Milna beachHvar Island

Milna is a small fishing village on the south coast of Hvar, about four and a half kilometres east of Hvar Town by road, or two and a half nautical miles by boat. Unlike most of the bays along this coast it is a real, year-round place: people live here through the winter, there is a village church, and the children go to school in Hvar Town, a short drive away. Almost everyone in the village shares one surname, Tudor, and its best-known son is a footballer. Igor Tudor, the former Hajduk Split and Juventus defender and now a well-known coach, has his family roots in Milna.

The beach is the reason visitors come. A wide bay of pebbles sits at the bottom of a green valley, with pines coming right down to the shore, so there is shade at the back all day and the water in front is the clear turquoise of every south-coast bay. The pebbles shelve gently into shallow water, which suits families, and there is room to spread out even in August. The rocky sides of the bay are good for a snorkel, with sea grass and small fish along the walls.

Being a village rather than a wild bay, Milna eats well. Several family restaurants line the waterfront, serving the fish the village boats bring in, and a beach bar covers drinks and light food through the summer. It is one of the easiest places on the south coast to combine a proper swim with a proper lunch.

Arriving by boat is simple, and it works the way it does in a fishing village. The restaurants keep their own buoys in the bay, and you are welcome to tie up to one while you have lunch there; there is also a village dock where a boat can come alongside. Your skipper will know which restaurant has a buoy free, and if you are driving yourself, a phone call to book the table usually books the buoy too.

Milna is not the same place as Milna on Brač, the big yacht harbour across the channel. This is Milna on Hvar, small and local, and the two get confused often enough that it is worth saying.

From Hvar Town, Milna is the first of the big south-coast bays after you round the headland, about twenty minutes away on a calm day, so it is the easy first swim of a south-coast run or the lunch stop on the way home. Mala Milna, its tiny neighbour just to the west, and Mekićevica, further back towards town, make a natural chain of stops.