The Best Island Hopping Adventure from Split: A Review

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Split is surrounded by varied and beautiful islands making it the perfect base for island hopping and exploring. It’s possible to visit the islands yourself but ferry times/routes might limit you to one island per day. So if you’re short on time the perfect way to explore Split’s nearby islands is to join an organised boat tour. This is my review of the best island hopping adventure from Split.

Hvar 5 Islands & Blue Cave Tour

GetYourGuide.com

Book it Here

Includes Islands

Hvar, Bisevo, Vis, Ravnik and Budikovac

Bring With You

• Swimsuit
• Sun Lotion
• Camera

Price

From £90.00.

Pick Up and Drop Off

The Matejuska Pier in Split. It also goes from Trogir.

Duration

The website states twelve hours but our trip was more like ten and a half. I would say ten to twelve hours would be the approximate. It’s certainly a full day trip!

Shy Solo Traveller Tip of the Day

You don’t need to bring a jacket (unless it’s a unusually cold day) because they will provide you with one for on the boat. It can be pretty chilly when you’re zipping across the sea at 7:30am even on a lovely day in June, so make sure you say yes to one when you get on!! It takes an hour and a half to the first stop and I guarantee you’ll get cold by the halfway point. And shouting over the sea and the pop music or waving from the back of the boat is hard work!

This is a major point for all my fellow shy solo travellers! There was no way I was about to draw attention to myself by asking for a jacket halfway through the journey, so what did I do? I shivered like the shy idiot I am! Either grab your jacket at the outset or be braver than I was!

Set Sail

So you’ve dragged yourself out of bed at six thirty (depending on your beautification needs), climbed on a tiny speedboat and wrapped your legs, cowboy style round the seat. Hopefully you’ve got your life jacket on without needing assistance (it was early okay?) After the initial burst of excitement and adrenaline your body remembers how early it is and the cold sea breeze penetrates your bones and you wonder why exactly you paid so much money for this. However! Do not fear, it does actually get better.

I might be making it sound like torture but the boat ride was really fun once I relaxed and the day warmed up. If you’ve never been on a speedboat before it’s definitely worth experiencing! You wiz along, pop music blasting out, it feels exhilarating.

Blue Wonders

The first stop is at the Blue Cave on the island of Bisevo. This is the infamous cave you will see tons of boat trips advertising. Featuring magical vivid blue water and shoals of little fishes swimming the lurid depths.

You can take a boat trip that only visits this cave but for me I think it’s better to combine it with a full day tour of the islands. As beautiful as it is you are in and out quite quickly so it could feel slightly anticlimactic if it was your only stop.

Top Tip

Don’t take too many photos. It’s one of those places that looks better in person than on camera – unless you really know what you’re doing I guess! Put your phone away so you can fully enjoy the moment.

Mamma Mia!

If you want picture postcard perfect Croatia Komiza on Vis is where you need to go! After spending no more than a couple of hours there I came home and started looking at hotels on booking.com thinking about going back and staying there!

This fisherman’s village is so quiet and peaceful once you’re away from the harbour-side and I can imagine how quiet it must be when the day-trippers are gone! It is such a pleasure to wander the narrow streets and explore with sometimes only sweet tiny cats for company.

If you’re wondering how Italian exclamations are involved Komiza and the whole island of Vis was the filming location for Mamma Mia 2. It really does look like the dream island location. So if you’re looking for a little Mamma Mia magic in your life get yourself to Vis. A trio of attractive men falling at your feet may not be included (but we can always hope!)

Swim Spots

Stiniva Cove, also on Vis, is a beach with a tiny entrance from the sea, flanked by two high cliffs. There is the option to swim here but after bobbing around for a minute for two my group decided against it. You would have to swim from the boat as boats cannot enter the small gap between the cliffs.

This is an example of one of the downsides to doing an organised group tour as naturally such decisions are made by the forthright and confident members of the group. Although I really didn’t mind either way, I definitely wouldn’t have spoken out against a group of strangers if I had!

The main reason it made sense not to swim there was that we could spend more time at our next spot where we could also swim. This time in the crystal clear waters of the Blue Lagoon on the island of Budikovac.

After dallying along the rocky coastline and entering a few more caves we made our way to the beach.

Top Tip

Bring water shoes!! The beach and sea-bed is pebbly and it can be really difficult getting in and out of the sea. If you want to look elegant and not be forced to shuffle down into the water on your bum and fall over a lot get some water shoes!

There’s not much else to do other than swim, sunbathe and pet the resident donkeys so make the most of the time to relax in what is a long and busy day island hopping! Just savour that beautiful clear water.

Hvar

The stop in Hvar offers the first real opportunity to have lunch. After all that swimming, wandering and sea air you’ll be starving!

The real problem with doing full on guided excursions is that they often do pack a lot in and sometimes by the last stop you can be weary. I didn’t fall in love with Hvar quite as much as peaceful Komiza. Perhaps with staying in busy Split I preferred quieter places as a contrast.

If visiting Hvar on your own steam I recommend exploring the rest of the island away from Hvar Town.

This tour offers a discount on lunch so it’s really worth taking it, not just for the price but the ease of finding a place to eat!

You can walk up to the Fortica for views over the town and surrounding Pakleni islands. However it’s quite expensive to go in the Fortica and by the time you’ve had lunch and walked up to the top you really won’t have long to admire the views. So I actually recommend taking a longer leisurely lunch and wandering and exploring more in the town.

Your Guides

Mia was a wonderful host and guide and Steve our driver expertly navigated us home through choppy waters (it made this non-rollercoaster riding girl clutch the handles a few times!) The two enjoyed teasing each other, usually involving Mia singing along loudly to the music which Steve doesn’t like.

My Thoughts

As ever with this type of organised tour my issue is with freedom. You are bound by the times set by your guide, you cannot wander completely at leisure and spontaneously go off exploring. I would have loved more time in Komiza, as it was my clear favourite! Sometimes tours like this that give you a taster are perfect for discovering which places you’d like to go back to and spend more time. Even though you can read blogs and look at pictures it’s sometimes hard to know if you’ll love a place until you are actually there! It also means that you can cherry pick the best of each island in theory.

The main advantage is that you can visit places that might be hard to get to otherwise, without hiring a private boat – such as the Blue Lagoon and Stiniva Cove. And finally, it’s ideal if you are short on time.

In an ideal world I would have taken two days to island hop and visited one island on each day and explored deeper at my own pace. However, on my own I might not have read about and discovered Komiza – it hadn’t featured particularly on any of the blogs I read, although Vis was mentioned as a whole. And I believe that the ferries take you to the other side of the island on Vis. So it really is a toss up between the two options!

The tour is well organised and there was zero hassle or problems. Price-wise it is a little steep (I’m a budget traveller but I splashed out on this occasion) but you do get a lot of island hopping for your money! You could probably pay half that just to go to the Blue Cave.

In Summary

Is it the best island hopping adventure from Split? I think it definitely is the tour that offers a fully packed schedule and visits both prime spots on popular islands such as Vis and Hvar but also a nice selection of caves and beaches. It provides a nice variety of cute town wandering and swimming spots. If you want a taster of the island highlights this is the perfect tour.

Hopefully if you are planning on exploring by yourself this post has also given you an idea of the places worth visiting!

Related Posts

The Ten Best Things to do in Split

Six Reasons to Visit Trogir

A Day Trip to Krka National Park: Everything You Need to Know

What were your favourite islands near Split? Do you prefer organised tours or island hopping on your own steam? Let me know in the comments!