One island, one afternoon of swimming, and no rush. This private boat tour from Split gives you Hvar Town and the Pakleni islands in a single day, with a licensed skipper and a boat that belongs only to your group.

Most day trips from Split try to fit three or four islands into ten hours. This one does the opposite. Eight hours, two stops, and enough time in each to actually see the place rather than photograph it on the way past.

If Hvar is the reason you came to Dalmatia, this is the tour to take.

Hvar Town is small enough to walk in twenty minutes and dense enough to spend a whole day in. The old town is Venetian, the square is the largest in Dalmatia, and there is a fortress on the hill above it with the view that ends up on everyone's camera roll.

Then, five minutes off the harbour, there is a chain of wooded islets with clear water and beach bars — which means you can go from a cathedral to a swim without a crossing in between.

That combination is the whole point of this tour. The crossing from Split takes about an hour each way; everything else is time on the island.

The tour lasts about 8 hours in total, normally 08:00 to 16:00. We do not publish a minute-by-minute schedule — on a private boat the time at each stop is yours to decide, and the sea decides the rest.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, get a short safety briefing and head south across the Split and Hvar channels, past the western end of Šolta with Brač off to your left.

Hvar Town

You dock in the harbour of Hvar, in the middle of everything.

Hvar has more than 2,700 hours of sunshine a year, and it has been the important town on this stretch of coast since the Venetians made it a naval station on the route to the Levant. What that left behind is a town centre out of scale with the island: a marble square, a cathedral, a shipyard-turned-theatre, and a fortress above the roofs.

It is also the liveliest town on the Croatian islands, which cuts both ways. In July the riva is a scene; in May and September it is a beautiful, half-empty stone town. If you're staying for the evening, see our Hvar nightlife tour. If you'd rather visit independently, see our guide on how to get from Split to Hvar.

Sveti Klement, Pakleni islands

Minutes from the harbour lies the chain of islets 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. There are sixteen islands and islets in the group, low and covered in pine, and Sveti Klement is the largest of them.

This is where the second half of the day goes: swimming, snorkelling, lunch at a beach restaurant or a quiet anchorage, depending on what you want. More on choosing a bay below.

Return to Split

The run back across the two channels takes about an hour in calm conditions, with the afternoon light on Brač and the mainland mountains ahead.

You will have a few hours ashore. This is the order that works, and it fits comfortably in two.

• St Stephen's Square — around 4,500 m² and the largest historic square in Dalmatia, built on a bay that was filled in over centuries. The public well in the middle is from 1520.
• St Stephen's Cathedral — closes the eastern end of the square, with a Renaissance bell tower that gets taller and lighter as it rises.
• The Arsenal — the Venetian galley shed on the south side. Upstairs is a theatre founded in 1612, one of the oldest municipal theatres in Europe.
• The Franciscan monastery — founded in 1461, a ten-minute walk along the waterfront, with a Renaissance cloister, a cypress about three hundred years old, and a Last Supper nearly eight metres wide in the refectory.
• Fortica (Španjola) — the fortress above the town. Twenty to thirty minutes uphill through the old walls, and the reason most people come back down with the photograph they wanted.

If you would rather sit than walk, the riva and the side streets behind the square are full of konobas, and Hvar is a lavender island — the shops selling oil and dried bunches are not a tourist invention.

The islets have very different characters, and on a private boat you get to pick. Tell your skipper in the morning. For more inspiration, see things to see on the Pakleni islands.

• Palmižana, on Sveti Klement — a botanical garden planted from 1906, a marina, and restaurants above the beach in Vinogradišće bay that have been running since the 1940s. The most comfortable option, and the busiest.
• Ždrilca and Mlini — sheltered channels between the islets, shallow and calm, with pine right down to the water. The best choice with children.
• Stipanska bay on Marinkovac — the beach-club side of the archipelago, home to Carpe Diem Beach, with music and a crowd. Good if that is what you came for, less good if it isn't.
• An unnamed cove — there are dozens, and your skipper knows which ones are empty on a given wind. This is the one guests remember.

We run the same two places as a half-day tour, and the difference is not just length.

The half-day trip is essentially a swim and a look at Hvar: you see the harbour and the square, and most of the time goes on the water. This full-day version adds enough hours ashore for the fortress, the monastery and a proper lunch, plus a second swimming stop.

If Hvar Town is the point of the day, take this one. If you mainly want to be in the sea and Hvar is a bonus, the half day is better value.

• May and early June – warm air, sea around 20–22 °C, and Hvar Town at its best: open but not overrun.
• July and August – warmest sea and longest days, but the town is at full capacity and the Pakleni bays fill by midday. An early start makes a real difference.
• September – the sea is at its warmest of the whole year and the crowds have thinned. For many guests the best month of the season.
• October – still pleasant on calm days, though the weather turns less predictable and some places begin to close.

The route crosses the Split and Hvar channels rather than open sea, so it holds up better in wind than the outer-island tours to Vis and Biševo. A strong jugo still makes the Hvar channel uncomfortable, and we will call you in advance rather than run a bad day.

If you would rather cover more ground, the Golden Horn tour adds Zlatni Rat and Bol to the same afternoon on Hvar.

Swimwear, a towel, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, a light jacket for the crossings, comfortable shoes if you plan to walk up to the fortress, and cash or card for lunch. Water, snorkelling gear and safety equipment are already on board. Want to add a sea scooter and SUP to your day? These can be arranged as an extra.