5 islands private boat tour from Split: Blue Cave, Budikovac, Hvar and Pakleni islands

Five islands, one full day, and a boat that belongs only to your group. This private 5 islands tour from Split reaches the Blue Cave on Biševo, the fishing town of Komiža and the hidden cove of Stiniva on Vis, the turquoise lagoon at Budikovac, the old stone streets of Hvar Town and the pine-covered Pakleni islands — all in a single day, with a licensed skipper who adapts the route to you instead of to a fixed timetable.

It is the most complete day trip we run from Split, and it goes where most visitors never get: the outer Dalmatian islands, far enough offshore that the sea turns a deeper shade of blue and the crowds thin out. Covering the same route by ferry and bus would take three days. Because the boat is private, there is no group schedule to keep — you decide how long to stay in the water, where to have lunch, and whether to take the extra bay your skipper suggests when the sea is calm. If you are travelling with children, older parents or a group celebrating something, that flexibility usually matters more than anything else on the day.

The name of the tour is literal. Over the course of the day you set foot on, or swim at, five separate islands:

• Biševo – the Blue Cave (Modra špilja)
• Vis – Komiža town and Stiniva cove
• Budikovac – the Blue Lagoon
• Hvar – Hvar Town
• Pakleni islands – Palmižana and the surrounding bays

The full round trip is roughly 100 nautical miles. A modern RIB covers it comfortably; a sailboat or a large group catamaran cannot fit it into one day, which is why this itinerary exists almost exclusively as a speedboat tour.

The tour lasts about 10 hours in total, normally 08:00 to 18:00. We do not publish a minute-by-minute schedule — on a private boat the time at each stop is yours to decide, and the sea decides the rest.

Departure from Split

You meet your skipper at the agreed pick-up point in Split, get a short safety briefing and head south-west across the open sea. The first leg is the longest of the day: about an hour and fifteen minutes past Šolta and along the coast of Vis, with the Split archipelago opening up behind you.

Blue Cave, Biševo island

The Blue Cave is the reason this tour starts early.

Modra špilja sits in Balun cove on the eastern side of Biševo, a small island south-west of Vis. Sunlight enters through a submerged opening below the surface, reflects off the pale sandy bottom and fills the chamber with a silver-blue light that no photograph fully reproduces. Local fishermen had always known it; the Austrian painter and naturalist Baron Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez described it for a wider public, and on his suggestion the boat entrance was blasted open in 1884. Until then the only way in was to dive.

A few practical points that decide whether your visit works:

• The effect works through the middle of the day and is at its strongest around midday — which is also the busiest window. Arriving a little earlier usually means a much shorter queue and a still-excellent effect.
• You transfer into a small licensed local boat for the run through the low entrance. Your skipper waits outside.
• Time inside is short: typically five to fifteen minutes per boat, and at the shorter end of that in peak season.
• Modra špilja has been a protected geomorphological monument of nature since 1951. Swimming and diving inside are not allowed.
• The entrance ticket is charged on site by the local cave authority, in cash, and is not part of the tour price.
• If wind or swell makes the entrance unsafe, the cave closes. Your skipper will know before you set off and will suggest an alternative.

If you'd rather organise the trip yourself, our guide on how to get to the Blue Cave from Split covers the independent options too.

Komiža, the fishing capital of Vis

Komiža sits under the slope of Hum in a deep bay on the western side of Vis, and it is one of the few Adriatic towns that still feels like a working port rather than a resort. Its fishermen built the falkuša, a fast open sailing boat with removable side planks (falke) designed for the long haul out to the fishing grounds around Palagruža, more than 40 nautical miles into the open Adriatic — a design found nowhere else in the Mediterranean. The Venetian tower on the waterfront, built in 1585, now houses the town's fishing museum.

