Perna beachPakleni Islands

Perna is the Pakleni cove people are told about by a friend. It lies on the south side of Sveti Klement, the largest of the Pakleni Islands, just east of Vinogradišće, the Palmižana beach, and about two and a half nautical miles from Hvar Town, and it has something almost none of its neighbours have: a bottom of fine sand. Sand under shallow water is what makes the milky, Caribbean turquoise in the photos, and at Perna it stretches across the whole inner bay.

The beach itself is small, a strip of sand and pebble under a dense wall of pine and maquis, and the shade at the back is deep enough to matter at midday. There are no bars, no sunbeds and no restaurants. Bring drinks, bring snacks and bring a mask: the sandy floor of the bay gives way to rock and sea grass at the edges, where the snorkelling is quiet and clear.

The quiet is the point. Vinogradišće, with its restaurants and its crowd, is a few minutes away by boat and a short walk along the shore, and the difference between the two is the difference between a beach club and a beach. Sailors have known about Perna for years because the bay is out of the afternoon Maestral and holds a good anchor, so on a summer afternoon you will share it with a few yachts on the hook and not much else.

By boat from Hvar, Perna makes a good second stop on a Pakleni day: swim at Jerolim or Stipanska first, then follow the south shore of Sveti Klement past Vinogradišće to the sand. Our Golden Horn & North Coast Tunnels tour uses it as the swim stop nearest home on the way back from Brač, when the low afternoon sun sits on the water at exactly the right angle. If you are renting a boat yourself, it is an easy anchorage for a beginner: sheltered, sandy and shallow enough to see the anchor set.

Lunch is a decision, not a problem. Either pack it, or walk or motor the few minutes back to the Palmižana restaurants for a table and come back to Perna for the afternoon.