🗺️ About Hvar
Hvar has a way of making an entrance. The moment you step off the tender, you are greeted by sparkling Adriatic water, pale stone buildings, palm-lined promenades, hillside fortifications, and a harbor filled with enough yachts to make you wonder whether you have accidentally arrived at a Mediterranean film premiere.
Often called the Croatian Riviera, Hvar is glamorous, sunny, and undeniably beautiful, but there is much more to the island than polished restaurants and expensive boats.
Its story reaches back to nearby Stari Grad, where Greek settlers from the island of Paros founded the colony of Pharos around 385 BC. Today, Stari Grad is considered one of the oldest towns in Europe. Rome took control of the island by 219 BC, followed over the centuries by Byzantine, Croatian, and Venetian rule.
When Venice took control in 1420, Hvar became an important naval base. The Fortica fortress, perched high above town, was expanded and rebuilt to protect the harbor, while the prosperity of the Venetian era helped give Hvar one of the oldest public theatres in Europe, built in 1612 and still standing just off the main square.
Modern Hvar may be known for lavender fields, beach clubs, and celebrity visitors, but its history is still everywhere. Behind the glossy storefronts are narrow stone lanes, centuries-old churches, elegant Venetian buildings, and stairways that seem to lead uphill forever.
As we were about to discover, though, our day in Hvar would involve far less sightseeing than originally planned.
⏰ A Schedule Gone Sideways
Our original itinerary showed us staying in Hvar until 10pm, with Dubrovnik scheduled for the following day. Windstar had updated the itinerary before we left home, but those changes never appeared correctly in our app. As a result, our dates and departure times were wrong for three ports in a row, including Hvar.
That became a fairly significant problem because I had booked a 7.5-hour boat tour through TripAdvisor. The plan included several Blue Cave swimming spots, visits to a few outer islands, and lunch.
It sounded like the perfect Hvar day.
Unfortunately, while we were already underway, I realized we needed to be back on board by 4pm rather than 9:30pm.
There was no creative math that could make a 7.5-hour tour fit into the time we actually had.
🚤 Plan B: A Water Taxi to Robinson’s
Bob and I took the first tender into Hvar town and went directly to the tour operator’s office. We explained what had happened and asked whether they had a shorter tour available.
They did not.
Since we were cancelling with less than 24 hours’ notice, there was no refund either, which we understood. The schedule confusion was frustrating, but I should have double-checked the app against the ship’s official daily information.
So there we were in one of Croatia’s most beautiful destinations, standing beside the harbor with no tour, no plan, and several hours to fill.
There are worse problems to have.
Fortunately, Hvar is very good at Plan B.
Near the small-boat harbor, several water taxi operators were offering rides to beaches and coves along the coastline. One advertised a place called Robinson’s, with photographs of a secluded cove, clear blue water, pine trees, and shaded lounge chairs.
It looked perfect.
For €10 each, round trip, the operator promised to take us out and return us in plenty of time for the ship’s tender. We paid, climbed aboard, and waited about ten minutes while the crew gathered a few more passengers.
While we waited, we started chatting with a young couple on holiday. She was from Sweden, he was from England, and both were immediately easy to talk to.
The ride took about fifteen minutes, following Hvar’s rocky coastline just beyond town. The water was impossibly blue, the hillsides were covered in pine trees, and Hvar town slowly disappeared behind us.
Before long, we pulled up beside a small cement dock with a wonderfully uncomplicated sign:
Robinson’s.
Our driver confirmed that he would return for us at 1:30pm, and then the boat headed back toward town.
🌲 A Quiet Hvar Cove
Robinson’s was rustic and spectacular in equal measure.
The cove was framed by cliffs on both sides, with a small rocky beach tucked between them. The water was the same glass-clear blue we had been admiring throughout Croatia, and about a dozen lounge chairs sat on the opposite hillside beneath the shade of pine trees.
The cicadas were singing here too, though they seemed slightly less enthusiastic than the ones we had heard in Rovinj.
We claimed two chairs. A sign mentioned a €15 lounge fee, but no one was around to collect it, so we settled in and began the demanding vacation activity of doing absolutely nothing.
