A Weekend on the Island of Hvar

Starting in Vienna, Austria we began our trip to Hvar, Croatia for a long weekend- taking advantage of our Holiday of Corpus Christi day off. It started off extremely rough. We took an overnight train from Vienna to Zagreb, Croatia. That is for a completely different adventure story as we realized once we got on that we did not have cabins until 2 am that night. Needless to say, we survived. In Zagreb we were supposed to meet a private bus (EuroBusways) driver at the Zagreb train station around 9:30 am. Our bus driver showed up a little bit late but he made up for it by letting us stop for 2 hours and romp around Plitvice Lakes National Park for no extra cost. 

We eventually arrived in Split, Croatia. We spent our free hours swimming and hanging out until our ferry arrived to pick us up and take us to the island of Hvar. The ferry lasted 2 hours where we experienced a beautiful sunset. Once we got off the ferry we took a 45 minute taxi ride around the island to our hostel. 

The trip to Hvar ended smoothly. We were greeted by a fun group of Australians who ran Earther's Hostel and immediately left the place to party. 

In my humble opinion, I believe planning a few things for a trip is a good idea to have some structure and have some research done beforehand. However, too structured and you can feel like you are constantly running around never being able to relax and enjoy the view. So our first day we did as planned and went sea kayaking. The kayaking seemed expensive and touristy- although the water is very blue and we were fed a nice spaghetti lunch on a private island. I would highly recommend if you like guided trips. That evening 2 friends and I took off to see the "most beautiful" beach on the island - Hvar Beach. It truly was beautiful and at golden hour most of the people had already left for dinner so we had an essentially private beach. We ended our tiresome afternoon eating at an amazing Mediterranean/Seafood restaurant called Pokonji Down. 

After dinner it was back to the hostel to rest and change before heading to the bars. Hvar has a great night scene with clubs scattered along the beach. 

The next day, we did as I always suggest and rented a boat on a whim. The small, private boat cost $50 for the entire day for 5 of us and we drove it wherever we wanted. We island hopped and did our best to dock it despite choppy waters. We ate at a small cafe called Toto on a neighboring island and swam in a few other places throughout the day. This was incredibly much more adventurous, spontaneous, and fun than the kayaking trip. 

We ate an early dinner at Lungo Mare restaurant. It is one of the top rated restaurants on the island according to our hostel staff and we couldn't agree more! The seafood was very fresh and delicious. Pero the chef even brought a huge live lobster out to entertain us! 

We were all extremely saddened to leave the sunny, beautiful Hvar at the end of the weekend. It was so much fun and worth every trial and tribulation we experienced on the trip to Hvar. I would highly recommend this destination to anyone.