Things to Do at Pakleni Islands

The Pakleni Islands float like a string of limestone pearls just off Hvar Town, close enough that you can see them shimmering across the channel from the harbor promenade. The name itself is a small joke of mistranslation that has stuck for centuries. Locals will tell you it comes from paklina, the pine resin once harvested here for sealing wooden boats, not from pakao meaning hell. Roughly twenty islands and islets make up the chain, though most visitors only set foot on three or four. The water around them does something almost theatrical with the light. It turns that particular Adriatic shade of glassy turquoise that photographs never quite capture honestly. You hear cicadas before you hear anything else when the taxi boat cuts its engine. Then the soft slap of swell against hulls moored in the bays. The character of the Pakleni Islands shifts noticeably depending on which cove you choose. Palmizana on Sveti Klement has the polished feel of a place that has hosted yacht crowds for decades. White linen at the lunch tables and bougainvillea spilling over stone walls. Jerolim, the closest to Hvar Town, has long been the unofficial nudist island and still draws a quieter, sun-worn crowd who arrive with paperbacks and stay until the last boat. Marinkovac sits in the middle of the chain both geographically and in mood. Home to the famous beach clubs where the music gets louder as the afternoon wears on. The pine forests behind the beaches smell exactly like you hope they will. That warm resinous scent mixing with salt and grilled fish smoke drifting from konobas tucked into the trees. What tends to surprise first-time visitors is how undeveloped most of the chain remains. Beyond a handful of restaurants and a scattering of villas, the Pakleni Islands are still mostly rock, scrub, fig trees, and tiny pebble coves you reach by scrambling down goat paths. You can spend a whole day hopping between bays on a rented boat and barely see another soul once you get past the obvious anchorages. It's a decent indication of how the wider Dalmatian coast might have felt before the cruise ships arrived. Worth seeking out even if your time on Hvar is short.

Getting to the Pakleni Islands is refreshingly simple given how isolated they look from shore. Taxi boats leave constantly from Hvar Town's main harbor throughout the summer. Handwritten signs at the dock list destinations and next departures. You pay the captain on board. The crossing takes anywhere from ten minutes to Jerolim up to about twenty-five minutes to Palmizana on Sveti Klement. For more flexibility, several outfits along the Riva rent small boats that don't require a license. This lets you anchor in coves the taxi boats don't serve. Organized day tours from Hvar Town typically combine three or four islands with a swim stop at the Blue Cave on Bisevo. Lunch is included. These tours tend to be the easiest option if you'd rather not think about logistics. Coming directly from Split or other Croatian ports usually means catching a Jadrolinija ferry or catamaran to Hvar Town first. Then you transfer to a taxi boat from there.