Hvar Island

The sunniest island in Croatia with 2,718 hours of sunshine per year. Roman Pharos colony. Lavender fields, fortress views, and wine from ancient terraces. Bogdanuša and Plavac Mali are the local specialties.

What to do there

4 things to do

1. 1 Climb the Hill That Has Been Fortified Since Before Greece Arrived History · Price: low

   Where: Fortica (Španjola) fortress — walk up the stone path from the old town, about 15 minutes from the main square. The path begins behind the Arsenal building on the north side of town. Entry is €10 at the gate; open 9am–9pm.

   What: This hill has been continuously fortified since the Copper Age — before the Greeks, before the Romans, before anyone whose name you know. The Illyrians built a hillfort here around 800–500 BC, when pottery evidence shows they were already trading long-distance goods. Then in 385 BC, the Greeks arrived from the island of Paros and founded Pharos below. Then the Byzantines added a fort in the 6th century (traces still visible in the south-facing walls). Then the Venetians in 1278, then a Renaissance rebuild in 1551, then in 1571 the Ottomans sacked the town and set it on fire — the Fortica saved the entire population, who had locked themselves inside. The current walls you're touching are mostly 16th century Spanish/Venetian stone, but they follow the exact defensive lines the Illyrians traced 2,500 years ago.

   How: From the top, look down at Hvar Town's old streets. The Roman/Greek urban grid is still legible from this height — the rectangular blocks, the alignment of alleys toward the harbour. The museum inside displays ancient amphorae pulled from the Adriatic seabed, including Roman trade vessels. Inside the walls there's also a terrace café — order a glass of local wine here at sunset and watch the Pakleni Islands turn pink.

   Backup: If the fortress is closed for maintenance (rare in season), the walk up the path still gives the panorama from the outer walls for free. The views are nearly as good from the approach path.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Stand on the Agora Where Greek Colonists from Paros Traded in 385 BC History · Free

   Where: Trg Sv. Stjepana (St. Stephen's Square), Hvar Town's main piazza — the largest square in Dalmatia at 4,500 square metres. Then walk to the Benediktinski samostan (Benedictine Convent) at the northern edge of the square.

   What: Here is the thing nobody tells you standing in this sun-drenched square: you are standing on the agora of Pharos. When the Greek settlers from the island of Paros arrived here in 385 BC — after consulting the oracle at Delphi, after the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse agreed to send his naval fleet to protect them — this is where they built their market. The square you see today was filled in from an inlet over centuries and reached its current dimensions by the 15th century, but the site itself has been the civic centre of this island for 2,400 years. The cathedral and the arsenal, the governor's palace and the bishop's palace — they all stand on ancient Pharos. Then walk to the Benedictine Convent (Benediktinski samostan), in the corner of the square in the 15th-century town house where Hvar poet Hanibal Lucić was born in 1485. The nuns have been making lace here since 1664 — not from thread or silk, but from the fibres of dried agave leaves, a technique sailors brought back from Tenerife in the 19th century. Larger pieces take 5–6 months to complete and every one is unique; no patterns exist, only skill passed nun to nun. UNESCO placed this craft on its Intangible Heritage list in 2009. The nuns sell through a small window at the convent.

   How: Walk into the square from any direction — it's free and always open. For the convent, ring the bell or wait at the small window during visiting hours (morning, roughly 10am–noon; check locally as hours vary by season). A small piece of lace, if available, costs €30–€100+ depending on size.

   Backup: If the convent window is closed, the square itself and the cathedral (St. Stephen's, entry ~€2) fully deliver the historical weight. The 1520 town well in the square centre is the oldest dateable artifact in the piazza.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Taste the Grape That Exists Nowhere on Earth Except This Island Wine · Price: low

   Where: Any wine bar or konoba in Hvar Town's old town. The most reliable starting point: the enotecas and wine shops along the streets leading off the main square, or at wineries with Hvar Town presence. Ask specifically at the tourist wine shops on the main square — most carry Hvar producers.

   What: Order Bogdanuša. The name means 'given by God' in Croatian. This white grape variety grows ONLY on Hvar Island — not in Dalmatia broadly, not in the rest of Croatia, not anywhere else on the planet. DNA analysis confirms it's an ancient isolated variety consistent with a grape that arrived with the Greeks in 385 BC and never left. Its wine is nothing like what you expect from a Mediterranean summer white: light, floral, citrus and peach on the nose, with bright acidity that makes it dangerous to drink. Look for bottles from Carić (Vrboska), Plančić, or Hvar Hills. If the bar has Lacman 'Lacmanuša' — a natural, unfiltered, long-maceration Bogdanuša from the hilltop village of Selca — order it without hesitation. Then ask for a glass of Plavac Mali alongside it. Plavac Mali, the island's red, shares the same parent grape as Zinfandel: in 2001, UC Davis geneticist Carole Meredith proved the family connection. Two ancient grapes from the same island. One white. One red. Both made here for 2,400 years.

   How: A glass of Bogdanuša typically runs €4–8 in Hvar Town bars. A glass of Plavac Mali €5–10. Taste them side by side — the contrast tells you everything about what this island is.

   Backup: If Bogdanuša is unavailable (unlikely in peak season), Pošip is the backup Dalmatian indigenous white. But Bogdanuša is the Hvar-only grape — push for it.

   Log Memory
4. 4 Ride Through the Island's Spine to the Cliff Vineyards Above the Adriatic Adventure · Price: low

   Where: Rent a scooter or car from any of the rental agencies near the Hvar Town ferry dock (Dino Rent, Rent 4 Fun, Luka Rent — all within walking distance of the harbour). Scooter rental runs ~€50/day. Drive east then south through the village of Pitve, into the tunnel that bores through the island's limestone spine, and out onto the south face — 12 km from Hvar Town to Sveta Nedjelja.

   What: The moment you emerge from the Pitve tunnel is the reveal: instead of the sheltered north coast with its calm harbours, you're on the south face — a wall of limestone dropping into open Adriatic. The vineyards here are not gentle hillside rows. They are wedged into cliff faces at angles that make mechanisation impossible. Every single grape from Ivan Dolac and Sveta Nedjelja is hand-harvested. The slopes face south, they catch maximum sun reflected off the rocks AND off the sea below, and they drain so fast that the vines put all their energy into survival — which translates into intense, concentrated Plavac Mali. This is where Zlatan Otok, founded in 1991 as the second private winery in Croatia after independence, has its cellar and marina restaurant 'Bilo Idro'. Drive into Sveta Nedjelja village (population ~135), park at the marina, walk up into the vineyards above the village, and understand why every bottle from this locality costs what it does.

   How: Stop at Zlatan Otok's marina restaurant 'Bilo Idro' (open May 15–October 15) for wine tasting at cellar prices — no reservation needed for the restaurant. The Zlatan Plavac Grand Cru, made from these specific slopes, runs ~€25–35 a bottle at the cellar. If you want the underwater wine cellar experience (wines aged on the seabed), book in advance: reservation + full payment required.

   Backup: If Zlatan Otok is closed (November–April), the drive and the vineyard walk are still fully worth it — the cliff landscape is free. Ivan Dolac village, 2 km east along the coast from Sveta Nedjelja, has its own local konoba where you can ask about buying directly from smaller producers.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Zlatan Otok winery for award-winning Plavac Mali

• Tomić for traditional family production

• Rent a scooter to explore island vineyards

• The fortress at sunset is unmissable