Operated by Bura Adriatic
A full day on a fast twelve-seat boat: the Blue Cave on Biševo, the Monk Seal cave, Stiniva's famous cove, lunch on Vis and a swim off Budikovac's turquoise lagoon, finishing with a stop at Hvar town. Ten and a half hours, small group, no coach transfer.
By Marin Perić
The big catamarans that leave the Riva at eight carry sixty to a hundred people and reach the Blue Cave in the middle of the day, when the queue for the little boats into the cave can be over an hour. We take twelve on a fast RIB, leave at 07:30, and are usually inside the cave before ten. It costs more. It is a completely different day.
For a slower day on the water, a skippered day sail shows you two places properly instead of five.
The light is a physical fact, not a marketing line: sunlight enters through an underwater opening and reflects off the white floor, so the whole chamber glows. It works best between 11:00 and 12:00 in summer and needs a calm sea. If the swell is up, the cave closes — nobody's fault and nobody's discretion. We tell you at the harbour and refund on the spot rather than sailing you out there to be turned away.
Ten and a half hours is a lot for anyone under about eight. There is shade, but there is also a lot of sitting on a boat. Under five travels free and takes no seat; if you have small children, the half-day Šolta and Čiovo trip is the kinder choice.
The shorter option is the Šolta sunset swim cruise: five hours and three swim stops.
To spend longer in Hvar than an afternoon stop, see the Hvar day trip.
Sit at the back of the boat, not the front. The front is where everyone wants to sit, because it is the front, and the back is where the skipper is, which is where the conversation is. The back also has less spray, more shade, and a better view of the boat wake and the islands behind you. Ask the skipper questions — they are local, they know the coast, and they will tell you things the PA does not, including which of the swim stops is the best and which the fish are at.
Eat lunch at the place the skipper points you at in Komiža, not the one the PA recommends. The skipper's one is where the fishermen eat, and the fish comes off the same boats. Do not order the lobster, because it is priced for tourists and the grilled fish is better. Bring cash, because the Komiža konobas do not all take cards, and bring a hat, because the sun on the boat is full and the shade is limited.
The cave is the one part of the day you do not control. You transfer to a small local boat at Biševo, queue for twenty minutes, and are inside for about twenty. The light is at its strongest between eleven and noon, and that is when we go, because that is the reason the boat leaves at 07:30. If the cave is closed for swell, the skipper tells you at the harbour and refunds on the spot — do not book a tour that will not do this, because the ones that sail out and get turned away are the ones that put you on a hundred-person catamaran.
If the forecast turns, the day trips guide has the alternatives that still work in wind.
Life jackets, safety briefing, coffee if you need it. We leave on time — the Blue Cave queue rewards it.
Transfer to a small local boat for the cave itself; twenty minutes inside. This is the one part of the day nobody else controls, so we go first.
A green-lit sea cave you swim into from the boat.
Anchor outside the cliffs and swim in through the gap. Forty-five minutes.
An hour and a quarter in the fishing town on the west of Vis. Two places there are worth eating in; the crew will point them out.
The shallow turquoise channel behind the island. Longest swim stop of the day.
An hour ashore — the square, the Fortica walk if you are quick, or a drink on the harbour.
Ninety minutes home across the channel, usually with the sun behind us.
The operator cancels free up to 24 hours before departure. They call it off for weather rather than take a boat out in a bura, and refund or move you to another date when they do. Terms are theirs and can change — check them when you book.
We meet at the head of the Matejuška breakwater, by the fishermen's slipway at the western end of the Riva. Look for the blue flag on the pontoon, not the ticket booths on the promenade.
Right now · Autumn
September is the best month of the year for this trip: warm sea, calm mornings and half the crowd. From about mid-October, check the forecast the night before — the swell closes the cave more often, and the run home across the channel is genuinely cold once the sun drops, so bring a jacket rather than a jumper.
Get out there
Guided trips that include this stop, with live availability.
Boat trips
Five hours to Šolta and back on a ten-person boat: three swim stops in coves you cannot reach by road, an hour in Maslinica for dinner or a drink, and the run home across the channel as the sun goes down behind the island.
Within a short walk.
Food & drink
A stone-walled konoba in an alley behind the Matejuška fishing harbour, doing straight Dalmatian seafood without a single flourish. Small, warm and consistently very good.
Food & drink
A small konoba on a Varoš side street doing exactly four things well: grilled fish by the kilo, black risotto, octopus salad and house wine from a jug. No view, no English menu board outside, and a queue by eight in July.
History
A thirteenth-century chapel on the Marjan staircase, halfway between Varoš and the ridge. Small, usually locked, and the terrace in front of it is the quietest good view in Split — most people walk straight past on the way to Vidilica.
Culture
The villa Ivan Meštrović built for himself on Marjan's south slope, now the best museum in Split. Sculpture inside, a garden of bronzes with a sea view outside, and the Kaštelet chapel with his wooden reliefs five minutes down the road.
Nightlife
Vanilla is Split's big summer party venue, out by Poljud rather than in the old town, which makes it a destination for a planned night rather than a stop on a bar crawl. Go if you want a large room, a late finish and holiday energy; skip it if you came to find Split's own bars.
Adventure
The pine-covered hill on Split's western edge, a fifteen-minute walk from the Riva and the reason the city feels liveable in August. Free, open always, with viewpoints, hermit chapels, swimming coves at the bottom and a proper trail network on top.
Adventure
Two hours on a board lit from underneath, pushing off Stobreč as the sun goes and paddling into the river mouth in the dark. The LEDs light the bottom through three metres of water, which is the whole point: you can see what is down there.
Adventure
Three hours paddling the cliffs and hidden coves along Marjan's south shore, with two swim stops and a cave you can only reach by water. The best way to see Split from the side it was built to face, and easy enough for a complete beginner.
Adventure
An hour and a half up the marked path from Strožanac to the chapel of St George, topping out around 441 metres with Split, Kozjak, Mosor and the islands all in view. It is free, it starts at a supermarket, and locals walk it before work.
Adventure
Around eleven kilometres of the Cetina through its canyon below Omiš, on grade II–III water in summer. Three to four hours on the river, most of it drifting between short rapids, with swimming stops and a cliff to jump off if you want one.
Boat trips
A skippered yacht for the day, out to Šolta or Brač and back on the afternoon wind. Slower than the fast boats, quieter than all of them, and the only way to see this coast the way it has always actually been travelled.