Boat trips, beaches and exploring the caves around Havar Island
Summary
Havar is the most luxurious beach destination in Croatia. You’ve got the glitzy harbour with super yachts and world-class beach bars, a variety of adrenaline pumping lash centres in Havar Town coupled with more chilled out spots all around the island, and places like the Blue and Green caves to be explored by boat all around the island. Definitely one of the highlights of Croatia and the whole Balkans
highlights
#1 The beautiful harbour of Havar Town - full of banging beach bars and uber cool restaurants overlooked by the super yachts
#2 Finding some of the more hidden spots just outside of Havar Town
#3 The beautiful deep blues of a swim into the Blue Cave by Vis (forgive the rubbish photo)
#4 Wandering through the cobbled streets and small eateries of Havar Town itself
#5 Enjoying the crystal clear waters all around Havar and having them right on your hotel doorstep as you walk out of your hotel
#7 Taking a swim by some of the treelined beaches with little churches peaking out
#6 Gorping at the wide variety of mega valuable super yachts that fill Havar Town's harbour
#8 Taking a journey a little further inland into the more central parts of Havar to experience that very laid back Mediterranean summer feel
Travel Tips
- Make sure you take a boat trip – an island like Havar, with its caves, smaller islands and sailing culture, is perfect for exploring by boat. You’ll find heaps of options to take depending on what you want to see. I’d suggest a trip over to Vis and the caves that surround it
- The Blue Cave is not to be missed – a sea cave that, because of the limited light that enters, gives off a stunning blue. Yes it gets busy, but there is still something super cool about swimming into that perfect blue water and protected area of the cave. The Green Cave is also worth checking out, although not quite as impressive
- Havar’s Old Town is worth spending an afternoon in – everyone focuses on the boat trips, beaches and hedonistic activities, but the Old Town is actually surprisingly pretty. As usual with old towns, leave the map behind and aim to get lost
- Have a wander just outside of Havar Town for some great beaches – there are plenty of beaches to explore. Dubovica Bay was probably our favourite, but there were also lots of smaller far quieter beaches within walking distance of even Havar Town. Pokonji Dol is in particular very picturesque and only around 20mins walk from Havar Town
- Where to stay – it depends on what you’re looking for and how much time you have. If looking for lash / partying, then the choice is obvious – Havar Town. Similarly, if you are short on time, Havar Town makes the most sense because you can use it as a base to easily explore the whole island and there are plenty of places where you would avoid the noise and general busyness of the beach bars. But if you’re looking for something a bit quieter and / or you have the time, coastal spots like Stari Grad and Jelse are less hectic and beautiful
- Part of a 2-3 week itinerary – the Western Balkans are a seriously underrated part of Europe and represent one of the best 2-3 week trips you can do in this part of the world with stunning castles and old towns, and some of the best coastline in the world all compactly housed within 8 countries. For the 2-3 week itinerary for the highlights and general tips for this part of the world, see this travel entry and where Havar fits in –3 week trip around the Balkans States
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Beautiful Island Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone