep hills, feeling alive, beauty surrounding.

This was our route, but I forgot to mark that we went the lower route en route back to the main harbor. Because we made a stop at Milna beach down there on the southern route.

My phone got wet in the boat the day before and wasn’t working, so I just focused on all the beauty and on Dave, my trusty partner. Who faithfully pedaled along with me and ended up loving it too.

Lavender Fields

There are fields and fields of lavender all over Hvar island, as well as so many old rock walls. These babies, on the right below, are a UNESCO-recognized form of cultural heritage since some of them date back to ancient Greek settlers:

Didn’t get the best photos, but look at this beautiful lavender!

We pumped up and down all those hills and this view of the ocean on the other side of the island was pretty beautiful to see:

Stari Grad

The little town of Stari Grad was quiet and filled with yet more beautiful and picturesque spots.

We stopped for lunch and basked in that beauty for a bit…

Then climbed more steep hills on those eBikes en route back to Hvar.

Thank your lucky stars my phone wasn’t working because I would have gone hog wild taking pictures of all that beauty. One particular little valley had my heart.

Milna Beach

We made a little stop at a little beach in Milna.

We laid there on those rocks and talked about goals and plans.

Fortica Fort

And then climbed some more mountains to get to the ancient fort at the top of the hill overlooking the whole harbor city and ocean stretching out below.

Can you even believe all that beauty??

I love this old drawing of Hvar that I found on this Hvar history website you might want to check out if you’re interested.

We took it all in at the tippy top of that mountain. And also got to FaceTime with our girl who was loving all she was learning at her college prep program for the visually impaired in Missouri.

One Last Night on Hvar

We had one last evening to bask in the glory of Hvar before we took off for Split the next morning.

I kept feeling just so lucky we got to be there. I got to be with this guy I married THIRTY YEARS ago in this magical spot.

We couldn’t resist going back to Fig for our one last dinner in Hvar.

And it didn’t disappoint. Again.

The next stops were Split and Trogir. Which we loved as well. Then a layover in London with a wrap-up on that coming soon!

For now, congrats on reaching the end.

XOXO