Hvar & Pakleni Islands

The ferry gets you to Hvar town and leaves you there until it comes back. That is the whole problem with doing Hvar as a day trip — the island's best parts are the bays around it, and the timetable keeps you in the harbour.

A private speedboat inverts it. Split to Hvar is around fifty minutes, which means the town is a stop rather than the destination, and the Pakleni archipelago directly off the harbour becomes the afternoon. Palmižana, Vinogradišće, the smaller bays with no name on the chart — pine forest running down to clear deep water, and a skipper who knows which one has nobody in it at two in the afternoon.

Nine hours, whole boat, up to twelve guests, €1,200.

A chain of about twenty small islands strung out west of Hvar town, close enough that the crossing between bays takes minutes. The name comes from *paklina*, the pine resin once used to seal wooden hulls, not from anything infernal — the standard mistranslation as "Hell's Islands" is wrong and worth knowing before somebody in the group repeats it.

Practically they are the best swimming within reach of Hvar. The water is deep and cold enough to be properly clear, the bays are sheltered from most wind directions, and because they are reachable only by boat the crowd thins the moment you leave the two that have restaurants.

Palmižana has a marina, a pebble beach and lunch. Vinogradišće is the postcard. The unnamed ones are where the skipper takes groups who want the water to themselves.

Most groups want ninety minutes to two hours. That covers the marble Pjaca — the largest square in Dalmatia — the cathedral at its eastern end, a walk up towards the Spanish fortress if anyone is willing, and a proper sit-down lunch rather than a rushed one.

The fortress climb takes about twenty minutes each way and the view over the Pakleni channel is the photograph everyone ends up keeping. Worth it if the group is willing; skippable if it is thirty-five degrees.

Hvar is also expensive by Croatian standards, which surprises people. Lunch on the riva costs roughly what it costs in an Italian resort town. The konobas two streets back are half the price and better.

When the group wants swimming and a town rather than a checklist. The Blue Cave route is ten hours and two long open-water crossings for one extraordinary ten-minute experience; this is nine hours of sheltered water with more time in it.

It is also the better choice in wind. The Pakleni bays stay swimmable in conditions that make the Biševo crossing uncomfortable, so on a marginal day this route often runs when the cave route would not.

And for anyone prone to seasickness it is simply the easier day — shorter legs, more shelter, and never more than twenty minutes from land.

The boat can pick your group up from most marinas and waterfront hotels within roughly three nautical miles of central Split, and from Trogir. There is no surcharge inside that radius.

For this route in particular it can save real time. A group staying on the Marjan side or out towards Žnjan can be aboard fifteen minutes earlier than if everyone converges on the Riva first, and on a nine-hour day that is fifteen minutes of Pakleni water rather than fifteen minutes of walking.

On board: snorkel masks and fins for everyone, wind jackets for the crossing, bottled water, a cooler, a Bluetooth speaker and a marine toilet.

Bring swimwear worn under your clothes, a towel, reef-safe sunscreen and a hat that ties. At cruising speed an untied hat is gone. Water shoes are optional in the Pakleni bays but useful on the pebbles.

Bring cash for lunch in Hvar — the konobas away from the riva are cheaper and several are cash-only. There is no entrance fee anywhere on this route, which makes it one of the easier days to budget.