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Route · 14 days · round-tripYacht charter route · Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik via Korčula & Hvar.

Two-week round-trip from Dubrovnik through Mljet, Korčula, Vis, Hvar and Lastovo, with anchorages, konobas and mooring notes for every day.

The route

Day-by-day route

Click any pin on the map or any day in the route summary below to see that day's stop, story and photos.

Sipan
Day 1

Dubrovnik → Šipan

A gentle 8-mile shakedown from Komolac out into the Elaphiti, ending on Šipan's quiet quay before the longer westward legs begin.

Distance

11 NM

Sailing

~2.2h at 5 kn

At a glance

Route at a glance

Best season

May – mid-October (peak Jun – Sep)

Duration

14 days

Departure

Dubrovnik

Sailing area

Dubrovnik

Route summary

Click any day to jump back to the map and see its photos, narrative and mooring tip.

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Day-by-day journey

Named anchorages, mooring notes and things to do for every leg of the week — the map follows along as you scroll.

Day 1 / 14
Sipan
1
Day 1

Dubrovnik → Šipan

Nobody strains a muscle on the opening day. The lines come off at ACI Marina Dubrovnik in Komolac, you idle down the Rijeka Dubrovačka past the Old Port, and once clear you point the bow northwest at the Elaphiti, eight miles and no more. Three of those islands still hold people, and Šipan is the one that farms, olive terraces running back from a village at either end. Šipanska Luka, the larger and set on the northwest end, is where you spend the night: back onto the quay on your own anchor, water and power on the middle berths, a small fee. There is light left to follow the marked track over the ridge to Suđurađ, three quarters of an hour each way, and stand under the Skočibuha palace, the fortified seat the local shipowners raised in the 1500s. Come back hungry. Konoba Kod Marka plates the black risotto and Mali Ston oysters the island trades on.

Things to do

Walk the track to Suđurađ's Skočibuha palace

Order black risotto at Konoba Kod Marka

Swim off the rocks below the village

Dinghy over to Lopud for the afternoon

Mooring tip

Stern-to with your own anchor on Šipanska Luka's quay, small fee, water and power amidships. The bay handles southerlies well but sits open to a northerly gradient, so if the forecast tops 18 knots from the north, run back to ACI Dubrovnik for the night.

Mljet
2
Day 2

Šipan → Polače (Mljet)

You do not spot Polače until the inlet has already taken you in, and then it proves to be one of the soundest berths on the south coast, a long reach of water that shrugs off anything out of the north, northeast, east or southeast. Pick up a green park buoy and settle with the ranger at the front kiosk; the forty-odd euros a night carries the whole crew's park entry with it. Boats after a firm edge instead can lie stern-to on the village pontoon, a handful of slots. A Roman palace from the fourth century stands at the head of the bay, close enough to wander to before dinner past its basilica walls and corner tower. From there it is half an hour inland to Veliko Jezero, the larger of the salt lakes, where the park's own launch runs you out to the Benedictine monastery on its island. Walk the shore right round both lakes and it adds up to about nine kilometres.

Things to do

Take the park launch to St Mary's monastery

Walk the nine-kilometre loop around both lakes

Explore the fourth-century Roman ruins on the front

Swim in the cooler brackish lake water

Mooring tip

Green park buoys only in Polače, paid to the ranger on arrival and covering crew park entry. Shelter here is about as good as the Adriatic gets, closed to everything from north through southeast, so it is a safe bet in any settled summer forecast.

Korcula
3
Day 3

Polače → Korčula Town

Come up the Pelješac Channel and Korčula shows itself early, a spur of stone and terracotta shouldered out into the strait under one campanile, its wall dropping sheer to the waterline. The settled berth is ACI Marina Korčula on the peninsula's east flank, lazy lines and every service going. West of the walls the town quay lands you at the gate itself, but it takes the afternoon Maestral square on and starts working once the channel funnels around two. You cross the whole old town in ten minutes; its herringbone lanes were laid on purpose to break the wind before it reaches the square. Climb the campanile of St Mark's for the run up the channel, look into the house that lays claim to Marco Polo, and time dinner for a Monday or Thursday, when the Moreška plays out its sword fight in the square after dark.

Things to do

Climb St Mark's bell tower for channel views

Catch the Moreška sword dance after dark

Look in at the disputed Marco Polo house

Order fish brodet in a courtyard konoba

Mooring tip

For all weather, ACI Marina Korčula sits on the east side — laid lines, services on tap. The prettier western town quay faces the Maestral and turns rolly by 2 pm; when both pack out, Lumbarda, three miles southeast, is your calm fallback.

