Adriatic island of lavender fields, Venetian piazzas, and beach clubs
Hvar is Croatia's sunniest island — over 2,700 hours of sunshine a year — and the one that has combined Dalmatian tradition with a genuinely upmarket nightlife scene better than anywhere else on the Adriatic. Hvar Town's central square (Pjaca) is the largest in Dalmatia, ringed by a Venetian arsenal, a Renaissance loggia, and a cathedral, with a 16th-century Spanish fortress above. The Pakleni Islands just offshore are best reached by water taxi to beaches and cliff-jumping spots; the interior of the island is still carpeted in lavender fields and old-vine plavac mali vineyards.
Hvar was colonized by ancient Greek settlers from Paros around 384 BCE, who named it Pharos — one of the oldest Greek settlements in the Adriatic. Venice controlled the island from 1420 until Napoleon's dissolution of the Republic in 1797, leaving behind the arsenal, loggia, and Venetian Gothic palace facades that still line the Pjaca. The 16th-century arsenal housed the Venetian war galley fleet that participated in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) — its theatre (built 1612) is the oldest municipal theatre in the Balkans.