Can we reverse the itinerary — arriving in Dubrovnik and departing Split?

Yes, this works equally well in the opposite direction. Dubrovnik to Korčula to Vis to Hvar to Split. Flight connections sometimes make the reverse more convenient and your specialist will advise.

What happens after I request this trip?

You'll complete a short planning form. A specialist responds within one business day with a personalised proposal and exact pricing. No obligation.

8-Day Private Package Journey

Dalmatian Islands

From Split to Dubrovnik via Hvar, the secret island of Vis, and medieval Korčula.

Available as Private Semi-Private Self-Guided

From €3,090 per person 8 days / 7 nights

View Itinerary

Tour Overview

8 days across Croatia.

The Dalmatian islands are not all the same. Hvar is famous and fashionable; Vis was a closed military zone until 1989 and has the most unspoiled interior and the finest wine on the coast; Korčula is a medieval walled town on a wooded peninsula, its lanes so narrow that two people cannot pass. This eight-day private journey takes the ferry and boat route from Split south through the archipelago, spending time on each island at a pace that lets you understand what makes it different from its neighbours. It ends in Dubrovnik — the only logical conclusion for a journey along the Dalmatian coast. Most of the best things happen on the water, and the journey between islands, with the limestone cliffs changing colour through the afternoon, is part of the experience rather than mere transit.

Detailed Itinerary

Your journey, day by day.

Every day is designed with breathing room. Sleep in, take a detour, linger at lunch — the itinerary flexes around you, not the other way around.

Day 1

Arrival in Split

The Roman emperor's palace that became a living city.

Split announces itself from the coastal road with the Mosor mountains behind and the islands of Brač and Šolta offshore — and then the extraordinary sight of Diocletian's Palace, not a ruin but a still-inhabited city within a Roman enclosure. Your private driver meets you at Split Airport and carries you to your hotel, which is within the palace walls or immediately on the Riva promenade outside. The afternoon is at your own pace: the peristyle courtyard at the heart of the palace, the cathedral of St Domnius installed in Diocletian's own mausoleum, and the covered market held daily in the Roman basement halls. The Riva at sunset — Split's long seafront promenade facing the open channel to Brač — is where the city comes to display itself each evening. Dinner in the old town with the stone walls lit around you.

Private airport transfer with island views
Diocletian's Palace — the living Roman city
Cathedral of St Domnius in the ancient mausoleum
First evening on the Split Riva

4–5★ hotel, Split old town or Riva

Day 2

Hvar: Light and Lavender

The sunniest island in Croatia.

The private boat from Split reaches Hvar Town in an hour — and Hvar announces itself before you arrive with the scent of lavender that comes off the interior plateau. Croatia's sunniest island (2,724 sunshine hours per year) has been fashionable since the 1990s, but Hvar Town's Venetian architecture long predates tourism: the loggia and clock tower on the main square, the Renaissance arsenal converted to a theatre in 1612 — the first public theatre in southeastern Europe — and the Spanish fortress on the hill above. The afternoon is for the Stari Grad Plain: the oldest continuously cultivated agricultural landscape in Croatia, a Greek field system established in 384 BC whose boundaries have not changed in 2,400 years. UNESCO recognised it in 2008. The lavender fields of the interior plateau, the village of Stari Grad itself with its Tvrdalj Renaissance summer residence — the afternoon in a landscape that operates at an entirely different pace from the harbour town. Dinner in Hvar.

Private boat transfer Split to Hvar
Hvar's Venetian square and the oldest public theatre in southeastern Europe
Stari Grad Plain UNESCO landscape — 2,400 years of agricultural continuity
Lavender fields of the Hvar interior

Meals: Breakfast 4–5★ hotel, Hvar Town

Day 3

Vis: The Unspoiled Island

Closed to foreigners until 1989 — the least changed island on the coast.

Vis is a forty-minute fast boat from Hvar and is unlike any other island on the Dalmatian coast. Closed to all foreign visitors as a Yugoslav Navy base until 1989, it opened to tourism thirty years later than its neighbours and has the consequence: no large hotels, no cruise ship anchorages, an interior of terraced vineyards and dry-stone walls that looks as it did in the 1970s. The Vugava grape — white, aromatic, grown only on Vis — produces one of Croatia's most distinctive wines. Your morning arrives in Vis Town, whose double harbour is framed by Venetian summer palaces on one side and the colonnaded front of the Austrian naval barracks on the other. The afternoon is the Blue Cave on the islet of Biševo — twenty minutes by small boat, where the morning light enters through an underwater opening and fills the entire cave with an electric cobalt blue. Return to Vis for dinner at a konoba whose kitchen uses ingredients from the island's own terraces.

