I am planning a week next August in the island of Hvar. I am going there with a girlfriend. After a complicated year for both of us, we are really looking forward to a whole week of doing almost nothing, and we have ended up settling in Hvar (at the beginning we have thought of Rovinj or Porec, but that meant renting a car to drive from Venice ... or getting one of the boats from Venice, and we weren´t so sure).

We already have our flights with Malev ( Madrid-Split via Budapest) with pretty good connections. We are planning on staying the first night in Split, get the following day to Hvar and then stay a week. We have booked a room both at the Hotel Podstine and the Suncani Amfora, thinking of not staying right into town and being able to relax. We will decide this week about which one we prefer.

A few questions :

- Could you recommend me a hotel in Split? I was thinking of maybe someplace near Diocletian´s Palace. Would it be too far away from the harbour?

- We are not sure about the last day. Our flight leaves Split at 15:00, so I don´t know if to stay that night in Hvar and get an early boat out, or head towards Split on the friday and stay there.

- Have you tried the catamaran to Hvar or the ferry to Stari Grad, and which one would you recommend? Is it easy to find transport from Stari Grad to Hvar?

- Do you have recommendations for restaurants both in Split and in Hvar? I have read that Hvar has some local wines. We like wine tasting, so maybe you could recommend some of them.

- Any daytrips ideas from Hvar, in case we get bored with the whole swimming and sun idea? We are thinking of getting one water taxi to the Pakleni islands for one day, and I know about the fortress in Hvar town, but I was thinking that maybe one day would be nice to go to another island ...

We know that Hvar will probably be overcrowded and overpriced, but we are used to that from visiting friends in Ibiza during summer. Greece would have another option, but I have already been a couple of times, and my friend wanted to visit Croatia, so Hvar sounded like the easiest place.

And last, but not least ... how do you pronounce Hvar?

Kind regards, Cova

We pronounced it "var" and then found out it was closer to "far". It never caused us any confusion; close enough was good enough.

We really loved the small town of Jelsa on the other side of the island. It has a much quieter village square, port and swimming spots. We took the bus. From Jelsa there are ferries over to Bol and the sandy Zlatni Rat beach. Bol's worth the trip.

Korcula is a hydrofoil away, but the schedule is less flexible and may not work for you.

The fortress will take you a half day at most.

Vis would make a really nice day trip - and the Blue Grotto at Bisevo.

for your final night you could consider staying in Trogir - from where it is a short bus or taxi ride to the airport.

We were in Split the night before catching a ferry to Korcula last month. We stayed at the Hotel Peristil right in the Palace. Split was not one of our favorite cities. Aside from the Palace, it seemed congested and confusing. Lots of grafetti on every surface.

We did like the hotel. A lovely restoration with a very good restaurant in the courtyard. The Peristil is located at the Silver gate to the Palace, next to the really interesting market and about a 10 minute walk directly to the ferry. check out the purchase of ferry tickets and have a plan. You could only buy Korcula catamaran tickets on the day of departure. The advantage of the hotel was that we could quickly walk over to the ticket office first thing in the morning.

> I was thinking of maybe someplace near Diocletian´s Palace. Would it be too far away from the harbour?

Diocletian's Palace is on the waterfront about as close the the ferry docks as one can get.


> Is it easy to find transport from Stari Grad to Hvar?

There are regular busses that connect the two that run a few times a day and are generally (but not always) linked to the time of the arrival of the ferry in Stari Grad.

Thanks for the recommendations so far, I´ll pass them to my friend.

Dove, we thought of the Peristil, but for our dates they only had a room with a double bed, and we wanted a twin. We have decided to splurge and go for the Vestibul Palace. It gets good reviews on Tripadvisor. We have written to them and they seem quite nice.

We´ll see ...

Rgds, Cova

The Vestibul Palace is beautiful. We looked at it as well but decided to save our splurge for Dubrovnik where we stayed at the expensive Hilton.

It is just around the corner from the Peristil and equally close to the market, ferry, and waterfront riva. The Vestibul also seems to sponsor a group of klapa singers in their front courtyard. Delightful. Try the Peristil restaurant, if nothing else. Food and setting were great.

I would take the catamaran straight to city of Hvar rather then the ferry although the bus heads quite often to Hvar from Starigrad.
Wine sorts from that region are Plavac, Plavac mali, Peljesac...
For your last night it is enough to catch a early boat to Split and head to the airport.

Well, thanks to all.

We came back two weeks ago, and I am just back at work. I hope to write some kind of report although we didn´t really do a lot : just relax, some walks and I´m afraid that we have developed a love for Malvacija and Grasevina.

It was everything we needed and more.

Bye, Cova

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. And thanks for reminding me of those stunning Croatian wines!

Stay in Trogir on your last night. It is much more pleasant than Split and only 5-10 minutes from the airport. There is a ferry that runs from Split to Trogir for 24kuna.