Hvar
Nightlife at one end, a field divided twenty-four centuries ago at the other
- When to go
- October 19° · 7 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€price 4 of 5
- How many days
- 2days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 23 km Brač · 42 km Split
- Right now
Hvar is two days: one for Hvar town and the Pakleni islands off its harbour, the other for Stari Grad and the plain Greek settlers divided up in 384 BC. The catamaran from Split docks in Hvar town, the car ferry at Stari Grad, some twenty kilometres away — and that decides which day comes first.
Hvar town fits into an afternoon: the Pjaca, the arsenal and the Fortica fortress above them, fifteen to twenty minutes uphill on steps. From the fortress you see the whole line of the Pakleni islands; taxi boats leave the town harbour and take ten to fifteen minutes, depending on the cove.
The plain behind Stari Grad has kept its Greek division into plots bounded by dry-stone walls, and vines and olives are still grown on it — which is what put it on the UNESCO list in 2008. The bus between the two towns takes about twenty minutes and is tied to ferry arrivals, so for the coves along the way and the inland villages you want a scooter or a car for the day.
Guides for Hvar
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Hvar in 2 days
→The first day climbs to the fortress and sails out to the Pakleni islands, the second takes the bus to a plain the…
Day trips from Hvar
→Vis and Bol each want a full day of their own boat; Palmižana is a shorter crossing that already fits inside day one of…
Where to stay in Hvar
→Hvar town holds the nightlife and the shortest walk to the fortress and the Pakleni islands; Stari Grad and Jelsa hold…
What to eat in Hvar
→Black risotto and mussels alla buzara run the main menu, and Prošek from Stari Grad is the sweet wine that goes with…
The best time to visit Hvar
→On most islands the date only changes the crowds and the price; on Hvar it also decides whether Tvrdalj is even open…
What to see in Hvar
Fortica fortress
The fort above town, also called Španjola, rebuilt after a gunpowder explosion in 1579. Best just before sunset, when the heat lets go.
€12
The Pakleni islands
A line of islets off the harbour; the largest is Sveti Klement, with Palmižana bay. In season taxi boats run every twenty to thirty minutes; check the last boat back before you set off, not on the beach.
€10–15 (taxi boat, return)
Tvrdalj in Stari Grad
The fortified sixteenth-century summer house of the poet Petar Hektorović, with a fishpond full of grey mullet and inscriptions in Latin, Croatian and Italian cut into its walls.
€4 (pupils/students/pensioners €2) · closed no fixed day in season; closed off-season (Nov–Apr)
The arsenal and theatre
Ships were repaired on the ground floor, and upstairs a theatre opened in 1612, one of the oldest in Europe.
€10
Lavender and Velo Grablje
The village of Hvar's best-known lavender growers: 427 people lived here in 1857, twenty at the 2021 census. Its lavender festival is in early July, when the lavender is in flower.
free
St Stephen's Square
The Pjaca between the harbour and the cathedral, at 4,500 square metres the largest square in Dalmatia. The cathedral at its eastern end was built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
free
Two things you probably did not know
The Hvar theatre of 1612 is one of the oldest communal town theatres in Europe, open to all classes and not only to the nobility. It sits on the upper floor of the Arsenal, above the hall where galleys were repaired.
The Stari Grad Plain is land the Greeks divided into regular plots in the fourth century BC. Those same drystone boundaries are still visible from the air, and the fields are still worked along them.
Ready for Hvar?
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