Šćedro
4
Day 4

Korčula → Šćedro

Šćedro straddles the gap between Korčula and Hvar, and most boats sail straight past. Nobody lives there. No shop, no water point, no power, only a pair of summer kitchens on the north side that hang out free buoys for anyone rowing in to eat. The wider cove is Lovišće up north, and that is where you tie; over on the south side the smaller Mostir holds a Dominican monastery gone to ruin above its beach, put up in the fourteenth century. Grab a Lovišće buoy, drop the tender, and take your pick of Konoba Frankun or Konoba Mostir, both working the day's catch over coals with a jug of Plavac Mali. Then it comes down to a choice: forty minutes on the inland path to the monastery, or straight off the stern into water you can read down through to twenty-five metres. Either way, no one is coming to disturb it.

Things to do

Grab a free buoy in Lovišće bay

Walk to the Dominican ruins at Mostir

Snorkel water clear to twenty-five metres

Eat grilled fish at Konoba Frankun

Mooring tip

Free buoys off the two konobas in Lovišće; dinner ashore holds the buoy, so confirm when you tie up. If they are taken you can anchor in eight to twelve metres over sand and weed, and if the north wind pipes up past 15 knots, slip round to Mostir on the south side.

Vis
5
Day 5

Šćedro → Vis Town

West again, and the crossing sets you down in St George Bay, the broad harbour under Vis Town on the north coast. Of the island's two ports this is the easier on a visiting crew: you can back onto the long curving front almost anywhere along it, water and power midships, a fee that will not dent the kitty. Nothing out of the south, southwest, west or northwest gets in; only a northerly troubles the anchorage, and northerlies are rare here in summer. The history runs deep under the promenade. The Greeks laid out Issa on this spot in 397 BC, the first colony they planted on the eastern Adriatic, and their Hellenistic walls and the Roman baths that came later still edge the front. Walk up to Fort George, thrown up by the Austro-Hungarians in the 1800s, for the view back down over the bay. If it is the octopus under the peka you are after, call it through three hours ahead and pour the island's Vugava white beside it.

Things to do

Trace the Hellenistic walls along the promenade

Climb to Austro-Hungarian Fort George

See the Roman baths on the seafront

Order peka octopus, booked three hours ahead

Taste Vugava white at a village cellar

Mooring tip

Stern-to with your anchor on the long Vis Town front, small fee, water and power amidships. St George Bay is shut to south, southwest, west and northwest, which makes it the most dependable overnight on the island in almost any wind.

Komiza
6
Day 6

Vis → Komiža

Six miles barely warrants the mainsail, but the clockwise swing round the west end of the island lands you somewhere with a different beat. Komiža has never been dressed up for visitors. The fishing boats still crowd the east side of the harbour, no resort ever took hold, and the konobas grill small bogue and pour Vugava by the carafe. Back into the inner basin off the town quay, where the sand and weed will mostly hold you; keep off the outer wall for the night, since it takes any southwesterly swell right on the nose. The rest of the day belongs to Mount Hum. The island's summit at 587 metres is ninety minutes up through dry-stone vineyard walls and pine, and from the cross on top all of central Dalmatia opens below you, Italy on the horizon on the clearest days. Tito ran his war from a cave up here, a quarter of an hour off the track on the way down.

Things to do

Hike Mount Hum to Tito's wartime cave

Wander the working fishing quay at dusk

See the Fishermen's Museum in the Venetian tower

Watch the open-sea sunset from the mole

Mooring tip

Berth stern-to in the inner basin off Komiža's quay, sand and weed, generally good holding. The outer wall is no place to spend the night in any southwesterly, so if it blows above 15 knots from that quarter, run the six miles back to St George Bay.

Stari grad
7
Day 7

Komiža → Biševo – Stari Grad

Set an alarm. Biševo's sea cave only burns that unreal blue for the couple of hours, near enough nine to eleven, when the sun drops under the rim and lights the water from beneath. Lie alongside the concession quay at the mouth, pay the fee at the kiosk, and take your turn in the line for the official tenders that run crews through a few at a time; the whole thing is over inside forty minutes. From there it turns into proper sailing, twenty-five miles east-northeast to Stari Grad. No town in the country is older. Settlers off Paros staked it out as Pharos in 384 BC, and the Greek grid still reads through the lanes at its heart. The plain spread behind the town has been worked without a break ever since, which is what won it the UNESCO listing. Stari Grad tucks away at the back of a long fjord on the north coast, and whatever the weather throws down, none of it reaches you in there.

