Vis, Blue Cave, Stiniva and Blue Lagoon private boat tour

Vis is the furthest inhabited island from the Croatian mainland, and this tour gives it the whole day. The Blue Cave on Biševo, the Greek and British layers of Vis Town, the fishing port of Komiža, the hidden cove of Stiniva, the turquoise lagoon at Budikovac and the sandy beach at Smokova — one island, six stops, one boat that is only yours.

Most day trips from Split treat Vis as a stop on the way to Hvar. This one does the opposite: it skips the crowds entirely and circles the island, which is why guests who have already done the classic Hvar route usually pick this one next. For more on exploring the island independently, see our private boat tour on island Vis.

Because the boat is private, the order is not fixed. If the queue at the cave is long or the light is wrong, your skipper simply reshuffles the day.

Vis sits about 30 nautical miles off Split, far enough that the sea changes colour on the way out.

That distance is also why the island feels different. It was closed to foreign visitors until 1989 because of a Yugoslav naval base, so it missed the first two decades of mass tourism on this coast. What survived instead is a working island: vineyards, fishing boats, two proper towns and a coastline that large tour boats mostly cannot reach.

If you have seen Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, you have already seen a good deal of it — the film was shot on Vis in 2017.

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 We do not publish a minute-by-minute schedule — on a private boat the time at each stop is yours to decide, and the sea decides the rest.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, get a short safety briefing and head south-west across open water. This is the longest crossing of any of our tours: roughly an hour and a quarter past Šolta, with the Dalmatian coastline dropping away behind you.

Vis Town

The town sits in a deep bay on the north-eastern side of the island, and it has been inhabited for a very long time.

Greeks from Syracuse founded Issa here around 397 BC — the oldest Greek colony on the Adriatic. It later minted its own coins and planted colonies of its own along the coast, Trogir and Stobreč among them. The ruins of the Roman theatre are still on the Prirovo peninsula, with a Franciscan monastery built on top of them.

Two more layers sit over that one. The Kut quarter is a grid of Renaissance summer villas built by Hvar and Vis nobility. And the British, who held the island from 1811 to 1815, fortified the harbour and left Fort George on the hill above it. The archaeological museum sits in the Batarija, an Austrian gun battery from around 1830, between Luka and Kut. Offshore, in 1866, the Battle of Vis became the first fleet action fought between ironclad warships.

For a small island town, that is an unusual amount of history in one bay.

Blue Cave, Biševo island

Modra špilja sits in Balun cove on the eastern side of Biševo, the 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 always knew about 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.

What you need to know before you go:

• The effect works from roughly 10:00 to 14:00 and is strongest around midday — which is also the busiest window.
• 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. There is no ATM on Biševo.
• 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

Komiža lies under the slope of Hum in a deep bay on the western side of Vis, and it still feels like a working port rather than a resort.

Its fishermen built the falkuša, a fast open sailing boat with removable side planks designed for the long haul to the fishing grounds around Palagruža, more than 40 nautical miles into the open Adriatic. Nothing like it was built anywhere else in the Mediterranean. The Venetian tower on the waterfront, from 1585, now houses the town's fishing museum.

Vis is also a serious wine island. Ask for a glass of Vugava, the indigenous white grown here, or a local Plavac Mali.

Stiniva cove

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.

European Best Destinations voted it the most beautiful beach in Europe in 2016, and it has been protected as a significant landscape since 1967. Large boats cannot get in; your skipper anchors outside and you swim or take the tender through the gap. The water is deep, clear and noticeably cooler than in the shallow bays.

Budikovac and the Blue Lagoon

Veliki Budikovac is a tiny islet off the south-eastern side of Vis, separated from it by a shallow channel with a sandy bottom. 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 and warmest swimming of the day, and the best snorkelling on the route. You can eat here rather than in Komiža if you prefer.

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

Smokova

Vela Smokova, on the south-eastern shore near the eastern tip of Vis, is one of the few genuinely sandy beaches on an island of pebbles.

It is a quiet, open bay whose land route crosses a former military training ground, which is why it stays empty even in August. Most guests use it as the last swim before the run home; some skip it and stay longer at Budikovac instead. Both are fine.

Return to Split

The crossing back takes a little over an hour, with the outer islands falling away behind you and the mainland mountains standing up ahead.

The two share four stops, so the difference is worth spelling out.

This tour stays on Vis. After the Blue Cave you spend the rest of the day between Vis Town, Komiža, Stiniva, Budikovac and Smokova. More swimming, fewer people, and the only chance on our schedule to see the Greek and British sides of Vis Town.

The 5 islands tour trades Vis Town and Smokova for Hvar and the Pakleni islands. More variety and one famous island town, but a longer day on the water and a busy afternoon.

Rule of thumb: if it is your first time in Dalmatia and you want to see Hvar, take the 5 islands tour. If you have already seen Hvar, or you came for the swimming and the quiet, take this one.

• May and early June – comfortable air, sea around 20–22 °C, almost no queue at the Blue Cave and Stiniva to yourself.
• July and August – warmest sea and longest days, but the cave queue peaks. An early departure matters most now.
• September – the sea is at its warmest of the whole year and the crowds have gone. For many guests the best month.
• October – still pleasant on calm days, though the weather turns less predictable.

Wind matters more on this route than on any other we run. The outer leg to Vis and Biševo is genuinely open sea, and a strong jugo or bura can both close the cave and make the passage uncomfortable. We watch the forecast and will contact you in advance to adjust 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. 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.