Stari Grad 2400 Celebrations and Days of the Bay Festival This year marks the 2,400th anniversary of the founding of Faros by Greek settlers. It’s Stari Grad’s official entry into recorded history, although there was actually an Illyrian settlement in place already. If only they’d also written things down, we’d probably need 3,000 candles on…
Interesting how the fates of two nearby prehistoric settlements should go in such different directions. Take for instance Iader and Aenona, both Liburnian towns on the Dalmatian coast, within about 14 km (9 miles) of each other. Both were mentioned by Pliny the Elder some 3,000 years ago. Iader is now a thriving city with…
Zadar is one of the few places on this trip that we’ve visited before, but that was only as a quick detour and we hadn’t actually stayed overnight. The old city is a lovely place to stay, as you can forget about driving, and simply walk around. And after dark it gets particularly magical! Anyway,…
Leaving Šibenik behind us, we headed northwards up the Dalmatian coast towards Zadar, with a bit of a detour around the lovely Lake Vrana Nature Park (not to be confused with the other Lake Vrana on the island of Cres.) This is Croatia’s largest lake, and a very important stop-off for birds on their annual…
Our normal mode of driving north from Hvar is to take the inland motorway. It’s fast and easy, and we’re usually on our way to Zagreb with no time for scenic diversions. But this May we treated ourselves to a more relaxed trip up the magistrala, that wonderfully scenic Croatian coastal road. Setting out from…
Driving into Split on the main road from Trogir, you pass by what appears to be a large municipal park with some ruins. This is what’s left of Salona, Dalmatia’s largest and most important city two thousand years ago. You’d hardly credit it, even walking around the park, as it’s all very low-key, most visitors seem to be locals walking their dogs. On the day we visited, there were few other tourists, and it’s possible to enjoy the place in peace, connecting with its ancient past.
From our visit up to Sveti Nikola, the highest peak on the island, on the way down we followed the road towards Svirče. Now I have to say that your modern small car is not best suited to the island’s backroads. It simply doesn’t have the clearance of, say, an old Renault 4 which is…
There’s a large stone cross on Glavica, the hill overlooking Stari Grad on the north shore. It makes a very useful marker, as it can be seen from miles around. Conversely, of course, from the top of Glavica, you have great views over the surrounding countryside, and the approach into Stari Grad harbour. The cross…
Stari Grad is an old town. If you wind back time by a couple of thousand years to the turn of the millenium, you’d find that settlements on the island consisted of Illyrian hillforts, mostly away from the coast, though the castle at Hvar town directly overlooked the harbour. And then there was Stari Grad,…
The hill overlooking the town of Hvar is a magnificent viewpoint. From there, you can look down on the town itself, watch the comings and goings in the harbour, see the Pakleni islands and the sea beyond. On a clear day (which they mostly are), you can see right over to Vis. The benefits of…
Go Hvar 
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