Things to do

Take the tender into the Blue Cave early

Read the Greek grid in Stari Grad's lanes

Visit Tvrdalj Castle and Hektorović's fishpond

Walk out into the UNESCO Stari Grad Plain

Mooring tip

At Biševo you can only lie alongside the concession quay by day, never overnight; pay the lunchtime fee at the kiosk. In Stari Grad, take the town quay stern-to for a small fee, or ACI Marina Stari Grad with lazy lines; the fjord shelters you whatever the wind does.

Palmižana
8
Day 8

Stari Grad → Hvar (Palmižana)

Clear the western headland of Hvar and slip into Palmižana, the sheltered cut on Sv. Klement at the top of the Pakleni chain. Its ACI marina sits on the northeast shore, stern-to on lazy lines, but the slots fill early through July and August, so book ahead or come ready to anchor. The open bay gives you five to ten metres over sand and weed and goes choppy the moment the Maestral starts funnelling in the early afternoon. For a still night, work into one of the south-facing coves, Vinogradišće or Tarsce, and carry a line to the rocks. The day ashore keeps the same shape one season to the next: a turn round the Meneghello botanical garden, first planted in 1906; a table at one of the bay's four konobas once it is dark; and a mask-and-fins drift over the Roman amphorae lying off the western shore. Hvar Town is a single water taxi to the east for anyone chasing a late one.

Things to do

Snorkel the Roman amphorae off the west shore

Wander Meneghello's 1906 botanical garden

Anchor with a line ashore in Vinogradišće

Water-taxi across to Hvar Town for the evening

Mooring tip

ACI Palmižana takes lazy lines but sells out in high summer, so reserve online for July and August. If it is full, anchor in Vinogradišće on the south side with a line ashore, better cover from the afternoon westerly, and stay out of the main bay overnight once the southwester builds.

Vela Luka
9
Day 9

Hvar → Proizd – Vela Luka

Head southwest on the long leg out to Proizd, a scrap of bare rock a few miles off Korčula's western end. Two things pull the local boats out here: the basins the sea has cut into the west shore, which trap water and warm it in the sun, and swimming as clear as any in central Dalmatia. There is no night in it, open as the anchorage is to every quarter, so treat it as a lunchtime call, hook in six to eight metres on the sand shelf to the east, take your swim, walk the loop round the rock in half an hour, then run the four miles southeast to Vela Luka while the light lasts. Vela Luka opens deep and west-facing at Korčula's far end, fuel and water and power down the quay and cover from all but a hard southerly. Dinner is žrnovski makaruni, the pasta they roll by hand.

Things to do

Anchor off Proizd and swim the rock pools

Walk the half-hour loop around the islet

Refuel at the western end of Vela Luka quay

Order žrnovski makaruni at a Vela Luka konoba

Mooring tip

Proizd is a daytime anchorage only, open to every wind, so never leave the boat there for the night; drop the hook in six to eight metres on the eastern sand. Vela Luka gives you stern-to on a long quay with fuel, water and power, well shut in from north, northeast and east.

Zaklopatica
10
Day 10

Vela Luka → Lastovo (Zaklopatica)

Lastovo lies far enough offshore to have held on to its nature-park quiet and the blackest night sky in the country. Zaklopatica takes you in, a bay bitten into the north coast with a low island lying across the mouth to knock the swell flat. Each of five family konobas keeps its own run of free buoys, and the arrangement could not be plainer: your table and your buoy come off the same kitchen. Leave the anchor stowed, the bottom is seagrass and they would rather you did not, and outside the July rush a buoy is never hard to come by. What the kitchens do best is the local lobster and šporki makaruli, a coarse stew of beef and pasta older than any tourist. There is next to nothing ashore to fill an evening, which is precisely the draw. Give it a clear August night and the Milky Way stands overhead well before midnight.

Things to do

Swap dinner for a free konoba buoy

Order Lastovo lobster or šporki makaruli

Walk inland to Lastovo Town's chimney stacks

Stay on deck for the Milky Way

Mooring tip

Free buoys off the konobas at Zaklopatica, with the dinner booking locking in your buoy, so call ahead and skip anchoring over the seagrass. The bay is closed from north round to west, but if a southeasterly tops 15 knots, move four miles south to Skrivena Luka.

