Croatia · Dalmatian coast
Dalmatia, Split to Dubrovnik
Seven nights down the Dalmatian coast — Hvar, Vis, Korčula and Mljet, on the most sheltered water in the Adriatic.
7 nights · Split to Dubrovnik
Croatia has more than a thousand islands and, unusually for the Mediterranean, they sit close enough together that you are rarely an hour from shelter. That is the whole appeal: the sailing is protected, the water is startlingly clear, and the shoreline alternates Venetian towns with pine-covered emptiness. Running south rather than in a loop means the wind is behind you most of the week.
The route, day by day
Day 1
Split
Board in a Roman palace that became a city — Diocletian's, and people still live inside the walls. Out in the afternoon to the Šolta anchorages, half an hour away.
Day 2
Hvar
The busiest island and the one that earns it: a Venetian square, a fortress above, and the Pakleni islets across the channel where the anchorages are.
Day 3
Vis
Furthest out, closed to foreigners until 1989 as a military base, and quieter than everything inshore of it. The Blue Cave on Biševo is a tender trip at the right hour.
Day 4
Korčula
East and south to a walled town on a promontory, laid out in a herringbone so the streets take the breeze and block the wind. The claim on Marco Polo is disputed and enthusiastically maintained.
Day 5
Mljet
Two saltwater lakes inside a national park, with a Benedictine monastery on an islet in the middle of one of them. The most wooded island in the Adriatic.
Day 6
Šipan
Into the Elaphiti islands, an hour off Dubrovnik and a world away from it — a few hundred residents, one road, and bays reachable only by boat.
Day 7
Dubrovnik
The last short leg, arriving from the sea, which is the only way the walls make the sense they were built to make.
Worth knowing
- One-way, Split to Dubrovnik: both have airports and the wind is behind you going south
- No yacht is based in Croatia — the boat is positioned from the eastern Mediterranean for your dates
- The maestral fills in most afternoons from the north-west, which is why the passages are made in the morning
- Mljet and the Kornati are national parks with entry fees and mooring rules; the crew handle them
- August is the Adriatic's busiest month by a wide margin — June and September are the same coast with half the boats
Where this route goes
Yachts that sail this route
Itineraries
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