Hvar: Private Boat Tour Blue & Green Cave, Vis & Pakleni

4.94

(146 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I didn’t expect to feel so small out there — just us and the sea, bouncing away from Hvar’s harbor before most folks had finished their coffee. Our skipper, Luka, grinned when I asked if he ever got bored of this route. “Never,” he said, and pointed at the horizon like he was letting me in on a secret. The salt air hit different once we sped past the first little island. It smelled cleaner than I thought it would — not sharp, more like warm stone and something green I couldn’t name.

The Blue Cave was first. We waited our turn bobbing in the sun while Luka told us how the light only gets that blue for a few hours each day (I’d read about it but seeing it is another thing). Inside, everything glowed — even my hands underwater looked electric. I tried to take a photo but honestly, it didn’t work. My friend splashed me and laughed; you could hear voices echoing off the walls from other boats but somehow it felt private anyway.

Stiniva Cove came next — that narrow opening between cliffs is tighter than it looks in pictures. We swam in (the water was colder here), and someone from another boat waved us over to show off a tiny crab they’d found hiding under a rock. Lunch happened somewhere on the Pakleni islands — grilled fish, bread that left flour on my fingers, and olive oil so peppery I coughed (everyone laughed at that). At Budikovac Island’s lagoon we floated for ages; the water was clear enough you could count pebbles on the bottom. I still think about that quiet moment lying back with my ears underwater, just drifting.