Hvar

Two islands in one

Hvar town has the nightlife reputation and deserves it. The rest of the island — Stari Grad, Jelsa, Vrboska, the inland villages — is quiet, agricultural and largely unbothered by any of it. If the reputation puts you off, stay on the north side.

Lavender

The interior around Velo Grablje and Brusje is the lavender country. It flowers roughly mid-June to early July; outside that window the fields are green and the shops are still selling last year's oil.

What to see

• The Pakleni islands

  A scatter of wooded islets fifteen minutes from Hvar town by taxi boat, with clear water and small bays. This is what most people actually came for.

• Stari Grad Plain

  A UNESCO-listed agricultural landscape on the island's north side: field boundaries laid out by Greek colonists in the 4th century BC and still farmed on the same lines.

• The Fortica

  The fortress above Hvar town. Twenty minutes up through the walls for the classic view down over the harbour and the Pakleni beyond it.

Getting around

Car ferries land at Stari Grad, not Hvar town — about twenty minutes apart, which surprises people every summer. A car is genuinely useful here because the island is long and the interior is the good part. A boat is a separate decision entirely: the Pakleni are offshore, and a skippered day out reaches bays no road does.