Two Days in Beautiful Hvar, Croatia
Now known as a party island, Hvar offers much more than meets the eye! From fancy restaurants to medieval streets and vinyards and lavender fields, Hvar has many hidden gems worth exploring! Compared to our yacht week visit to Vrboska, we stayed in lovely Hvar Town and immensely enjoyed it!
Logistics:
Although there are many, many great hotels, AirBnBs, hostels, etc, here is what and why we stayed at certain places during our stay.
Lodging
Because we were going to Hvar at the tail end of the high season and booking last minute, there weren’t a ton of great options available. Because we were coming straight from yacht week, we wanted a hotel/AirBnB where we could relax and chill to recover from our trip. Yes, a vacation within a vacation!
Travel Tip: For non-brand hotels, I usually use Hotels.com for their loyalty program unless booking directly offers a special discount. Other sites such as booking.com and expedia offer similar programs!
Food & Drink
Within Hvar Town, there are so many great food and drink places! Because it is a party town, there are many bars and pubs along with seaside restaurants offering happy hour specials and late night specials. Because of the situation, we opted to not go for some of these places. However, I would recommend Falko Beach Bar for sunset! Located at the far end of Hvar Town, the bar has uninterrupted views of the gorgeous sunset.
As for eating, we discovered a true gem within Old Town. Our favorite restaurant was the Fig because it was cheap and served amazing food! Although it was our second option behind Lola’s Bar on our first night, we had a terrific dinner of a Mexican burrito (yes, it was that tasty!) and a cheese and fig flatbread with sweet potato fries. We devoured this meal and left nothing!
The next day we were going for another Freddie recommendation of the Black Pepper, a local seafood spot, when we decided we had not tried enough of the Fig so we went back for lunch! We tried something different where MF had the Mexican Pulled Pork and I had a watermelon, feta, and pesto salad. Everything was super good, again!
On our final night, we really wanted to try Konoba Menego but the thunderstorms prevented us from leaving our flat but we have heard amazing things! When the thunderstorm did prevent us from eating, we had great takeaway from Silk, a Pan-Asian street food eatery. We had great chicken katsu options!
Click here for our Croatia Google map pins for all of our hard research of the top food and drink spots!
Activities
There are loads of activities in Hvar for those who love history, sea, and escaping to the countryside. Compared to pre-COVID times, we felt Hvar had much less activity and people than we anticipated. We loved having the village to ourselves!
Outside the City:
- Hora Farm: Although this is technically cheating since we went on our yacht week, I still think this is an excellent activity on the island!
- Spanish Fortress: Located above Hvar Town, the Spanish fortress offers terrific views of the island despite the long uphill walk.
- Napoleon’s Fortress: Even further uphill from Hvar Town, Napoleon’s Fortress is an even better view of the entire island.
- Pokonji dol Beach: Because our AirBnB was in the middle of Hvar Town and this beach, our walk was only 10 minutes to a sleepy beach that we had to ourselves! From Hvar Town, it is around a mile walk but worth it if you want sunshine!
- Pakleni Islands: Small islands located just off Hvar Town, there are TONS of tours from the port for either beach time or swimming. Although we didn’t do it, the tour would be worth it for more swimming!
- Vis: Although Vis can be a separate trip, we debated going on a day trip to this island and the blue cave.
Inside the City:
- St Stephen Square & Cathedral: One of the cannot miss spots, the central square and cathedral are beautiful at sunrise and sunset. We definitely people watched on the square too!
- Franciscan Monastery: One of the beautiful buildings in Hvar Town, the monastery is also a terrific place to see the sunset! It has a uninterrupted view of the ocean and is free!
- Wandering the City: While you need to bring your walking shoes for the many stairs, the old town is beautiful with small alleys and marble streets. Hvar Town is truly beautiful!
Fixed Costs:
- Lodging: £67/night
- Ferry from Split to Hvar: £23
- A&C and Beach chill memories: priceless!
Arriving in Paradise
From Split, there are a few ferries to Hvar a day and we chose one that would get us there early so we could explore the island and enjoy our time here! Thankfully, our AirBnB host, Marko, picked us up from the port and drove us (uphill) to our AirBnB. Otherwise, it would have been a long walk similar to our Taormina hike!
After we landed in our apartment, MF did not move for at least three hours! We both were exhausted after a week of unpredictable sleep and I had picked a perfect AirBnB with a large comfortable bed in AC. It would wonderful!