Mljet
11
Day 11

Lastovo → Pomena (Mljet)

Twenty miles up to the northeast and Mljet is back under the keel, its western end this time, at Pomena. The village is the park's second door, and the drill matches Polače: take a green park buoy in the bay and square it with the ranger, crew park entry folded into the fee, or slot in stern-to on the pontoon. A quarter of an hour on foot from the quay brings you to Malo Jezero, the smaller salt lake, with a path carrying on to Veliko Jezero and the boat out to the monastery island. Hand the afternoon to the lakes; you can swim in either, and come August the cicadas drown out your own thinking. Pomena runs to two konobas and a shop and little else, and dinner is grilled fish with a bottle of Pošip carried over from the Korčula vineyards on the far shore.

Things to do

Walk fifteen minutes to Malo Jezero

Ferry across to St Mary's monastery

Hike the nine-kilometre loop past both lakes

Drink Korčula Pošip with grilled fish

Mooring tip

Green park buoys in Pomena Bay, paid to the ranger with crew park entry included, or a few stern-to slots on the village pontoon. The bay holds well; only a northwesterly above 18 knots pushes any real swell in through the entrance.

Saplunara
12
Day 12

Pomena → Saplunara Bay (Mljet)

The run bends east-southeast under the belly of Mljet to Saplunara, right down on the southeast corner, and here the park boundary falls behind you, so the ranger's fees stop. Real sand beaches come few and far between on this coast; Saplunara has one. The bay opens wide and shallow over a pale floor at four to six metres, so drop straight onto sand or pick up a seasonal buoy off one of the two beach konobas. North, northwest and west are all covered; only a southerly pushes swell into the head of the bay. Once you are set the swimming is the whole point of the stop, shallow and sand-floored, the turquoise almost too bright to be real. On foot it is twenty minutes north to quieter sand at Blace, or a pull up the hill path to a small white chapel. The village behind runs to a few stone houses and not much more.

Things to do

Anchor on the sand and swim off the boat

Walk north to quieter Blace beach

Climb to the white chapel above the bay

Order grilled orada at a beach konoba

Mooring tip

Anchor in four to six metres on first-rate sand, the obvious choice here, or take a free konoba buoy with dinner ashore. The bay covers you from north, northwest and west but stands open to the south, so if a southerly tops 18 knots, run six miles north to Okuklje, also outside the park and fully enclosed.

Lopud
13
Day 13

Saplunara → Lopud

Eighteen miles back east and the Elaphiti rise again, Lopud this time, the middle island of the three and the last before Dubrovnik. There are no cars. The village hugs the main bay on the northwest side, and half an hour over the spine of the island drops you at Šunj, a true sand beach on the southeast shore and the thing most people sail here for. Mooring asks little: stern-to on the village quay with your own hook, water and power on the middle berths, a small fee. South, southeast and southwest are all shut out; the north stays open. The afternoon plans itself, the walk over to Šunj for a swim, a look at the fortified Franciscan house from the 1400s on the seafront, then oysters from Mali Ston and black risotto at a table on the quay. Do not leave it late; the morning is the run home.

Things to do

Walk across to Šunj sand beach

See the fortified Franciscan monastery on the front

Climb to the ruined fort for the view

Order Mali Ston oysters at a quayside table

Mooring tip

Stern-to on Lopud's village quay with your anchor, small fee, water and power amidships. Good shelter from the southerly quarter but open to the north, so if the forecast tops 18 knots from that side, drop back to Šipanska Luka or carry on into ACI Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik
14
Day 14

Lopud → Dubrovnik

The last eight miles run southeast from Lopud into ACI Marina Dubrovnik at Komolac, and Saturday brings its own drill: tanks pumped, fuel topped, decks hosed off, the inventory checked through, and the skipper on hand for the outgoing look-over between eight and nine. The line home slides past Koločep, the smallest Elaphiti and the nearest to the city, whose eastern coves are where most crews take a last dip, so anchor in six to eight metres on sand and put everyone over the side once more before you turn up into the Rijeka Dubrovačka and motor to the pontoon. Base sits eight kilometres up the estuary from the walled town. Fuel in and paperwork signed, Bus 1A or a taxi has you at the Pile Gate inside fifteen minutes. Walk the ramparts, then settle in for a long lunch down one of the alleys off Prijeko and see the fortnight out properly.

Things to do

Take a last swim off Koločep

Walk the Old City wall circuit

Visit the Rector's Palace or Franciscan cloister

Take a slow lunch off Prijeko lane

Mooring tip

Return into ACI Marina Dubrovnik at Komolac as your contract sets out; the base staff assign the berth, and the Saturday handover window runs 8 to 9. If your papers call for a night-before return, be alongside by 5 pm Friday, and allow half an hour to the Pile Gate by Bus 1A or taxi.

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