Mlini beachPakleni Islands

Mlini is a pair of pebble coves on the south side of Marinkovac, the second Pakleni island, about a mile and a half from Hvar Town by boat. Ždrilca lies just across a narrow neck of the island, and around the two bays is the busiest and prettiest stretch of water in the islands: a shallow, sand-and-pebble bottom that turns the sea a bright milky green, ringed by boats at anchor and pines coming down to the shoreline.

The water is the point. It is shallow and clear enough that the whole bay looks like a swimming pool, with buoyed swimming areas kept free of boats and flat rocks around the two coves where you can spread a towel. The pebbles shelve gently, so it suits children and swimmers who prefer to walk in, and the rocky edges on either side are good for a snorkel. Part of the eastern cove is naturist, the rest is mixed, and nobody is bothered either way.

Lunch is a short walk away. A path through the pines crosses the island to Ždrilca, where Patak, a Pakleni institution, serves fish, peka and the island's own wine under the trees. Tri Grede and the beach bar Mamato cover the simpler end, and both bays have a bar for the afternoon. The walk takes five minutes, and you can just as easily move the boat round.

Mlini appears on four of our tours, more than anywhere else except Palmižana. The Pakleni Islands Half-Day tour swims here after Jerolim and Stipanska; the Red Rocks & Pakleni Islands and Golden Horn & North Coast Tunnels tours use it as the swim stop nearest home; and the Blue Cave & Island Vis tour calls in on the way back when time allows. For self-drive boats it is the easiest overnight-calm anchorage close to Hvar, with a buoy field in season and enough shelter for the small boats in our fleet.

The bay fills up from late morning in July and August, both with tour boats and with yachts on the buoys, so if you want the pool-clear water to yourself, make it the first stop of the day. By late afternoon the crowd thins again and the green deepens as the sun drops behind Sveti Klement.