Things to do on Hvar, from morning to midnight

The short version: Hvar is bigger and slower than its reputation. Most visitors stay in Hvar town, take one boat day, one beach and one dinner, and leave thinking they saw the island. What follows is the longer version — fifteen things worth the time, and when each is at its best.

Nobody regrets this one. The Pakleni Islands are a chain of about twenty islets directly opposite Hvar town, and the nearest is fifteen minutes away. Palmižana has a botanical garden and restaurants that have been running since 1906. Jerolim and Stipanska are closer and busy in season; Vlaka and Vela Garška stay quiet.

One thing worth knowing before you point the boat: Jerolim is the naturist islet, and has been one of the best known in the Adriatic for decades. It is signposted and nobody ends up there by accident — but if it is not what you are after, carry on to Zdrilca or Vlaka.

You get there by taxi boat from the riva. They run all day, they are priced per boat rather than per person, so with three or four of you it works out better than the scheduled line.

If you would rather drive yourself and stop where you like, the smaller boats need no licence and the bigger ones come with a skipper.

The southern slope of Hvar is one of the oldest wine regions in Europe. The Stari Grad Plain is UNESCO listed and still worked along field boundaries laid out in the fourth century BC.

Two things to taste: plavac mali from the steep terraces above Ivan Dolac and Sveta Nedjelja, and white bogdanuša, which grows almost nowhere else. Most cellars take visitors, but nearly all want notice — in July and August, several days of it.

One cellar to book if you want to understand why the slope matters: Matijević, at Jagodna above Sveta Nedjelja. The family works terraces that are among the steepest on the Adriatic, everything is picked by hand, and their Plavac Mali took a Decanter gold medal in 2023. They also make bogdanuša, so you can taste the island’s own white where it grows. Tastings run from €15 for three wines to €50 with a local platter, by appointment only — and in summer that means several days ahead.

The combination that works: a north-coast beach in the morning, a tasting on the south side in the afternoon, dinner in Jelsa or Stari Grad.

Drive fifteen minutes uphill from any harbour and the island changes completely. This is where Hvar actually lived for two thousand years, and most visitors never see it.

Malo Grablje is a stone village abandoned in the 1960s when the last families moved down to Milna. Nothing has been rebuilt except one konoba run by a descendant of the people who left. You park above and walk in; it is silent, roofless, and one of the most affecting places on the island. Velo Grablje, its bigger neighbour, was the lavender capital of Dalmatia and still holds a lavender festival each summer.

Humac is a shepherds’ hamlet with no electricity and no cars, reached on foot, where dinner is cooked under a metal bell over embers. Twenty minutes further on foot is Grapčeva cave, a Neolithic site with pottery dating to around 5,000 BC — among the oldest evidence of settled life anywhere in Europe.

And between Stari Grad and Vrboska lies the Stari Grad Plain, a UNESCO site where Greek colonists laid out field boundaries in the fourth century BC that are still farmed along the same lines. It is flat, walkable and completely empty at eight in the morning.

Hvar has more than 300 kilometres of marked trails and old stone paths, most of them built to reach vineyards rather than viewpoints, which is why they run somewhere useful. The classic is the ridge walk above Brusje through the lavender terraces, and the old mule track from Malo Grablje down to Milna bay — forty minutes, ending at a swim.

Cycling is best on the Stari Grad Plain and along the north coast between Vrboska and Jelsa: flat, shaded, no traffic. The south side is for people who enjoy climbing.

On the water, sea kayaking to the Pakleni Islands takes about 45 minutes each way and is genuinely the nicest way to arrive. Paddleboards are for the sheltered north bays. Diving centres run trips to wrecks and to the reefs off the Paklenis; visibility is routinely 30 metres.

If you would rather be pulled along than paddle, the town waterfront runs flyboard, wakeboard and SUP hire right through the summer. And the deep water off the south side is where the big game boats go for tuna, amberjack and dentex — a full day, priced per boat like everything else out here.

Hvar sells lavender all summer, but it is only in flower for about three weeks — from roughly 15 June to the first week of July, earlier in a hot spring. The fields are on the western ridge around Velo Grablje and Brusje, on terraces that were the island’s main income before tourism. Drive the old road between the two villages, stop where it smells strongest, and buy oil at the door rather than on the waterfront.

If you are here outside those weeks, the terraces are still worth the drive for the view over the Pakleni chain — just do not expect purple.

Hvar earned the reputation, but the shape of the evening is not obvious to a first-timer. It starts early, around six, at the beach bars. Hula Hula on the western point is the sunset classic; Falko is twenty minutes on foot and far quieter. Around nine everyone drifts down to the riva, and the clubs only really start after midnight.

Carpe Diem also runs an island version on Stipanska, which you reach by boat and leave in the morning — the taxi boats run through the night in season.

Day one — the town, on foot. The square, the cathedral, the Arsenal and the theatre take a morning between them. Walk up to Fortica an hour before sunset and stay for it. Dinner behind the square, not on the waterfront.

Day two — the Paklenis. Taxi boat to Palmižana, or your own boat so you can stop at Zdrilca and Vlaka on the way. Back in time for a beach bar at six.

Day three — cross the island. Stari Grad and Tvrdalj in the morning, the Stari Grad Plain or a tasting on the south slope in the afternoon, dinner in Jelsa or Vrboska.

Day four — the long day. The Blue Cave if you have the appetite for eight hours at sea. If not, the slower version: Dubovica in the morning, Malo Grablje in the late afternoon when the light is in the stone.

Day five — a beach you have to work for. Zaraće, Mekićevica, or a kayak across to the Paklenis on a calm morning.

And if you only have one day: take the boat day. Everything else on Hvar can wait for the next visit.

You reach Hvar by ferry or catamaran from Split, Drvenik or Dubrovnik. The car ferry docks in Stari Grad; the passenger catamaran is faster but docks in Hvar town. That difference matters — it is another 20 kilometres between the two.

On the island: a car earns its keep if you are staying more than three days and want the south coast. For the shoreline and the coves, a boat is faster and better looking.

You can do all of this without a car. Buses link Hvar town, Stari Grad and Jelsa several times a day and meet most catamarans, taxis wait at the harbour, and for the south coast and the Paklenis the taxi boat beats the road anyway. A car only becomes necessary if you are sleeping inland or on the south side.