Hvar: Croatia's Sunniest Island, Beyond the Party

Hvar has an image problem, and the image is of yachts. The harbour town that shares the island's name has spent two decades building a reputation as the Croatian Mykonos — champagne, DJs, a young crowd off the boats — and that reputation, like Mykonos's, is true and also tiny. It lives on a few square metres of one town in July and August.

The island is long, and most of it is the opposite of all that: stone villages, lavender hills, the clearest water in the Adriatic, and a quiet that the party crowd never finds.

Hvar town, done right

Hvar town is genuinely beautiful — a marble main square (one of the largest in Dalmatia), a Renaissance cathedral, and a Spanish fortress on the hill above with a view over the harbour and the Pakleni islands. See it the way you'd see any busy beautiful town: early, before the day boats, and late, after the crowds thin. Climb to the fortress for sunset. Then sleep somewhere quieter.

Stari Grad and the ancient plain

Across the island, Stari Grad is the antidote — one of the oldest towns in Europe, founded by the Greeks, a calm tangle of stone lanes around a deep bay. Behind it lies the Stari Grad Plain, a UNESCO site where the Greek field divisions laid out 2,400 years ago are still farmed, in olives and vines, exactly as they were. It is the slow, deep heart of the island.

Jelsa and the lavender

Jelsa, a small working port further east, is the quiet base locals love — a leafy square, fishing boats, and easy access to the island's beaches. And over all of it, in June, the lavender: Hvar is Croatia's sunniest island, and its interior hills turn purple and fragrant in early summer. Drive the inland road through the lavender villages and the island reveals its real self.

The Pakleni islands

Just off Hvar town lie the Pakleni islands, a scatter of car-free islets with pine, white-pebble coves, and water so clear it's almost embarrassing. A taxi boat gets you there in minutes; spend a day swimming between coves and lunching at a simple konoba, and the party town across the water feels very far away.

How to do it slowly

Base in Stari Grad or Jelsa, not Hvar town, so your evenings are quiet. Day-trip into Hvar town for the square and the fortress, give a day to the Pakleni islands, drive the lavender road, and eat slowly in the konobas. Come in June for the lavender or in September for warm, empty beaches.

Still choosing your corner of the Mediterranean? Take the quiz. For more of Croatia, see Dubrovnik; for more of the coast slowly, Positano and the quiet Greek islands.