Private boat Hvar to Vis — the least-changed island on the coast
Vis Town's double harbour — Austrian barracks and Venetian palaces
Blue Cave on Biševo — electric cobalt light through an underwater opening
Konoba dinner with island-grown ingredients

Meals: Breakfast Boutique hotel, Vis Town

Day 4

Vis: Stiniva and the Wine Country

The cove that stopped the internet, and the wine that nobody exports.

Stiniva Cove was named Europe's best beach by the European Best Destinations website in 2016 and has been receiving pilgrims ever since — though most arrive by tourist boat and leave by 3pm, meaning that morning and early afternoon belong to whoever is already there. A small boat from Vis Town reaches Stiniva in twenty minutes: a pebble cove enclosed by two limestone cliffs that nearly touch overhead, with water so clear the bottom is visible at eight metres depth. The morning is for swimming and the shade of the rocks. The afternoon is for the wine: a visit to one of the Vugava producers in the interior — a family who has been growing on the same terraces for four generations, whose wine is not exported and must be tasted here. The vineyards, the dry-stone walls, the scent of rosemary from the hillside. The tasting in the cellar under the winemaker's house, with Vugava and Plavac Mali from the family's own plot. Dinner in Vis Town.

Stiniva Cove — Europe's best beach by boat in the morning
Swimming in water clear to eight metres depth
Private Vugava estate tasting — a wine that never leaves the island
Dry-stone vineyard terraces of the Vis interior

Meals: Breakfast Boutique hotel, Vis Town

Day 5

Korčula: The Medieval Island Town

The walled city that Marco Polo may have been born in.

Korčula Town occupies a narrow wooded peninsula on the island's north coast and is the best-preserved medieval fortified town on the Adriatic after Dubrovnik — a grid of herringbone-pattern streets designed to deflect the bura wind, with a cathedral of St Mark at the centre and the house (possibly) where Marco Polo was born in 1254. The Venetians held Korčula for four centuries and left their architecture in the townhouse facades and the cathedral's Gothic rose window. Your private boat from Vis arrives in Korčula's old harbour in the morning. A private guide — born on the island — takes you through the lanes and explains what makes Korčula's urban plan distinctive: why the streets are arranged the way they are, what the carved family crests above the doorways tell you about the town's mercantile history, and the argument about Marco Polo that the Venetians and Korčulans have been conducting for seven centuries. The Moreška sword dance performance, if evening timing permits. Dinner at a restaurant on the old town walls.

Private boat Vis to Korčula
Korčula old town with island-born guide
Cathedral of St Mark and the herringbone street plan
Marco Polo's birthplace — the claim and the counter-claim

Meals: Breakfast 4★ hotel, Korčula Town

Day 6

Korčula: Pelješac and the Mainland Wine

The peninsula across the channel, and Croatia's finest red wine.

The Pelješac Peninsula is a narrow finger of land separated from Korčula by a channel so narrow it can be crossed in ten minutes by ferry, and it produces Dingač and Postup — the two most celebrated red wines in Croatia, both from Plavac Mali grown on the near-vertical south-facing slopes above the sea. A morning crossing to Pelješac and a drive through the Mali Ston salt pans — where oysters have been farmed since Roman times and are still the best in the Adriatic — to Ston, whose double city walls are the second-longest medieval fortifications in Europe after the Great Wall of China. Oyster lunch at Mali Ston: freshly pulled from the channel, served on ice with a glass of local Pošip. The afternoon is at the Dingač winery: a private tasting of Plavac Mali in the conditions that made it — the sun full on the vineyard slopes above, the sea directly below. Return to Korčula for a final evening in the old town.

Ston medieval double walls — second longest in Europe
Mali Ston oysters fresh from the channel
Dingač private wine tasting — Croatia's finest Plavac Mali
Pelješac Peninsula above the sea

Meals: Breakfast 4★ hotel, Korčula Town

Day 7

Dubrovnik: Inside the Walls

The most complete medieval city in the Mediterranean.

The fast catamaran from Korčula reaches Dubrovnik in two hours — the approach from the sea, with the city walls rising from the water and the terracotta roofs of the old town above them, is one of the great arrivals on the Adriatic. Your hotel is in the old town or on the Lapad peninsula. A private guide meets you in the afternoon for the city walls circuit: two kilometres of mediaeval rampart above the old town, looking down into the alleys and across to the sea and Lokrum island. The walls are the best single experience of Dubrovnik — the scale of the fortifications from the outside reveals nothing of what is inside, and the view from the top tells you everything about why the Ragusan Republic invested so much in building them. The Stradun at early evening, when the limestone reflects the last light and the cafes fill: the Onofrio Fountain, the Dominican monastery cloister with its 15th-century pharmacy, the harbour. Dinner in the old town.

Catamaran arrival — Dubrovnik walls rising from the sea
City walls circuit with private guide
Stradun, Dominican monastery, harbour
First evening in the medieval city

Meals: Breakfast 5★ hotel, Dubrovnik

Day 8

Departure

The walls from the sea road — the best last view.

