Croatia · Southern Dalmatia
Yacht Charter Lastovo
A nature park of forty-six islands, closed to visitors until 1988, with chimneys like nothing else in the Adriatic.
Lastovo is the second of Croatia's two islands that the Yugoslav army kept shut — Vis was the other — and it opened later, in 1988. Since 2006 the whole archipelago of forty-six islands and islets has been a nature park. The main town is not on the sea, which is unusual and deliberate: it was built in a bowl on the far side of the ridge so that nothing sailing past could see it, and the houses carry chimneys that exist nowhere else.
The town that hides, and the chimneys
Lastovo town sits inland in an amphitheatre of terraces, facing away from the water, because for centuries anything visible from the sea was a target. You reach it over the ridge, and the first sight of it is a bowl of stone roofs with cylindrical chimneys standing up from them like small minarets.
The fumari are the island's signature and they are not decorative: each house had one, each one is different, and the shape is unique to Lastovo. Nobody has satisfactorily explained where the form came from. The best of them are on the houses around the church, and they are worth the walk up on their own.
Hidden harbour, and the darkest sky
Skrivena Luka on the south coast is exactly what its name says — a hidden harbour, a bay so nearly enclosed that the entrance is hard to make out until you are in line with it, with the Struga lighthouse on the headland above. It is the most sheltered anchorage in the group and it stays quiet in August.
Because there are so few people and so little light, the archipelago has some of the darkest skies in the Adriatic, and the nature park makes a point of it. On a moonless night at anchor in Skrivena Luka the Milky Way is not a figure of speech.
Practical notes
- A nature park since 2006: forty-six islands and islets, and the rules on anchoring and fishing are real
- Closed to visitors until 1988 as a military zone, which is why so little was built
- Lastovo town is inland, over the ridge, built out of sight of the sea on purpose
- Skrivena Luka on the south coast is the most sheltered anchorage in the group, under the Struga lighthouse
Reached from: Korčula, Vis and Mljet
Where to dine
A table by the water
Augusta Insula
ZaklopaticaOn the north-coast inlet, with the tables over the water and the boats tied below them.
Triton
ZaklopaticaAcross the same inlet, doing fish and the island's own wine, and it will send a tender for you.
Porto Rosso
PasadurAt the western end by the channel, quiet even in August, with the nature park beginning outside the door.
What to do
Anchorages & excursions
The fumari
Cylindrical chimneys shaped like small minarets, one to a house, no two alike, and found nowhere else.
Lastovo town
Built inland in a bowl behind the ridge, deliberately out of sight of the sea.
Skrivena Luka
The hidden harbour on the south coast, nearly closed, under the Struga lighthouse.
The night sky
Among the darkest in the Adriatic, with too few people and too little light to spoil it.
The fleet
Yachts available for Lastovo
Vessels that operate here, from flagship motor yachts to smaller crewed boats. Every rate is quoted on enquiry.
Good to know
Questions we are asked about Lastovo
- Why is the main town not on the sea?
- Because it was built to be invisible from it. Anything on the shore could be seen and raided, so the town went into a bowl on the landward side of the ridge. You come over the top and find it below you, which is a strange and rather good way to arrive.
- What are the fumari?
- The cylindrical chimneys on the houses of Lastovo town, shaped something like small minarets. Every house had one, no two are the same, and the form is found nowhere else. Where it came from is genuinely unresolved.
- What does a yacht charter to Lastovo cost?
- It depends on the yacht, the season and the crew, so we quote on enquiry rather than publish a figure that would be wrong for most weeks.
Destinations
Nearby destinations
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Enquire about a charter on Lastovo
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are, and we will come back with the right yacht and a full quotation.