Makarska 3-Island Speedboat Tour with Cave and Blue Lagoon

Departure from the Marineta promenade in Makarska

The boat leaves from Marineta, the palm-lined seafront promenade of Makarska beside the town harbour, where the fishing boats and ferries tie up below the baroque façade of St Mark's church. Makarska sits in a natural horseshoe bay between the wooded Sveti Petar and Osejava peninsulas with the wall of Biokovo rising behind it, and the first minutes of the trip give you the classic view of the town from the water. The speedboat is a rigid inflatable or open motorboat with a licensed skipper; life jackets are stored on board and masks and snorkels are handed out for the swim stops.

Arrive fifteen minutes before the 10:00 departure. If you are searching for Makarska things to do that get you off the beach and onto the water, this Brač and Hvar boat tour from Makarska covers more coastline in five hours than any ferry timetable allows.

The sea cave on the island of Brač

Brač is the largest island of central Dalmatia and the closest to Makarska, only a short, exhilarating speedboat ride across the Brač Channel. Its white limestone has been quarried since Roman times, and the same stone forms the cliffs of its southern and eastern coast, where the sea has carved a hidden cave with a narrow mouth and a pool of blue light inside. The skipper noses the boat to the entrance and you swim in, floating in a chamber where sunlight filters through the water and bounces off the rock. Beside the cave the low cliffs invite confident swimmers to try a jump into deep, clear water under the skipper's supervision.

This is the most adventurous stop of the day and takes about forty-five minutes. Anyone wondering whether a sea cave swim in Croatia is worth it usually answers after the first few strokes inside.

Jelsa, the harbour town on Hvar

From Brač the boat crosses the Hvar Channel to Jelsa, a small town folded into a deep bay on the north coast of Hvar between the island's highest hills. Jelsa grew around its harbour in the fourteenth century and keeps a compact old centre of stone lanes, a shaded main square with the fortified church of Our Lady of Health above it, and a waterfront ringed by pine trees where boats bob a few metres from the café tables. It is quieter and more local than Hvar town on the far side of the island, which is exactly why this tour stops here.

You have free time of about an hour and a quarter in Jelsa to walk the lanes, buy a lavender sachet, swim from the small town beach or have lunch at your own expense; our skipper tells you when to be back at the boat. A Jelsa Hvar boat tour is the easiest way to see this side of the island from Makarska.

The Blue Lagoon swim stop

The Blue Lagoon near Makarska is a stretch of shallow, sandy-bottomed water along the sheltered north coast of Hvar where the sea turns an improbable pale turquoise in the sunshine. The skipper anchors in waist-to-chest-deep water, which makes this the best stop for families with children and for anyone who prefers a gentle swim to cliff jumping. With the masks and snorkels provided you can watch small fish over the sand and the sea grass meadows that keep the water so clear, and the surrounding pine-covered shoreline has no road access, so you share it only with other boats.

Expect around forty-five minutes here. The best time to visit the Blue Lagoon is around midday, when the sun is highest and the colours strongest, which is exactly when this tour arrives after Jelsa.

The secluded bay near the islet of Zečevo

The final swim stop is a quiet bay near Zečevo, a small uninhabited islet off the north-east coast of Hvar near Vrboska, covered in low pines and ringed by rocks that slope gently into deep, glassy water. The bay faces away from the open channel, so it is calm even on breezy afternoons, and the rocky bottom makes it the clearest snorkelling of the day. There is room to swim out from the boat, float in the shade of the pines or simply sit on the bow and dry off before the ride back.

After roughly thirty minutes the skipper points the bow towards Biokovo and the speedboat crosses the channel back to Makarska, arriving at the Marineta promenade around 15:00. The return crossing on a flat afternoon sea, with the whole riviera spread out under the mountain, is a highlight in itself.