Croatia · Central Dalmatia
Yacht Charter Vis
The farthest island from the mainland, closed to foreigners for forty years, and still showing it.
Vis is forty-five kilometres offshore, further out than any other inhabited Croatian island, and between 1950 and 1989 nobody who was not Yugoslav was allowed to land on it. It was a naval base, and the tunnels are still in the hillsides. The consequence is an island that missed four decades of coastal development entirely: two stone towns, terraced vineyards, and a coast with almost nothing built on it.
What forty years of closure left
The military went in 1989 and took the secrecy with them, leaving the infrastructure: submarine pens cut into the rock at Parja, artillery tunnels above Komiža, and a command bunker under Mount Hum. Some are open and some are simply there, unmarked, behind a fence that has rusted through.
What it also left is the absence of everything else. There is no resort development on Vis, because for forty years nobody could build any, and by the time the island opened the taste had changed. Vis town and Komiža are what they were.
The two towns, and the wine
Vis town sits on a deep bay on the north-east coast, on the site of Issa — the Greek colony founded in 397 BC and the oldest in the Adriatic. Komiža is on the west, facing the open sea, and is a fishing town with the boats still in it rather than a fishing town in the estate-agent sense.
The Greeks planted vines here and the island never stopped. Vugava, the white, grows nowhere else in any quantity, and the Plavac from the south-facing terraces is the equal of anything from Pelješac. Several of the cellars are in the middle of Vis town and open in the evening.
Stiniva, Biševo, and the water
Stiniva is a cove on the south coast entered through a gap in the cliff a few metres wide: from outside it looks like a wall, and the entrance only opens up when you are almost in it. Boats anchor outside and swim or tender through.
Biševo, five miles south-west, has the Blue Cave. Light comes into it through an underwater opening and reflects up off a white floor, so the interior turns a colour that photographs never manage. It works between about eleven and noon and not much outside that, and access is by licensed local boat only.
Practical notes
- Forty-five kilometres offshore — the farthest inhabited Croatian island from the mainland
- Closed to foreign visitors from 1950 to 1989 as a Yugoslav naval base, which is why nothing was built
- Stiniva is entered through a gap in the cliff a few metres wide; boats anchor outside and go in by tender
- The Blue Cave on Biševo works between about eleven and noon, and access is by licensed local boat
- Hvar is two hours east, Split three hours north-east across open water
Reached from: Hvar, Split and Korčula
Where to dine
A table by the water
Pojoda
VisIn a walled courtyard of orange trees a street back from the bay, and the kitchen the island is known for.
Roki's
Plisko PoljeInland among the vineyards, doing meat and octopus under the bell, ordered the day before.
Konoba Bako
KomižaOn the water on the west coast, with amphorae from the seabed in the wall and the boats in front.
What to do
Anchorages & excursions
Stiniva
A cove on the south coast entered through a gap in the cliff a few metres wide, invisible from seaward.
The Blue Cave
On Biševo, where light enters through an underwater opening and comes up off a white floor, between eleven and noon.
Komiža
A working fishing town on the west coast, facing the open sea, with the boats still in the harbour.
The military tunnels
Submarine pens, artillery galleries and a command bunker, left behind when the navy went in 1989.
The fleet
Yachts available for Vis
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 Vis
- Why is Vis so undeveloped?
- Because it was a closed military base for forty years. No foreigner could land between 1950 and 1989, so nothing was built for tourism, and by the time the island opened the appetite for concrete had passed. It is the reason Vis looks the way the rest of the coast did in the 1970s.
- How do you get into Stiniva?
- Through a gap in the cliff a few metres across. From seaward the coast reads as a solid wall and the entrance is invisible until you are nearly in it. Yachts anchor outside and go through by tender or swim — the cove itself is too small and too enclosed to lie in.
- When can we see the Blue Cave?
- Between about eleven and noon, when the sun is high enough for light to come in through the underwater opening and reflect off the pale floor. Outside that window it is a dark cave. Access is by licensed local boat from Komiža or Biševo, not by tender.
- What does a yacht charter to Vis 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 Vis
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are, and we will come back with the right yacht and a full quotation.