Only about a dozen people were there, including the Swedish-English couple from our boat, who found a spot down on the beach. After the bustle of Hvar’s harbor, the cove felt wonderfully removed from everything.
About 45 minutes later, we decided we had rested enough to justify a swim.
This time, we were prepared. I had inexpensive water shoes, and Bob wore sandals, which made navigating the rocky shoreline much easier.
The water was noticeably cooler than at our previous stops, which seemed strange since we were travelling south. It was around 78 degrees, cold enough to make us hesitate for the first couple of minutes and then wonderful once we were in.
A few more water taxis arrived while we swam, bringing additional visitors, although the cove never felt crowded.
When we returned to our chairs, a man came over, introduced himself, and collected the lounge fee. We asked about the small restaurant on the property, and he told us they served some of the freshest fish around.
He had caught it himself that morning.
That was enough to get our attention.
🍝 A Lunch We Never Expected
We wandered over to the little restaurant hut expecting, at most, a few sandwiches or something that could be heated quickly.
Instead, we found a menu filled with freshly prepared meals.
At a remote Hvar cove accessible only by boat.
Naturally, we had to investigate.
I ordered the seafood linguine, Bob chose their version of chicken carbonara, and we added a couple of Coke Zeros. About ten minutes later, our meals arrived.
They were delicious.
The seafood tasted genuinely fresh, the pasta was excellent, and the entire meal was far better than anything we had expected to find at a rustic beach stop. Back home, a place like this would almost certainly have served hamburgers, hot dogs, and perhaps a bag of chips.
Here, apparently, you get fresh seafood pasta beside the Adriatic.
Hvar was showing off.
After lunch, we returned to our chairs and relaxed until it was time to walk back down to the dock. The Swedish-English couple were returning on the same boat, along with a handful of other guests.
Our afternoon was nothing like the one we had planned. We did not see the famous Blue Caves or hop between the outer islands, but we had found a peaceful cove, swum in clear Adriatic water, and eaten an unexpectedly memorable lunch beneath the pine trees.
We were not exactly disappointed.
🏛️ Back in Hvar Town: The Croatian Riviera
By the time we returned, Hvar town was fully awake.
The waterfront promenade was busy, restaurant terraces were filling, and boats moved steadily through the harbor. Yachts were anchored far out across the bay, creating the kind of scene that makes the “Croatian Riviera” nickname feel entirely appropriate.
Hvar manages to combine two very different personalities.
On one hand, it is a classic medieval Adriatic town, filled with churches, stone plazas, narrow lanes, Venetian architecture, and the Fortica fortress watching over everything from the hill above.
On the other, it has a distinctly polished, fashionable energy. Storefronts sit beneath crisp awnings, waterfront restaurants serve beautifully presented meals, and the harbor attracts boats that probably cost more than entire neighborhoods.
Yet Hvar never felt overly flashy to us. The glamour is there, but it sits comfortably alongside the history. One minute you are admiring a luxury yacht, and the next you are walking past a building that has stood for hundreds of years.
It is easy to understand why Hvar has become such a favorite among wealthy travelers and celebrities. It offers the beauty and atmosphere of more famous Mediterranean destinations, but with a personality that still feels distinctly Croatian.
Before returning to the tender, we wandered through town, picked up a few souvenirs, and stopped for gelato.
While sitting outside the shop, I noticed a small sign announcing that it had been featured on Somebody Feed Phil. We had watched the Hvar episode not long before the trip, so stumbling across one of the featured locations was a fun surprise.
Apparently, even our gelato stop had a little celebrity connection.
💭 One of Our Favorite Afternoons
We returned to the ship, showered, and changed for dinner, both agreeing that Hvar had become one of our favorite afternoons of the trip.
It was not the day we booked, researched, or expected.
There was no organized tour, no checklist of major sights, and no guide leading us through crowded streets. Instead, there was a water taxi, a quiet cove, pine trees, beautiful water, an excellent lunch, and just enough time to wander through one of the Adriatic’s most glamorous towns.
Our scheduling mistake had forced us to slow down, improvise, and experience a different side of Hvar.
Sometimes Plan B turns out to be the better story.
Next stop: Kotor, Montenegro.
I leaned into a more playful travel-blog voice while keeping the history and the relaxed feel of your original.
Related Posts