The morning in Dubrovnik before the cruise ships arrive — the Stradun empty enough to walk slowly, coffee at a bar on Gundulić Square, a last walk through the lanes behind the Rector's Palace. If time permits, the cable car to Mount Srđ at 412 metres for the final view of the old town from above — the entire walled city visible at once, the islands stretching south toward Montenegro. Your private driver transfers you to Dubrovnik Airport. The view of the city walls from the sea road as you leave the peninsula tends to produce an immediate plan to return.

Dubrovnik old town before the crowds
Optional: Mount Srđ cable car for the final view
Gundulić Square morning coffee
Private transfer to Dubrovnik Airport

Meals: Breakfast

Where You'll Stay

Hand-picked hotels, every night.

We choose properties for character, location, and the kind of service that makes you feel looked after — not just checked in. Every hotel can be swapped for an alternative if you prefer.

Split

1 night

4–5★ hotel

Old town or Riva promenade

Inside or immediately adjacent to the Diocletian's Palace walls

Hvar

1 night

4–5★ hotel

Hvar Town harbour

Within walking distance of the main square

Vis

2 nights

Boutique hotel

Vis Town

Small island properties with character — Vis has no large hotels by design

Korčula

2 nights

4★ hotel

Near old town

Old town hotels are limited; the best properties are within a five-minute walk of the medieval gates

Dubrovnik

1 night

5★ hotel

Old town or Lapad peninsula

Old town location for atmosphere; Lapad for pool and sea access — your specialist will recommend

Hotels shown are indicative of the standard we book. Upon request, we will provide a detailed itinerary with specific hotel options tailored to your preferences and budget.

What's in the Price

Included

7 nights in 4–5★ hotels and boutique island properties
Daily breakfast at each property
Private airport transfer in Split
Private boat Split–Hvar
Private boat Hvar–Vis
Private boat Vis–Stiniva Cove and Blue Cave excursion
Private boat Vis–Korčula
Fast catamaran Korčula–Dubrovnik
Korčula private guide (island-born)
Dubrovnik private guide and city walls circuit
Pelješac Dingač private wine tasting
Vugava estate wine tasting on Vis
Stari Grad Plain visit on Hvar
All entrance fees for guided visits
24/7 travel specialist support
Hamilton & Chase digital travel booklet

Not Included

International flights to Split / from Dubrovnik
Travel insurance (required — we can arrange on request)
Meals not listed
Personal expenses
Gratuities for guides and drivers
City tax (collected by hotels)

Good to Know

Vis accommodation is limited — early booking is essential, especially July–August.
The Blue Cave visits are weather-dependent: rough sea conditions (Biševo is exposed) can close the access tunnel. We always have alternative Vis excursions arranged.
The Stiniva Cove boat is a small local vessel — not wheelchair accessible.
June and September offer the best combination of calm seas, manageable crowds, and full island services.

Make It Yours

Optional add-ons & upgrades.

Every trip is different. These extras can be woven into your itinerary — just let your travel specialist know what catches your eye.

Extended Vis stay

An additional night on Vis to visit the Green Cave, the Roman baths at Gradina, and the archaeological museum with finds from the Greek colony of Issa

From €180 pp

Mljet National Park

The island of Mljet — half of which is national park — by private boat from Korčula: the saltwater lakes, the 12th-century Benedictine monastery on an island within the inner lake, and the most peaceful shoreline on the coast

From €130 pp

Biševo night fishing

Traditional night fishing from a small boat off the island of Vis with a local fisherman — squid, sea bass, and whatever comes up — and a breakfast of grilled catch on the deck

From €95 pp

Dubrovnik extended stay

An extra night in Dubrovnik to include Mount Srđ and Fort Imperial siege museum, the Elafiti Islands by boat, and the restaurants outside the walls that residents use

From €220 pp

"Vis was the revelation. We had never heard of it before Hamilton & Chase suggested it. The Blue Cave was extraordinary, but it was the wine tasting in the vineyard above the sea — Vugava that you simply cannot find outside the island — that we keep telling people about. The islands build on each other perfectly."

David & Fiona M.

Edinburgh, Scotland · Dalmatian Islands, August 2024

Common Questions

Questions about this trip.

Why is Vis so special compared to the other islands?

Primarily because it spent forty years as a military restricted zone and therefore skipped the development cycle that shaped Hvar and Korčula. It has no large hotels, no infrastructure for mass tourism, and an interior that looks as it did in the 1970s. The wine — Vugava especially — is also something you cannot find outside the island.

Is the Blue Cave suitable for non-swimmers?

Yes — you visit the Blue Cave by small boat, not by swimming. The boat enters through the low tunnel opening (everyone must duck) and you see the effect from inside the cave. The cobalt light is the result of refraction through the underwater opening, not of the water itself.

Private Package Journey

Dalmatian Islands

8 days / 7 nights

From €3,090

per person

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