Lovrečina and Supetar half day private boat tour

Lovrečina is one of the few genuinely sandy beaches on Brač, and this half-day private boat tour is the only one we run that goes there. Five hours, two stops on the north coast: a shallow bay with the ruins of a 5th–6th century basilica behind it, and Supetar, the largest town on the island.

Split to Brač is the shortest island crossing on our schedule — the car ferry to Supetar takes 50 minutes, a fast private boat less — which is why this works as a half day. And because the boat is private, you choose how the five hours split between the two stops. If you're still deciding among islands for your trip, see our guide to island hopping from Split.

Every other Brač tour on our schedule goes south, to Bol and Zlatni rat. This one turns the other way, and that changes two things.

The north coast faces the mainland, so the run over is short and the channel stays calmer than the water towards Hvar or Vis. And the north coast is where the sand is: Lovrečina shelves gently, with no equivalent at Zlatni rat, which drops away quickly on both sides. That makes this the family option in our Brač line-up — the shortest time on the water and the easiest water to stand up in.

The tour lasts five hours in total, as a morning departure (09:00 to 14:00) or an afternoon one (14:00 to 19:00). We do not publish a schedule for each stop — on a private boat the split between the two is yours to decide in the morning.

Departure from Split

You meet your skipper at the agreed pick-up point, get a short safety briefing and head south across the Brač Channel.

The mainland mountains stay behind you the whole way and the island's north shore — low, terraced, quarried in places — comes up within minutes. You are never far from one coast or the other, which is why nervous passengers do well on this route.

Lovrečina beach

Lovrečina bay sits between Postira and Pučišća, about four kilometres east of Postira.

The beach at the head of it is real sand, not the fine white pebble sold as sand elsewhere on the Adriatic, and the bottom stays shallow a long way out. Small children can walk, non-swimmers can stand, nobody needs water shoes.

One honest note: the bay is reachable by car and has a paid car park, so it is no secret cove, and in August the land side fills up. Arriving by boat you skip the ferry queue, the drive and the parking, and anchor off the quieter half. There is a café and a restaurant ashore, plus sunbeds and parasols for hire.

The basilica behind the sand

Set back from the beach are the remains of an early Christian basilica dedicated to St Lawrence — sv. Lovre in Croatian, which is where the bay takes its name.

It is dated to the 5th and 6th centuries, and enough survives to read the plan on the ground: the outline of the church, side chambers and a baptistery. The site is open, unfenced and free, five minutes from where you leave your towel. On 10 August, St Lawrence's feast day, people from the surrounding Brač villages still walk down to the bay. Very few beaches anywhere put a swim and a late-Roman church within the same hundred metres.

Supetar

Supetar is the largest town on Brač and its ferry port. The name is a contraction of Sv. Petar, St Peter, after an older church here; the settlement is first mentioned in writing in 1423.

Three things fill the two hours or so most groups spend ashore. An early Christian mosaic from the 6th century sits beside the parish church of the Annunciation of Mary. The town cemetery, on the small peninsula west of the harbour around the church of St Nicholas, is an open-air sculpture collection: Ivan Rendić, born here in 1849 and regarded as the founder of modern Croatian sculpture, worked in it for decades. Above it stands the Petrinović family mausoleum, built in 1927 by Toma Rosandić in white Brač stone, in a Byzantine manner, for a local emigrant who made a fortune as a shipowner in Chile.

That white stone is the island's other export: it crossed this channel to build Diocletian's Palace in Split between 295 and 305, visible from the Supetar waterfront on a clear day.

Return to Split

The run back takes minutes rather than an hour, with the Split waterfront and Marjan hill filling the horizon ahead of you.

The comparison that matters is our half-day Golden Horn tour: same five hours, same boat, pointed the other way.

This tour goes north, to sand, a basilica you can walk into, Supetar's cemetery and mosaic, and a bay where a four-year-old can stand up.

The Golden Horn half day goes south, to the famous one. Zlatni rat at Bol is a pebble spit that shifts with wind and current, and the run over is about twice as long because Bol is on the far side of the island.

If you want the photograph, go south; if you are travelling with small children, go north.

Both stops also appear on longer full-day tours, so it is worth saying what the extra hours buy.

Around Brač island is ten hours and a full circumnavigation: Smrka bay and the military tunnels, Zlatni rat, Sumartin, the stonemasonry town of Pučišća, then Lovrečina and Supetar at the end. Lovrečina becomes one stop of six rather than half your day.

Bol and Golden Horn is eight hours on the south coast, all of it going into Zlatni rat and the town of Bol.

Take the half day if you have young children, a free morning before an evening flight, or you want the beach rather than the itinerary. Take a full day if this is your only day on Brač.

• May and early June – sea around 20–22 °C, the bay almost to yourself, no midday glare on the ruins.
• July and August – warmest sea, longest days, busiest land side. The morning departure is noticeably quieter than the afternoon one.
• September – the sea is at its warmest of the year and the crowds have gone. For many families the best month.
• October – still workable on calm days, though the café and sunbed hire wind down.

Wind matters less here than on any route we run, because the channel is narrow. The one to watch is the bura, off the mainland from the north-east, which blows straight into a bay that opens north — mostly a winter and shoulder-season wind. If it is forecast, your skipper will suggest moving the day.

It is a beach tour with two stops, not an island-hopping day: no cave, no cliff jumping, no nightlife. If you came for the postcard of Zlatni rat, take the Golden Horn half day; for several islands in a day, start with our other half-day tours.

Swimwear, a towel, sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, a light jacket for the crossing, and cash or a card for the beach café and lunch in Supetar. Water, snorkelling equipment and safety equipment are already on board; sea scooters and SUP boards can be added to the booking.