Mekićevica Robinson beachHvar Island

Mekićevica is the bay after Pokonji Dol on the way east from Hvar Town, about a mile and a half from the harbour by boat, and the first place on that coast where the crowds thin out. There is no road. You reach it by sea, or on foot along the coastal path from town, a walk of a little over half an hour that keeps the beach quiet even in August.

The bay holds two small pebble beaches separated by rock, with clear water that deepens quickly and shade under the pines and tamarisks at the back. Both beaches are informal: no sunbeds, no music, and space to spread a towel on the pebbles or the flat rocks between them. Snorkelling along the rocky edges of the bay is good, with small fish and sea grass in shallow, clear water.

The Robinson restaurant beside the eastern beach is the reason the bay has a second name. It has no electricity and no running water; the cooking is done over wood and charcoal, the drinks are kept cold in the old way, and lunch is grilled fish, peka and whatever the garden gave that week, eaten at wooden tables a few steps from the sea. It is open through the summer season and it is the closest thing to a desert-island lunch you can reach in ten minutes from Hvar harbour.

By boat, Mekićevica is the natural second stop east of town: a swim at Pokonji Dol first, then round the point to the quieter bay for lunch and the afternoon, before continuing east to Milna and the south-coast bays or turning back to Hvar. Our skippers anchor off the beach and you swim or tender ashore.

For self-drive boats it is an easy anchorage close to home, sheltered from the westerly afternoon wind, and a good choice on a day when you want to be back in town by evening without giving up the feeling of having been somewhere.