This is the natural stop for coffee, an early lunch or a walk along the harbour. Vis is also a serious wine island: ask for a glass of Vugava, the indigenous white grown here, or a local Plavac Mali. If you'd like to spend a full day exploring only this island, see our private boat tour on island Vis.

Stiniva cove, Vis

Stiniva is the stop guests talk about afterwards. From the sea you see only a wall of rock: the entrance is a gap a few metres wide between two cliffs that almost close over the pebble beach behind them — the remains of a collapsed sea cave. In 2016 European Best Destinations voted it the most beautiful beach in Europe, and it has been protected as a significant landscape since 1967.

Large boats cannot enter. Your skipper anchors outside and you swim or take the tender in through the gap, which is exactly why arriving by small private boat is the best way to see it. The water is deep, clear and noticeably cooler than in the shallow bays.

Budikovac and the Blue Lagoon

A short run around the south-east side of Vis brings you to Veliki Budikovac, a tiny islet separated from Vis by a shallow, sand-bottomed channel; its permanent population is one, the man who runs the konoba on the shore. The result is a lagoon of pale turquoise water, shallow enough to stand in over much of it — the calmest, warmest swimming of the day and the best snorkelling on the route. You can eat here rather than in Komiža if you prefer.

This stop suits families and anyone who is not a confident swimmer: you can stand up almost anywhere in the lagoon.

Hvar Town

From Budikovac it is a short crossing to Hvar, the island with more than 2,700 hours of sunshine a year and the most cosmopolitan town in the central Adriatic.

You dock in the harbour and have free time in town. Within a ten-minute walk you have:

• St Stephen's Square, at around 4,500 m² the largest historic square in Dalmatia, built on a bay that was filled in over centuries, with a public well from 1520
• St Stephen's Cathedral and its Renaissance bell tower closing the eastern end of the square
• the Arsenal, home to one of the oldest municipal theatres in Europe, founded in 1612
• the Fortica (Španjola) fortress above the roofs, with the classic view over Hvar Town and the Pakleni channel

It is also the best stop of the day for a proper lunch, an ice cream on the riva, or a walk through the marble streets of the old town.

Pakleni islands

Just a few minutes from Hvar harbour lies the archipelago that shelters it. The name misleads English speakers: it comes from paklina, the pine resin once harvested here to seal wooden boats, not from the Croatian word for hell. The chain is made up of sixteen low, wooded islands and islets, of which Sveti Klement is the largest.

Depending on the wind and the time left, your skipper picks a bay: Palmižana with its botanical garden and beach restaurants, the sheltered channels of Ždrilca and Mlini, or a quiet cove with nobody in it. This is the last swim of the day, and usually the most relaxed one. For more inspiration, see things to see on the Pakleni islands.

Return to Split

The run back takes about an hour, with the late afternoon light on the coast and, on calm days, dolphins in the channel.

The tour runs from spring to autumn, but the season is not uniform.

• May and early June – comfortable temperatures, sea around 20–22 °C, very few boats at the Blue Cave and Stiniva. Best light for photography.
• July and August – warmest sea and longest days, but the Blue Cave queue peaks and Hvar is busy. An early departure matters most in these two months.
• September – the sea is at its warmest of the whole year and the crowds have thinned. For many guests the ideal month.
• October – still pleasant on calm days, though the weather turns less predictable.

The one factor that overrules the calendar is wind: a strong jugo or bura can close the Blue Cave or make the crossing to Biševo uncomfortable. We watch the forecast and will contact you in advance to adjust the route or reschedule rather than run a bad day.

It is a long day on a fast boat in open water. Guests with back problems, guests in advanced pregnancy and very young children are usually more comfortable on one of our half-day tours closer to Split.

Swimwear, a towel, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, a light jacket or windbreaker for the crossings, a change of clothes and cash for the Blue Cave ticket, lunch and drinks ashore. Everything else — water, snorkelling gear, safety equipment — is already on board. Want to add a sea scooter and SUP to your day? These can be arranged as an extra.