Trialling the new Hvar Hop On Hop Off Bus

Since we spent almost the entire previous day away from Hvar, we decided to spend the next day exploring the other side of the island.

Hvar has just started a Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the island. There is only one bus, and it comes around every two hours, so we had to plan our day perfectly.

Before we got to the bus station, we had to stop and buy me a hat. My head was really sunburnt from the previous 4 days spent in the sun, and I had to find something to cover it up before it got any worse.

After visiting a few stores, we managed to find what we were looking for and headed towards the bus station to get the 10.30 a.m. bus. The bus is brand new, but had a large crack in the upstairs windscreen, and it wasn't hard to see why. 

The upstairs is an open top bus, but they haven't trimmed the tree branches along the route, so the upstairs passengers (us included) were constantly hit by tree's as we drove past! I think that's something they need to fix before there are more passengers and it's not as easy to move away from the dangerous seats!

Tiny kitten napping by the bus station

Looking towards Stari Grad

Our first stop was Vrboska, a tiny town located in the central part of the northern side of Hvar. It has been nicknamed Little Venice, as being situated in a narrow bay, is full of tiny bridges connecting the two sides of the town. 

We slowly made our way through the town, enjoying picking different alleyways to follow and see where they came out. It reminded us of some of the small towns we came across in Tuscany.

Not sure what a Fish Picnic is, but they were advertised everywhere!

After exploring the village for a while, we decided we needed a swim, so followed the road along towards the water, and came across a small place to swim off the rocks that seemed to be popular with the locals. The water was cold, and there were lots of sea slugs (!), but it was nice to cool off anyway. We dried ourselves off on the rocks for an hour or so, before heading slowly back to town to get the bus to our next stop, Jelsa.

The Fort Church, fortified in 1575 as it was under constant threat of Turkish Attack

After spending four hours in Vrboska, we jumped back on the bus, and got off in Jelsa, only about 15 minutes on the bus from Vrboska. Both towns on the northern side of the island were much quieter, and had much less tourists than Hvar Town on the Southern side. Hvar Town was lovely, but I think it would have been nice to stay in Jelsa, which seemed more authentically Croatian.

Jelsa was actually the first part of Hvar to open to tourists, and has the oldest hotel on the island.

Jelsa Town Square

Jelsa was a fair bit bigger than Vrboska, and we wandered around the town stopping at the small stalls by the waterfront, and the shops in the Town Square. 

It was very quiet, I think most people were out on day trips away from the town, so it was nice to wander the streets, almost like we had them to ourselves.

Bradley looking quite European!

Quiet backstreet in Jelsa

We continued walking around the bay until we came across some nice flat rocks that had a ladder where we could get into the sea. The sea was still chilly, so we spent most of the time sunbathing, and then jumping into the water to cool off and right back out!

Bradley stealing my hat

View towards Jelsa town from the bay

Before heading back to the bus, we stopped for some ice cream. They had some amazing flavours, I had Ferrero Rocher and Bradley has Pistachio. Both were delicious, and we joined the groups of older Croatian men and women sitting on the benches by the waterfront and watched the ferries come in until it was time to leave.

We were the only ones on the bus when we got on in Jelsa. We were actually concerned we'd missed it since there was no-one else waiting, so we had the whole top deck to ourselves before other people got on in Vrboska.

Ferry leaving from Stari Grad

Watching the sunset from the top of the bus looking towards Hvar Town

We arrived back in Hvar Town at about 8.30 p.m. just as the sun was setting. The town was much quieter than it had been the day before, when the Yacht Week groups pulled in, so we slowly made our way back to our apartment, and had a peek at all the Super Yachts in the harbour. If I was rich I think driving a Super Yacht around Croatia would be a lovely holiday, but Ferries are a close second!