Sail, swim, hike: a walking and boating adventure along Croatia’s Dalmatian coast

In Trogir’s Benedictine monastery, I spotted a sculpture of the Greek god Kairos, one of the two words the ancient Greeks used to define time. Chronos – chronological – is the obvious one, but Kairos signifies a time in between, when something special happens. A critical or opportune moment to grasp before the opportunity slips away. I was about to be bombarded by such special moments.

Croatia

I had a day to spare before boarding the MS Emanuel in nearby Split for Sail Croatia’s seven-night hiking cruise in central Dalmatia. Rather than join the crowds in Split, I opted to spend time in this Unesco-listed island town, which is connected to the mainland by bridge. Wandering Trogir’s marble lanes, I could see Croatia’s many layers of history, from the ancient Greeks to the Habsburgs via the Venetians. The town’s Romanesque-gothic-Venetian-Renaissance cathedral was a good place to start, its magnificent portal demanding a lingering look at the sculptures’ extraordinary detail.

Trogir’s architecture is exquisite – bijou Renaissance palaces are squeezed in beside medieval stone houses– and I walked towards the western end of the cafe-lined Riva waterfront, drawn by Fortress Kamerlengo at the end. Built by the Venetians in the 15th century, the castle is now an open-air concert venue. The climb up its wonky stone staircase is worth it for the views of the town below.

In Split the following morning, I picked out the Emanuel moored in the large port. It was to be my floating home for the week, with 18 simple but decent-sized cabins, a dining room, a bar, a covered deck and a large top deck for lazing in the Adriatic sunshine. Each day we would venture deeper into Dalmatia’s islands, with daily hikes of up to six miles revealing landscapes beyond those experienced on standard cruise excursions. Late summer and autumn is a great time to visit, with no crowds but still plenty of sun (the last trip departs on 29 October).

Šolta

With only 16 passengers plus our hiking guides Mate and Marin and a small crew (including Emanuel’s genial owner and cook, Željka Rakuljić, and her captain son, Ante), we headed off to the laid-back island of Šolta. Setting the pattern for the trip, we had a three-course lunch on board of soup and roast chicken while Mate outlined our plans: drop anchor near Stomorska for the first of our daily swim stops, dock later then set off on a late-afternoon hike to the hilltop village of Gornje Selo. As the road turned into a rocky path, the warm air swirled with scents of hot pine, rosemary, fennel, thyme and immortelle (or helichrysum) – our constant fragrant companions for the week.

Our goal was not only to enjoy a view of the sea from the top of Vela Straža but also a wine-tasting with the Kaštelanac family, surely the most convivial way to bond a disparate group of people ranging from thirtysomethings to septuagenarians. It did the trick: after hefty glasses of Dobričić red wine, tapenade and anchovies, we happily trailed back down the hill as the sun set over the Adriatic. There was just time for a late-evening dish of squid-ink risotto at Restoran Kamenice in the harbour before a nightcap on deck in the balmy air. Those special moments were mounting up.

Vis

The boat was already on the move when I woke up, cruising to far-flung Vis and a morning hike to the top of 270-metre Sveti Andrija, a hill just outside Vis town. It was nearly 30C when we zigzagged up from Vis town, but glorious views kept us distracted from the heat, and there was a mountain hut selling cold beer at the summit.

Vis whetted my appetite for a longer stay, but I contented myself with a swim at Prirovo beach and an evening on the town’s beautiful Venetian waterfront.

Korčula

We had Korčula to look forward to, and a strenuous hike up to the large hill called Hum at 376 metres above sea level overlooking the town of Vela Luka. At its peak is a ruined Habsburg fortress, providing a picturesque backdrop to views of Vela Luka, Hvar and the mainland’s Dinaric Alps – a promise of what was to come.

Hvar

Bypassing party-central Hvar town, Emanuel steered us towards quieter, more intimate Stari Grad and a morning swim. The sleepiness suited my post-lunch amble through narrow lanes of stone houses and the Renaissance fortress built for the Croatian poet Petar Hektorović. Later, we would walk through the Unesco-listed Stari Grad plain, laced with the vineyards and olive groves created by the Greeks in the fourth century BC. As Stari Grad slowly worked up to a gentle evening buzz, I had a grandstand view from the harbour-side terrace of Craft Beer & Grill and the taste of Dalmatia on my plate (tuna tartare, smoked mussels, olives and anchovies).

Brač

Each port, each hike, each swim brought unforgettable delights. Captain Ante anchored in Blaca Bay on the neighbouring island of Brač early so we could be taken by launch to the beach and begin our hike to the 16th-century Blaca monastery. Limestone cliffs flank a valley of stunted pines on the way up to a hermitage that blends itself into the rocks. Its last priest died in 1963, but the antiques-filled interior is a riveting homage to its former occupants – including one who had a grand piano transported up the footpath more than a century ago.

Passing one of Croatia’s most famous beaches – the V-shaped Zlatni Rat, best viewed from above – we docked at the town of Bol, where a waterfront seafood festival was getting under way. The party atmosphere was infectious – we danced to cheesy disco at an open-air bar, feeling the decades melt away.

Makarska

Remarkably chipper the next morning, we docked on the mainland at Makarska, where a minibus took us up twisting roads to Biokovo nature park. The scrubby limestone beauty of the Dinaric Alps never fails to move me, and Biokovo was no exception. Starting with a visit to the Skywalk, a glass-floored, half-moon-shaped observation deck that hangs 1, 228 metres above sea level, we followed a steep, rocky path in sight of Croatia’s second-highest mountain, Sveti Jure (1,762 metres). Over the next three hours, we hiked through the limestone landscape towards one of the dreamiest views in the Adriatic – the hammerhead-shaped Makarska directly below – as well all the places we had explored during the week.

After the relative quiet of the islands, lively Makarska came as a bit of shock, but it was nothing a bowl of mussels in a luscious red-wine buzara sauce on La Pentola’s beachfront terrace couldn’t fix.

It was only when we returned to Split the next morning that the 32C heat was banished by rain and winds strong enough to prevent us from a hike in Omiš. When the time came, we were sad to leave – the week had shown us parts of the country most sailing trips don’t access. But we all managed to stretch out our Croatia visit a little longer – some in Zadar, others in Dubrovnik, me on Split’s Žnjan beach – wishing time could stand still.

The trip was provided by the Croatian National Tourist Board and Sail Croatia, which offers seven-night cruises from £589pp, including breakfast, lunch and guided hikes (last 2022 departure on 29 October, flights extra). The XII Century Heritage hotel in Trogir has doubles from €130 room-only. Radisson Blu Split has rooms from €117 B&B