Dalmatia

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Hvar, Without the Rookie Mistakes We almost booked Hvar for the second week of August, because that’s when the flights to Split were cheap. A friend who summers in Dalmatia talked us out of it in one line: “You’ll be sharing every cove with three boats and paying double to do it.” So we moved the trip to mid-September instead, and the island we got — warm sea, half-empty harbour, lavender still scenting the back lanes — was the one the postcards promise and high summer quietly hides. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Split, Where the Palace Is the City We almost skipped Split. The plan was a quick overnight before catching a ferry to Hvar, because “it’s just the port town”, a friend said. We were wrong, and so was she. We checked into a guesthouse and only later realised our room was inside a 1,700-year-old Roman palace — our morning coffee came from a café wedged against an emperor’s wall, and the “Old Town” we kept getting lost in was Diocletian’s Palace itself, still lived in, still open to the sky. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Zadar, Without the Tourist Traps We almost skipped Zadar. The plan was Split, then straight down the coast — Zadar was just the airport we happened to fly into. Then a guy at the ferry kiosk told us to be at the waterfront by sunset, “stand on the steps, you’ll hear it.” That evening the Sea Organ played the sea back to us through holes in the marble, the sky went orange over the islands, and we tore up the rest of the itinerary. We stayed three nights. ...