Hvar to Ourself
Similar to our experience in Split, Hvar Town was very empty. While we did visit before an early dinner, there were hardly any crowds in the square or restaurants. We loved it! Before COVID, I would read almost horror stories about the crowded town. Instead, we had our own little personal bubble.
For dinner, we were torn between Freddie’s recommended restaurant of Lola’s burgers or Lonely Planet’s Fig. Because Lola turned out to be closed, we went to Fig and boy were we happy! Located in an alleyway, it was a terrific gem! For mains, we had a tasty Mexican pork enchilada (yes, it was THAT good!) and MF had the fig, goat cheese, and walnut salad / flatbread. Both were incredibly tasty! An added bonus was our dinner was one of the cheapest on our Croatian trip!
While we were walking off our food coma, we witnessed another incredible Croatian sunset. From the Francoian monastery, we had uninterrupted views for free. We did debate walking to the Falko Beach Bar as I read it had great views, but this was free and therefore for me! While we had a slow start, we had a terrific ending to our first day here!
Exploring Hvar
On our second day on Hvar Island, we knew the weather forecast predicted this would be our last sunny day whilst on the island. Thus, we knew we had to hit the beach and all the scenic spots!
Lazy Sunday
Because we LOVED our room, we slept in and had our tasty breakfast at the last possible moment. Surprisingly, our breakfast was really good and surpassed my expectations. With a great view of the surrounding area and sea, we enjoyed our fresh breakfast of scrambled eggs & bacon and fruit muesli. Yummy!
Rather than take a long morning and afternoon naps in our room, we walked (more like hiked) downhill to Pokonji dol beach. Because we went before lunch, we were one of the first people on the beach. And then we rested… Thankfully, while the weather was boiling hot, the winds were blowing and cooled us off!
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot
Typically on our beach days, we starve until the last possible moment and then go eat. Because we were on a secluded beach, we waited until 20 minutes before we felt starving so we could make the 1-2pm walk to Hvar Town. Rather than walk uphill again, we (cough, cough MF) decided to walk around the hill in the blazing heat. While we enjoyed terrific seaside views, I also felt like I was melting…
Initially, we were going to another Freddie recommendation, Black Pepper, but decided at the last minute to try Fig before they closed. Yet again, we made a terrific decision! We ordered the other two items that looked amazing - MF had the Mexican beef chili with fresh bread while I had an incredibly light and refreshing watermelon, feta, and pistachio flatbread/salad. Perfect for a late afternoon snack / meal!
Hiding from the Storms
Quickly after we finished our terrific meal at Fig, we felt a few raindrops.. Uh oh! We walked back to our awesome hotel and hid from the clouds.
Because storms were on the horizon, we decided to have takeaway and MF let me finally try a highly recommended Asian takeaway chain called Silk. On our yacht week, the group loved it so I wanted to try it. However, it did mean I had a 30 minute round trip uphill walk… Thankfully, the our food was very tasty! While not photogenic at all, I had a great chicken katsu curry and MF tried the Asian Fried Chicken. Both were great and were in our price range rather than super expensive.
Sadly, there wasn’t a sunset tonight but we enjoyed our meal in our awesome apartment. Have I mentioned that we liked our apartment yet?? Perhaps this was an overcorrection since we had a tiny, tiny cabin on the yacht with no AC!
Lazy in Hvar
Sadly, we weren’t able to do much more in Hvar due to actual thunderstorms on our last full day. Rather than risk lightning and getting soaked, we called it a rest day and wanted to catch up on life admin and rest ahead of our busy trip to Dubrovnik followed by island hopping in Greece.
A few highlights for me were the freshly prepared Marko breakfasts and “home cooked” meals that we had! Plus, we were able to relax in paradise which ultimately is the point of our lovely stay on Hvar Town.
Photo Mission
In Hvar, I managed to get great photos of the Old Town, either on runs or as we wandered around the city. As they say, photos speak louder than words!
The UnChartered Summary
Hvar is a beautiful town on a beautiful island. Over the two different trips, we enjoyed relaxing in the sun, exploring the hidden gems, and eating terrific meals!
- While Hvar Town offers extremely posh options, we absolutely loved our AirBnB at Marko’s! Compared to the available options, it is a hidden gem!
- Go to Konoba Menoba! Sadly, we couldn’t go to it because of the thunderstorms but we wished we had!
- While we didn’t go to the fortresses, the views are suppose to be incredible!
- For food, we highly recommend Fig! The fresh salads and surprisingly excellent Mexican food are some of our top meals here in Croatia!