Beach bar Laganini and Hula Hula half day private boat tour

This is the one tour on our schedule built around two bars rather than around sights. Five hours, one private boat, and two of the best known places to spend an afternoon in the water on this coast: Laganini at Palmižana on the Pakleni islands, and Hula Hula on the rocks west of Hvar town.

Nobody walks you through a cathedral on this trip. You swim, you eat, you drink something cold, and you move on when your group feels like it. The price is per boat, so the split between the two stops is yours — three hours at the first and forty minutes at the second is a normal request.

The name gets shortened in booking emails, so here is exactly where you end up.

Laganini Lounge Bar & Fish House sits at Palmižana on Sveti Klement, the largest of the Pakleni islands. It is a lounge bar by day and a seafood restaurant in the evening. There is no road to it — Sveti Klement has no link to Hvar other than the sea, and taxi boats run across from the Hvar waterfront in season. Palmižana also holds the Meneghello botanical garden and the ACI marina, so the bay is busier than the rest of the archipelago and calmer than Hvar town.

Hula Hula is on Hvar itself, on the rocky shore of Majerovica, west of the old town along the Petričevo seafront path — about a fifteen-minute walk from the harbour. It is known above all for afternoon DJ sets and an après-beach crowd that builds as the day cools off. The shoreline here is rock, not sand.

Two very different rooms, a short crossing apart.

The tour lasts about five hours in total. We do not publish a minute-by-minute schedule — on a private boat the split between the two stops is yours to decide, and the crossing is the only fixed part of the day.

Departure from Split

You meet your skipper at the pick-up point in Split, get a short safety briefing, and head south past Šolta. The crossing to the Pakleni islands takes about an hour in normal conditions. If your accommodation is closer to another pier, boat pick-up can be arranged for the charge listed in the Extras block.

Laganini, Palmižana on Sveti Klement

The first stop is the quieter half of the day.

Palmižana is a pine-backed bay on Sveti Klement, and it stays calm for a simple reason: nothing arrives there except boats. Laganini is arranged around the water rather than around a dining room, and the name is worth knowing before you order: laganini is local shorthand for taking it easy — the closest English gets is "no rush".

You swim off the boat here and snorkelling gear is on board. Guests who want a long lunch usually take it at this stop, because the second is not a sitting-down kind of place. Our guide to things to see on the Pakleni islands covers the rest of the archipelago.

Hula Hula, Hvar town

The second stop changes the tempo.

Hula Hula faces west from the rocks at Majerovica, which is why the late afternoon light there is what everybody photographs, and why it fills up from mid-afternoon in July and August. Music runs through the day and gets louder as it goes; you can swim straight off the rocks between drinks.

Because it is a short walk from Hvar town, guests sometimes ask to be dropped in the harbour instead for half an hour of the old town. That is possible, but five hours does not give you both properly — see the section below.

Return to Split

The run back takes about an hour, with Brač on one side and the Šolta channel opening ahead. Guests on the afternoon departure are usually the quietest passengers we carry.

The tour runs twice a day, 09:00 to 14:00 and 14:00 to 19:00, and the two are different products.

The morning departure reaches Palmižana before the bay fills and Hula Hula while it is still a swimming spot with music rather than a party. Easier too if you are prone to seasickness — the maestral, the afternoon sea breeze, usually picks up after midday.

The afternoon departure does the opposite: you arrive at Hula Hula in the busiest part of its day, and that crowd is a large part of what you are paying for.

What the afternoon slot does not include is the sunset. You are back in Split in the early evening, and through July and August the sun sets on Hvar later than that. If watching it from the water is the point, book one of our sunset boat tours instead.

Four of our tours reach Hvar or the Pakleni islands. They are not interchangeable.

Rule of thumb: daytime drinking and swimming, this tour. Daytime sightseeing, the half day tour. Both, the full day. Clubs, the nightlife tour.

• June – both venues open and running, and Palmižana still has space in the middle of the day.
• July and August – the season at full volume: warmest sea, longest days, busiest bars. Book well ahead and expect company.
• September – the sea is at its warmest of the year and the crowds thin out through the month. The best compromise for most guests.
• Early October – calm and pleasant, but this is the tour most affected by the end of the season, because the venues run on summer hours.

Opening dates are set by the venues, not by us, so at the edges of the season we confirm both are open before we confirm your booking.

Who it does not suit. Families with small children will get more out of the half day Blue Lagoon tour, where the water is shallow and the stop is a beach rather than a bar — Hula Hula is loud, rocky and busy from mid-afternoon. Guests who came for quiet bays should take the Šolta half day tour instead; this route goes to two of the most popular addresses on the coast, and neither is peaceful in August.

Swimwear, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, a light jacket for the crossing, water shoes if you dislike walking on rock, and a card or cash for food and drinks at the two venues. Bottled water, snorkelling equipment and safety equipment are already on board; towels are not, but they can be added for the group from the Extras block. Want to add a sea scooter and SUP paddle board to your day? These can be arranged as an extra.