Travelling Croatia - Island Hopping

Since September I've been drip feeding posts of my trip to Croatia and I can't wait to share more.

I've shared where I went in Split, and what I ate whilst I was there, plus my time in paradise aka Plitvice Lakes, and lastly wandering the walls of the old town in Dubrovnik

Today's post is all about Island Hopping! As part of my trip I sailed from Split to Dubrovnik and visited many islands on the way, so make a cup of tea and settle down to see what's on each island and why you should visit!

The first island we visited was not far off shore from Split, it was an overnight stay at Bobovisca on the island of Brac. We had time to go out for food and then had our first night on the boat, it's interesting sleeping in bunks on a boat but I managed to rock to sleep and there weren't too many weird noises to keep me awake!



I had a special type of Ilyrian pasta but it was so dark when it arrived I couldn't take any photos - bad blogger.

The next morning we got up and headed off to our second island, Vis.

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Vis

The island is stunning, on arrival you pull up on your boat and jump off directly into the middle of the town. It's tiny but there are so many little shops and restaurants.

Whilst we were there they were filming Mamma Mia 2, so you can imagine just how beautiful it was.

As well as being beautiful, the island was used for military purposes as it's the best place to protect Split when war was happening.

We had a tour around the island and they showed us a lot of different places that we would never had seen otherwise.

The views at the top were absolutely stunning. There was a fortress here that had been turned into a restaurant/bar/club/wedding venue depending on the time of day and year. I can imagine the venue would look amazing with the lanterns lit up and the sunsets!

We were then shown the secret hideaways and tunnels in the island, it was really interesting to see where they hid cannons and had intelligence offices. And the views from those were unbelievable too, I can imagine spending hours watching out of these and seeing the boats sail past.







Then we were shown where the boats would hideout and be stored, we got to walk all the way into it and see the secret caverns inside. It wasn't what I expected at all but was really interesting to see!!



And on the way back we were treated to the most beautiful sunset! Sunsets in islands are the most beautiful!

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Hvar

Hvar was our next island and as the weather wasn't great we settled down for a few drinks. It was still really warm so we ordered cocktails and waited for the weather to calm down before going to explore Hvar

Again the town near the water is beautiful, and there are so many cute little side streets and winding alleys to explore.

The main event though, is to see the view at the top of the hill. So we got going as soon as possible so we could soak up the views! The steps didn't go on for too long and we arrived at a gate with a winding path through an olive grove that takes you up to the top.

And the views are so worth it!! The weather was clearing as we walked up and by the time we were walking down the sun was out and the blue skies were back. I guess that's the thing with islands, the weather changes so quickly and there's always some clouds in the morning!

There were also plenty of selfies on this trip, I was hoping if i didn't wear make up i would get a bit of colour on my skin but I didn't seem to tan at all!

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Stari Grad

Stari Grad is another town on the island of Hvar and as the weather was too windy for us to make it to the next island yet (it was the biggest distance to travel on the trip) we decided to take the bus to visit it.

Its a very small town but has a few things to see there including Tvrdalj Castle, which had a beautiful garden to see. It was worth seeing for this, it's such a cute garden and I can imagine in spring when the new flowers bloom it is very pretty.

The main thing I loved was the whole town was covered in tiny colourful flags, not for a festival but just generally and I loved the vibe it gave off. After some time wandering around and seeing lots of winding alleys, quaint shops and restaurants we stopped for a few cocktails and soaked up the atmosphere. Island life is so relaxing!

The weather had cleared by this stage so it was time to move on to the next island!

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Korcula

Arriving at the island of Korcula was an experience I won't forget. I'd heard of this island beforehand as its the home of Marco Polo but I hadn't looked it up much.

It kind of just appears and looks so beautiful and perfectly symmetrical - I loved it!

We got straight into the island and started to wander again. My favourite alley way of the entire trip was found on Korcula - it just appeared out of nowhere, had the most beautiful flowers and also led straight to the beautifully blue sea.  It was perfection!

Next it was time to climb the tower and see the views from the top. The views are almost always worth it from whatever place you are climbing but the stairs and the top of this tower were particularly small! I had to squeeze my way around the top and struggled to get passed some people, so it probably isn't one for anyone who doesn't like small spaces!

The panoramic views from here were stunning through!

I can't say I'd ever get bored of the blue seas and orange rooftops!

The whole sailing experience was amazing and I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of going.

There was a final stop off before Dubrovnik where we visited the Peljesac Peninsula and went on a wine tasting tour so I can't wait to share those pictures with you too. It was amazing!

L xxx