When I woke up in Split, I felt like I was in a Roman Disneyland.
If I were rich, I’d rent a private yacht and sail around Croatia’s archipelagos of little islands like a commander surveying her dominion over the seas.
But… since I’m not one of those Russian billionaires who hovers their superyachts off the coast of Croatia every year and am instead an unemployed writer on a budget, I was a free spirit locked to a time schedule. Instead of lazy days basking on the deck of a boat, my friend and I stashed ourselves on mainstream ferries in a race to hop to as many islands as we could. The route we took, from the mainland of Split to Hvar, Korcula and Dubrovnik, is a pretty well-beaten path by the hordes of Game of Thrones fans and retirees. You can still steal some peace and quiet on smaller islands.
Split: Retire like a Roman emperor
The main attraction of Split is Diocletian’s palace, the retirement home that was part military garrison, part luxe pad, of an emperor who tried out a new experiment to dilute absolute political power. He split up Roman rule into a tetrarchy, or rule by four people. It didn’t last very long. The whole thing fell apart after he retired.
Built in the late 4th century, the open-air forum with steps and tall pillars is quite stunning in person, if you can get a good glimpse of it between all the tourists. You can imagine what it might have been like for an emperor to give speeches from the raised platform. (And if your imagination falls short, some actors in Roman military garb and imperial robes will excite you with a short performance.)
There are a few other small ancient things to check out around the palace: a cathedral, bell tower, crypt and baptistry for 25 kuna, and a stone tower that doesn’t have a roof and is open to the sky offers excellent acoustics for the quartet of men singing Dalmatian songs a cappella.
And if you’ve got time, go for a jog around Marjan Hill, or better yet as I did, a guided kayak tour and cliff-jumping in the clear-water bays around the hill at sunset.
We spent too much money on a mediocre Italian-inspired meal that had a fantastic ambience, a little white tablecloth bistro table on the side of an alley. My friend had an octopus salad on a bed of beans that were oddly chilled. The octopus oddly also did not come with lemon slices, and we had to ask the waiter twice to bring us more. Isn’t it nearly a golden rule that fresh seafood tastes better with a splash of tarty citrus acid? I had grilled sea bass with cauliflower puree, and too much wine. That’s really what you’re paying for: the atmosphere. Because at night, when we wandered down more tiny alleys that were more like crevices between walls, we stumbled on the narrowest of walkways tucked into the curve of a tall wall that doubled as a restaurant patio with tiny two-person wooden tables, tiny wooden stands to balance the wine bottles and faces of couples lit up by candlelight, like a movie scene.
Hvar: Gorgeous port bay and sunsets
Hvar is smaller than Split but actually much more enjoyable as a vacation town.
Hopping from port to port and island to island seemed frustrating at first, but it’s actually incredibly easy as there’s really only two ferry companies (the main one being Jadrolinija) and their ticket booths are easy to find. You can buy your tickets by credit card online or in person, so last-minute trips are totally doable. Plus, after going through the hell that was this Indonesia boat ride, Europe is completely hassle free. There was even a bar onboard the ferry, for goodness sakes!
In Hvar, the U-shaped port is the center of town life, but the real fun is situated up the stairs on the winding paths on the hill, where restaurants, ice cream shops and cafes are tucked into small nooks. They’re overlaid with the same facades of beige-tinted, smooth stones, like they’ve been sanded down and painted over with a thin layer of glaze. I relished padding through the narrow walkways decorated with clusters of vines and plants to stumble upon the most romantic restaurants with a few tables and chairs set outside in little alley nooks, small boutiques selling trendy sunglasses, bikinis and loungey resort clothes and gelato and coffee shops. The effect is as if you’re wandering through a rich fishing merchants’ medieval village that’s been scrubbed and shined up for show.
I had quite a good meal of creamy shrimp gnocchi and roasted veggies with prosek (a sweet dessert wine, not the same as prosecco) at the tavern of the quaint family-owned restaurant Konuba Menego. It’s much more hilly here than in Split. There are more cathedrals and monasteries with medieval art to see, but the highlight for me was the Spanish fortress on the top of the hill at sunset, where there are curved lounge chairs laid out for the public to sit on. At the top, you can see the chain of the Palimeni island archipelago, the port and a church steeple.
Next time that I visit, I’d love to explore farther inland to Stari Grad, where Greeks set up in ancient times and is one of the oldest places in present-day Croatia, the secluded cove of Robinson’s beach to swim and read, and a trip around the lavender fields.
Korcula: Peace and quiet in a fortified medieval village
Our second island stop was in Korcula, a small fortified medieval town that was really cute and reminded me of Siena in Italy. There was a prominent gated entrance, bell tower and church steeple with great 360-degree views of the surrounding water and hills in the distance.
Korcula is much more low-key and a haven from the tourist-heavy sites of Split and Dubrovnik. The alleys are not as crowded, and I took my time wandering up and down passageways crawling with green vines.
Because I’m a water baby, my favorite part of Croatia was the romanticism of the water. And Korcula offered it up on a silver plate. On one side of the old town, there is a broad promenade with touristy restaurants. But if you peep over the edge of the stone wall, you’ll see rocks and platforms below where older couples sun themselves and go for swims.
The water here is a constant invitation, with endless opportunities to splash into clear, deep aqua pools with white froth under a hot sun. Nobody’s trying to police you here. There’s no fences or guardrails. Just a fort, a cliff and open water. Discreet ladders are bolted to the side of docks and rocks. As if you need more encouragement, there are flat platforms where you can tiptoe right up to the edge, strip off your clothes and jump in. After a lunch with Croatian wine, in two seconds you could be submerged in the Adriatic Sea next to fish, with a medieval fortress, stone paths and bougainvillea vines as your background.
