Hvar Destination Guide

One Island, Two Entirely Different Holidays

Hvar has a reputation, and the reputation is only half true. Hvar Town, at the western end, is a small baroque harbour that in July and August fills with yachts, day boats and a nightlife scene that has been internationally famous for twenty years. It is loud, it is expensive, and it is exactly what some people want. Twenty minutes away by road, Stari Grad is a quiet ancient port with a plain of Greek field divisions still in use after twenty four centuries, and it goes to bed early. The single most useful thing to establish before booking anything is which of those two islands you are actually going to.

The planning decision: which end, and how you get there

Hvar Town suits travelers who want the harbour scene, the boats and the restaurants and are content to trade quiet for it. Stari Grad and Jelsa suit everyone else: slower, cheaper, more agricultural, and closer to the wine. The Pakleni islands, a scatter of pine covered islets ten minutes off Hvar Town by taxi boat, are where both types of traveler end up during the day, and they are the best thing about the island. Access is the other half of the decision. Hvar has no airport. You fly to Split, or occasionally Dubrovnik, and cross by ferry, and that constraint governs the itinerary: fast passenger catamarans run to Hvar Town, car ferries run to Stari Grad, and the schedules are seasonal and reduce sharply outside summer.

A very short season

The island runs from roughly June through September, with a shoulder either side that is genuinely good and much quieter. Late May and June bring the lavender, which flowers in June around Velo Grablje and Brusje and is a real spectacle rather than a marketing line. July and August are hot, full and at their most expensive, with the sea at its warmest. September is arguably the best month on the island: warm water, the grape harvest, and space to breathe. By November most of the restaurants and hotels have closed and the ferry timetable thins out, and a winter visit means a very quiet island indeed. Plan around that compression rather than fighting it.

Where to base, and how to move

Hvar Town gives you the harbour, the Spanish fortress above it, the Franciscan monastery and the boats, all within a walk. Stari Grad gives you the old port, the plain and a calmer evening. Jelsa sits between them and suits families. The south slopes around Sveta Nedjelja are where the serious wine is, on terraces so steep they are worked by hand, and where the island feels most agricultural. A car is useful for the interior and unnecessary in Hvar Town, where parking is genuinely difficult in season. Between the villages the road is a single spine, and getting from one end of the island to the other takes about an hour.

Stay strategy, and the case for sailing instead

The hotel stock is small. The Palace Elisabeth on the main square in Hvar Town is the historic grand hotel, restored, and the most complete address on the island. Maslina Resort near Stari Grad is the quiet, design led counterweight and the better choice for most travelers who are not here for the harbour. Beyond those, the market runs to small boutique properties, private villas and apartments, and the villas with a pool and a sea view are the strongest option for a family or a group. The other answer, and often the best one, is not to stay on land at all: a crewed yacht based out of Split lets you take Hvar, Vis, Korčula and the Pakleni islands in a week, swim off the back and moor wherever the night suits you. On this coast, sailing is not a luxury alternative to a hotel. It is the way the islands are designed to be used.

When to begin

Six months, and longer for August. The island's good rooms number in the hundreds rather than the thousands, and the villas for peak weeks are taken by the previous winter. Yachts and crewed charters for July and August book a year ahead for the better boats. Ferry sailings publish seasonally and the popular catamaran departures sell out on summer weekends, so those are held as soon as the rooms are fixed rather than left to the day. Restaurant tables in Hvar Town in August need booking too, which surprises people.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• A day among the Pakleni islands by private boat, with lunch at one of the bays reachable only from the water.
• The south slope wineries around Sveta Nedjelja, where the terraces run straight down to the sea and the Plavac Mali is the reason to be there.
• The lavender fields and abandoned stone villages of the interior in June, taken by car with time to stop.
• An early walk up to the Spanish fortress above Hvar Town for the view across the harbour to the islands.

Who this trip suits

Hvar suits sailors and charter guests above all. It suits couples, in the shoulder months and at the Stari Grad end. It suits wine travelers, since the island's south slopes are among the most interesting in Croatia. It suits younger groups who want the Hvar Town summer for exactly what it is. And it suits anyone building a Dalmatian week with Dubrovnik at the other end.

When another plan may fit better

If you want a quiet island and you book Hvar Town in August, you will not get one. If you want reliable service, breadth of hotels and a long season, the Greek Islands do that better. If ferries and timetables are a source of stress, the access here will test you. And if you are travelling outside the summer months, this island is largely closed and you would be better placed on the mainland.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us your month, which end of the island you want and whether a boat is part of the plan, and we will fix the crossings, the villa or the yacht and the tables in the order that actually works. Our luxury leisure travel planning handles the whole Dalmatian sequence including the Split connection.