Hvar

Hvar trades on glamour: a marble-paved harbour where yachts moor bow-to, a Venetian fortress on the hill above the rooftops, sunset beach clubs along the western shore, and the Pakleni Islands floating just offshore. That reputation is earned in July and August, when the harbour fills with day-trippers and the loungers at Hula Hula go before lunch. It also sets the trap — Hvar Town in peak season prices like the most expensive corners of the Mediterranean, and a lot of first-timers over-pay for an experience they could have for a third less in June or September.

The two planning calls that matter most are how you arrive and where you sleep. Take the foot-passenger catamaran from Split straight into Hvar Town’s harbour, roughly an hour, rather than the slower car ferry that lands at Stari Grad on the far side of the island; you almost certainly do not want a car here, because the old town is pedestrian-only and parking near the centre barely exists. For a base, the harbour core puts you next to the restaurants, the fortress climb and the taxi-boat jetties, but it is the priciest and noisiest; the slopes and coastal path just above town are a calmer, better-value compromise, and Stari Grad or Jelsa are where to go if you want the island rather than the party.

Give it two or three nights as part of a wider Dalmatian trip. The structured sections below — the ferry and bus costs, where to stay by area, the Pakleni Islands taxi-boats, and a realistic budget in pounds — pick up from here.