If You Are Sailing in Croatia Near Split, Check Out These Seaside Restaurants and Pretty Mooring Spots

During my summer hiatus from backpacking in Central Florida, I’ve decided to spend the next several weeks posting about the towns and islands my family and I visited during our weeklong sailing trip in June on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. If you’re interested in learning more about what it’s like to charter a sailboat in the Adriatic (including costs of renting a sailboat and hiring a skipper), check out my latest article in Go World Travel, “Why a Croatian Sailing Charter is the Perfect Family Vacation.”

This week, I’ll discuss several quiet bays with excellent restaurants where we spent the night.

Although my family and I enjoyed the seaside villages we visited during our weeklong sail in the Dalmatian Archipelago, some of our fondest memories will be of the secluded coves where we moored near seaside restaurants, enjoying the most starlit nights and relaxing swimming of our trip. These were some of the most beautiful places we visited—and also where we had some of the finest meals of our trip.

When we first set sail, our skipper, Marino, suggested several waterside restaurants which also offered mooring spots where we could tie up for the night, so long as we dined there. (A mooring spot is essentially a floating ball affixed to a permanent offshore anchorage, to which you tie up your boat rather than dropping your own anchor. Since you’re not docked on land, you travel to and from shore by riding in a small motorized “tender” that you take with on your sailboat.)

We were extremely glad we listened to Marino’s recommendations, as each of the restaurants described below offered exquisite local cuisine and stunning views from outdoor tables. All are worth trying if you visit this part of Croatia.

Lero (Jorja Bay, Šolta)

On the first day of our trip, we sailed from Split to the small, sparsely populated island of Šolta, where we spent the night moored in cliff-hugged Jorja Bay with our stern tied to a boulder on shore. We were treated there to some of the finest snorkeling and paddleboarding of our trip, with isolated pebbly beaches just a short paddle away and fish teeming in the 25 feet of crystal-clear water beneath our keel. We shared the cove there with only five other boats and spent a quiet night on gentle waves that rocked us to sleep like babies in a cradle.

The highlight of our night in Šolta was Lero, our host restaurant nestled halfway up a hill at the back of Jorja Bay. Our hosts brought us to and from shore for dinner in their own small tender, and although we had a few stairs to climb to reach the restaurant from the stone pier beside the water, we were rewarded with a cliffside outdoor table with jaw-dropping views of the sun setting behind our boat. We were then treated to delicious locally caught fish and our favorite calamari of the trip.

Reservations at Lero should be booked in advance; we also reviewed the menu and made our selections when making our reservation. More about Lero (including contact information) can be found on their Facebook page.

The Fisherman’s House (Pakleni Islands)

After spending the next two days touring Vis and Hvar, we spent our fourth night moored in a protected cove on the north side of Sveti Klement, the largest of the Pakleni Islands just southwest of the island of Hvar. Beyond the hustle and bustle of the town of Hvar, the pine-covered tiny Pakleni Islands feel like another world, offering the tranquility cherished by seafaring vacationers looking for peace and quiet. I won’t soon forget spending hours reclining against our mast studying the rocky shores, gazing at stars, and listening after dinner to the rippling waves and muffled chatter of families on nearby boats.

This was also where we enjoyed my favorite dinner of the trip at The Fisherman’s House, a family-run pension and restaurant nestled beside the family’s vineyards, just steps from the bay where we spent the night. The outdoor dining patios there are cloaked in local flora, and our quiet table was set on a second story veranda overlooking vineyards dusted with twilight after sunset.

Their Dalmatian cuisine was spectacular. Here we relished locally caught fish grilled in the outdoor kitchen just beside the stairs leading up to our table, which Marino selected at our insistence and then taught me how to debone. We also savored more than one bottle of wine harvested from the grapes growing nearby, along with delectable appetizers and desserts.

More about The Fisherman’s House can be found on their website, including contact information for booking. Their pension also offers 6 quaint bedrooms for those looking to spend the night ashore. You will have to use your own tender here.

Konoba Kotin (Milna, Hvar)

The night before we sailed to the Pakleni Islands, we spent our third night moored in a harbor just down the coast from Hvar at the small town of Milna. (Not to be confused with the town of the same name on the island of Brač referenced in my post last week, Milna is a common name used for towns on the Dalmatian Coast and means “dear” or “beloved.”) Once again, we benefited from Marino’s advice, as mooring at Milna allowed us to take a taxi to the pretty but bustling town of Hvar without incurring the expense of docking there for the night.

And we once again also enjoyed a fine meal at a seaside restaurant with spectacular seaside views, although this time we chose to have lunch there rather than dinner. Konoba Kotin is one of several restaurants in Milna catering to seafaring visitors and tourists staying at shoreside hotels and also offers excellent Dalmatian cuisine. The views from their comfortable tables overlooking the bay were also second to none.

The shallow bay at Milna was also one of our favorite places to snorkel and paddle, although it was a bit less quiet during the day, as it seems to be a popular spot for pleasure craft catering to packs of partygoers in Hvar stopping for hour-long swims. But the noise from our neighbors was never disruptive, and at night, long after the day trippers had left, the quiet returned and we were treated again to that famous Mediterranean serenity.

Reservations for dinner and access to mooring for the night are recommended, and although Konoba Kotin does not appear to have a website, contact information can be found here.