Island of Brač

At the risk of sounding like a total jerk, can I just make one small complaint? There are too many places to visit in Croatia. Before we arrived, I started making a small list of my “must see” places. Rather than checking places off the list (one of my favorite activites-list checking) I seem to just be making the list longer. Our recent trip to the island of Brač was the perfect example. I had heard great things about the island’s beautiful beaches, delicious olive oil, and magnificent marble. But it wasn’t until we stepped on the ferry to return to Split that I realized that I could have easily spent a week or more lounging around and enjoying the island’s beauty. So, here’s my dilemma: do I check Brač off the list? or do I add it three or four more times? Total first world problem.

At the beginning of the summer, right before the selfie-stick wielding tourists started decending on Croatia in hordes, we decided to take a quick day trip to the island of Brač. We were already staying the night in Split, at a beautiful and perfectly situated apartment just a couple of blocks away from the city’s main drag. We didn’t make up our mind to go to Brač until just about 20 minutes before the ferry was set to depart. Lest you think that this was some spontaneous but still relaxed idea like, “let’s pop over to the island for the afternoon and have a walk around,” let me enlighten you. This was more of a painful deliberation-should we? shouldn’t we? should we? shouldn’t we? what time does the ferry leave? do we really have to get up that early? there really isn’t a later ferry? will we be back in time to make our dinner reservation?

Then, at the very last possible moment we decided to go for it. I rushed into my mom’s room to tell her that we had to be on the ferry in 20 minutes, and she was…less than thrilled. Before we’d even had our coffee, we were running to the car (I only had one shoe on and my tooth brush was still hanging out of my mouth). I sprinted for the ticket booth and Aleks headed for the ferry line. After racing across the parking lot, I finally slid into the front seat just as the line was starting to move. We were off!

Before we set out on our excursion, one of my colleagues pointed me to two great articles (this one and this one) about food on the island of Brač. We always like to check out local restaurants and markets, but given our somewhat dissheveled departure, we were especially HUNGRY when we arrived. We drove straight to Sutivan to check out the breakfast at Bokuncin. After eating (and drinking) our way through Dubrovnik and Mostar, we were ready for something lighter, so we ordered the fresh croissants, yogurt with homemade muesli, porriage, and fresh juice. To be honest, we weren’t completely blown away by the food (could be that we ordered pretty standard breakfast fare) but the atmosphere of the place was perfect. Right on the edge of a small marina with a sort of “old world granola” type of charm (trust me, it’s a thing), we left this place a little underwhelmed, but wanting so bad to love it that we’ll probably give it a second chance.

From Sutivan, we made our way around the island stopping in each little town to go for a stroll and marvel at the color of the sea.

The season hadn’t really started yet, it was just a tad too cold to swim (for me at least…I spotted several far braver souls splashing around as if it were August), and the island was peaceful and quiet. Perfect for a relaxing Sunday by the sea.

Finally, we stopped in Dol, the oldest town on the island, located inland, away from the coast. We had a walk around the village (which took about a minute and a half) and decided to sit down for a drink at Konoba Toni. Breakfast was at least an hour behind us, so I can assure you it was all legal. We settled on a glass of the house white wine, but didn’t hold out for too long before ordering a plate of local cheese. The cheese came drizzled with the restaurant’s own olive oil, so naturally, we asked for a little dish of that on the side, so we could really taste it on its own. The restaurant had both the wine and the olive oil for sale, and both were fantastic (and fantastically priced) so we loaded up.

If you stop at Konoba Toni (and you should), do not leave without buying some of their homemade white wine and olive oil. Trust me, pick out a few bottles and then go back for a few more.

After our snack, we continued our drive around the island. We stopped to check out more villages and little stands selling marble.

We made it over to the island’s most famous beach at Bol. Don’t be fooled, like most Croatian beaches, this one is made up of little pebbles, not soft sand. While our North American friends tend to spend their time at the beach lamenting the lack of sand, most Croatians we know are thankful that they can leave the water without having to worry about sand sticking…well…everywhere.