Give a morning to the old town: the 1612 theatre in the Arsenal, St Stephen's Square, then the stepped climb to the Fortica for the view over the Pakleni Islands. Take a taxi boat across to Palmižana for lunch and a swim. Keep the second day for the island itself, the Stari Grad Plain and the wine villages on the south coast, and save the late nights for after you have seen it.
Hvar is two islands in one. There is the harbour town, Venetian stone and superyachts, loud until four in the morning through August. And there is the rest of it: a Greek field plan still under cultivation, lavender terraces, wine villages under a limestone ridge, and coves you reach on foot.
The climb from Groda takes about twenty minutes of stepped lanes and agave, and the view at the top is the whole reason to make it: the Pakleni chain laid out beyond the harbour, the town roofs directly below. Go late, when the light turns and the day boats come home.
At 4,500 square metres this is the largest square in Dalmatia, and it works as a hinge rather than a monument: the cathedral closes one end, the harbour opens the other, and Groda climbs away to the north. Sit by the well in the middle and the whole town walks past.
The Arsenal was built to shelter a war galley. In 1612 the town put a theatre on its upper floor and opened it to nobles and commoners alike, which makes it one of the first public theatres in Europe. The room is small, wooden and painted, and restoration has given it back.
Fourteen wooded islets sit twenty minutes off the harbour, and taxi boats leave the Riva through the day for Palmižana, Jerolim and Mlini. Palmižana has the marina, the restaurants and a botanical garden one family has kept for generations. The smaller landings have pine, water and nothing else.
Fifteenth century, right on the water at the far end of the promenade, with a Renaissance cloister and a refectory hung with a vast Last Supper. The bell tower is the work of a local family of stonemasons. It is the quietest thing in Hvar town, and it closes on Sundays.
Greek colonists from Paros divided this plain into rectangular parcels in the fourth century BC, and the dry-stone walls still follow those lines, still farmed. UNESCO listed it in 2008. Walk or cycle in from Stari Grad: there is no gate and no ticket, only field tracks.
Nuns here have made lace from the fibre of agave leaves since the nineteenth century, a technique that exists nowhere else and one UNESCO has put on its intangible heritage list. The pieces are small, white and astonishing close up. The room they hang in takes ten minutes to see.
The trefoil façade and the tall bell tower close the square, and both are worth standing back for. Inside there is a carved sixteenth-century choir and a treasury of reliquaries and vestments. Services take priority, so the doors keep hours of their own.
The lavender village, founded in the fourteenth century and now down to a handful of residents. Stone houses, walled courtyards and the distilling sheds from the years when lavender was the island’s cash crop. The festival on the last weekend of June is when it fills up again.
The poet Petar Hektorović spent decades building his own fortified house around a walled fish pond, then cut inscriptions into the stone for whoever came after him. Mullet still circle the pool. It is the most personal building on the island and it takes half an hour.
A pebble cove under olive terraces, eight kilometres east. Park on the road and walk the ten minutes down.
Twenty minutes on the seaside path past the Franciscan monastery, with a lighthouse islet offshore.
Twenty minutes further through pine from Pokonji Dol, or come by taxi boat. Also called Robinson.
The old stone bathing terrace west of the harbour, colonnade and cabanas, five minutes from the square.
Two small bays under grey cliffs, clear water and a steep path down. Bring shoes, not flip-flops.
A shallow, sheltered bay four kilometres out, the easiest swim on this coast with small children.
Island cooking in a fifteenth-century palace, served in a stone courtyard off the lanes of Groda.
Family-run for decades in the old town, generous and loud. Book ahead in July and August.
A restored fourteenth-century stone house in Groda, candlelit, small plates of island food.
A narrow room in an old-town alley, local dishes handled with a lighter, more modern touch.
One narrow alley bar off the Riva that turns into a crush after ten. No seats, no pretence.
Twenty minutes past the hotels into the pines: hammocks, lemonade, the opposite of the harbour.
Jelsa. Plavac Mali, Pošip and a Prošek, poured in a cellar the family built for the purpose.
Jelsa. A small operation with poetic labels and the most distinctive bottles on the island.
Vrbanj. A family growing indigenous island varieties since 1919, still on the same terraces.
Svirče. Bogdanuša and Plavac Mali alongside rarer island grapes such as Darnekuša and Parč.
Little Venice: a narrow inlet crossed by small bridges, with a church fortified against raiders.
Vineyards straight up the cliff under Sveti Nikola, a cave above the village, the sea below it.
The eastern tip, a long drive out, and the short ferry crossing to the mainland at Drvenik.
The shingle spit on Brač that shifts with the current, reached by seasonal catamaran or excursion boat.
The cave on Biševo lights up around midday, and Vis town is the quietest port in Dalmatia.
Diocletian’s palace is about an hour away by catamaran, an easy day or a night out with more choice.
The walled town on its own small peninsula, and the far end of central Dalmatia by catamaran.
The wooded islet off Hvar’s south coast: two sheltered bays, a ruined monastery and no road.
The island’s high point, steepest and shortest from Sveta Nedjelja. Start early and carry water.
The mule track up from Milna reaches a village abandoned in the 1960s and left standing.
Above the Fortica, raised under the French occupation and now an astronomical observatory.
The seaside walk from the Franciscan monastery to Pokonji Dol and on to Mekićevica, level throughout.
Six villages send a cross-bearer out after Maundy Thursday mass, 25 km overnight. UNESCO listed.
Four cycling routes, all starting in Stari Grad, the longer ones finishing in Hvar town.
Hvar town's co-patron, marked with mass and a procession, and a fair on the square around it.
A road half marathon run at the end of the month, before the summer heat sets in.
Velo Grablje fills for a weekend of distilling, music and stalls on the last weekend of June.
Concerts and recitals staged around the old town across the whole length of the season.
Jelsa's long-established wine festival, with the year's bottles poured on the waterfront.
Milna cooks its catch on the quay for an evening: grilled fish, island wine and a band.
The nearest airport, at Kaštela about 25 km from Split. Bus or taxi to the ferry port, then a catamaran across.
Jadrolinija, Kapetan Luka and TP Line all run fast boats straight into Hvar town harbour, up to nineteen crossings a day at the height of summer.
Jadrolinija's car ferry from Split lands at Stari Grad, about 20 km from Hvar town, with island buses meeting the arrivals.
Taxi boats leave the Riva for the Pakleni Islands through the day. Buses link Hvar town with Stari Grad and Jelsa on the ferry timetable.
Hvar's own fish stew: white fish, potato, onion and white wine. Every family guards its version.
Shrimp or mussels cooked fast in white wine, olive oil, garlic and parsley. Order bread.
Beef larded, marinated overnight and braised slow in a sweet and sour sauce, with gnocchi.
Meat or octopus baked under an iron bell buried in embers. Order it several hours ahead.
Dalmatian air-dried ham with sheep cheese, olives and capers: the standard opening plate.
A Stari Grad biscuit of honey, olive oil and spice, baked for sailors long before tourists.
The Dalmatian custard: vanilla, orange peel and a caramel top, always served cold.
Small fried doughnuts with citrus zest and a splash of rakija, sold from stalls at festivals.
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