4
T e Travel Guide HARBOUR OF ZLARIN ISLAND/ALAMY
Promotional Content • Saturday 2nd May 2026 ELEVATED VIEW OVER STARI GRAD (OLD TOWN)/AWL
Croatia beyond the crowds
Beyond beautiful shingle beaches, Croatia’s lesser-known islands promise heritage sailing experiences, birdwatching and quiet nights with dark skies. Words: James Stewart
1. Sail away on Vis T is island has recently acquired a cachet as a bohemian bolthole, its reputation bolstered as the fi lming location of 2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Why create movie sets that illustrate feel-good escapism when they’re ready-made on Vis? Despite the Hollywood kudos, Croatia’s most distant inhabited island, 34 miles from Split by direct ferry, remains pleasantly low-key and undiscovered by tourists.
2. Soak in Lastovo’s dark skies In 2003, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature described Lastovo island as a last Mediterranean paradise. Little has changed in the past 20 years. It’s a remote speck in southern Dalmatia, built of wild bays and pine-scrubbed hills, and still benefi ts from minimal development. What’s good for nature also benefi ts stargazing. To boost one of Europe’s darkest skies, streetlights have been dimmed and modifi ed to reduce light spill. In 2023, tourism authorities revived a goal to make Lastovo the fi rst International Dark Sky Reserve of the Adriatic. Twice weekly, the tourist board runs astronomy tours on Mount Hum.
3. Island-hop the Elafi tis In the 17th and 18th centuries, if Dubrovnik’s aristocrats wanted to avoid the city’s summertime heat, they escaped to the Elafi ti islands. Today, the small archipelago remains car-free and carefree, with regular ferries creating the easiest island- hopping weekend in Croatia. Lopud, the Elafi tis’ main holiday isle, is known for its sandy beach, Šunj, but is also the creative getaway of the speedboat set — the Beckhams have holidayed here. Meanwhile, Šipan is all rustic soul. It’s the largest island, at almost two miles long, and is known as the ‘Golden Island’ due to its olive oil production — Šipan has the densest concentration of olive trees in the world per capita, with 300,000 trees for its 476 residents.
4. Meet the vultures of Cres T e sheep population was once so abundant on Cres island that plentiful carrion supported Croatia’s only colony of griff on vultures. Sheep numbers have plummeted from 70,000 to 10,000 over the past century and the griff on vulture population has dwindled to 100 pairs. It’s still possible to learn about them on a visit to the island, reached by 20-minute ferry from Brestova on the coast of Istria.
5. Sample wine of the ancient Greeks In 1877, Božo Kršinic — a farmer on Korcula island — hit stone with a spade in his fi elds above Lumbarda village. T e Lumbarda Psephisma tablet he unearthed set down the rights of 200 Greek families who had settled there 2,300 years ago. Academics speculate the Greeks refi ned local Illyrian grapes into grk, a white wine that grows nowhere else in the world. Around 10 vineyards in the area are open for visitors; Zure, Cebalo, Cipre and Vitis and Bire are worth visiting. “Grk goes through our veins,” winemaker Josip Bire says at Bire vineyard. “It’s who we are.”
6. Escape Šibenik on a DIY ferry tour For a day of travel dreams, hop aboard the number-532 ferry from the underrated north Dalmatian cathedral city of Šibenik. In less than half an hour, you’ll be whizzed to Zlarin — an island with mellow cafes set around a cute harbour and a tranquillity that comes from a ban on cars. T e Croatia n Coral Center museum explores the island tradition of coral diving. Back on the ferry, it’s 25 minutes to Prvic island. Disembarking at Prvic Luka harbour village, take a one-mile stroll on a rural lane to sleepy Šepurine, a pretty village of shuttered houses. T e fi nal stop, Vodice, a 15-minute ferry ride away, is home to the archipelago’s best beach, Mala Vrulje.
7. Spot birds in a Danube reserve On the horizon-pushing Pannonian Plain east of Osijek, the Drava River comes to a messy end where it meets the Danube on the border with Serbia. T is mosaic of lakes, marshes and channels is protected as the 68sq- mile Kopacki Rit Nature Park. It’s the Croatian side of the Mura-Drava- Danube Unesco Biosphere Reserve — dubbed the Amazon of Europe. T e most impressive of the 300 bird species here is the white-tailed eagle; Kopacki Rit has the largest nesting population in the Danube basin. Other species include ospreys, marsh harriers, turtles, beavers and otters. A two-mile boardwalk runs from the visitor centre near Kopacevo village. Better still, travellers can pre-book an early morning boat tour.
8. Hike the Premužić Trail Northern Velebit National Park rises sharply from the Dalmatian coast as a karst labyrinth of white peaks and gorges, scrubby pine forest and high meadows. Croatian hikers revere the region for the Velebit Hiking Trail. It’s a nine-day epic where civilisation means huts of the Croatian Mountaineering Association. If that’s too much of an undertaking, there’s the Premužic Trail. Named after 1930s mountaineer Ante Premužic, the three-day, 35-mile route is a taster of the Velebit Trail’s early stages, offi cially starting from Zavižan Hut. Expect Adriatic views, mad karst scenery and perhaps a fl eeting glimpse of chamois or brown bears, plus an exhilarating sense of wilderness that’s often hard to fi nd below 1,800 metres. Responsible Travel off ers week-long small-group tours along the trail.
9. See Croatia on two wheels Touring by bicycle in Croatia means cypress trees, glittering seas, the scent of wild herbs and afternoon swims in bays — and there’s an increasing number of two-wheeled tours available for those who want a packaged trip.
Responsible Travel, for example, is off ering a six-night culinary cycling trip through Istria, Croatia’s gourmet region. Cycling 25 miles daily with a guide, you sample olive oil on a family estate, join a truffl e-hunter in woods near the hill town of Motovun and sample wines over a farm-to-table lunch before exploring Italianate Rovinj town. T e route also takes in medieval villages and the Parenzana Trail, set along a former railway. Although it’s bookended by
Croatia’s two most handsome cities, the stars of Freedom Treks’ new Dubrovnik to Split cycling tour are the islands. Modestly challenging rides reveal a diff erent side to four of southern Dalmatia’s most celebrated destinations. You pedal the length of Korcula, discover little-visited coves around Hvar, ride on Vis island and stop at pretty Pucišca harbour on Brac. Instead of a hotel, nights are spent in a smart air-conditioned motor yacht.
10. Peer into the eye of the earth T e country’s newest nature reserve, designated in 2021, is Dinara Nature Park — a barely populated karst region on the Bosnia and Herzegovina border that shows a totally diff erent side to the country. T e park centres on its eponymous mountain — a huge, oval dome of limestone that culminates in the nation’s highest peak (1,831 metres). And in Dinara’s foothills lies the region’s most striking attraction, the Veliko Vrilo (Great Spring). T is karst sinkhole from which the Cetina River rises is also known as ‘the Eye of the Earth’ because seen from above, it looks like a reptilian turquoise eye. Swimming is prohibited, but there’s a viewing platform beside an old Orthodox church.
T is article fi rst appeared in the April 2026 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
nationalgeographic.com/travel
THE VEILKO VRILO SPRING/IZVOR CETINE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
