Stipanska Carpe Diem BeachPakleni Islands

Stipanska is a small bay on the east side of Marinkovac, the second island of the Pakleni chain, less than a nautical mile from the Hvar Town waterfront. Most people know it by the name of the beach club that occupies it: Carpe Diem Beach, the sister of the Carpe Diem bar on the Hvar riva and the best-known party address on the island.

By day it is a full-service beach club. There is a pool, white cabanas and sunbeds under the pines, a restaurant serving sushi and Mediterranean plates, and cocktails from late morning until the boats go home. Around the club the bay itself is a good swim: a pebble beach in the middle, flat rocks on either side where you can find a quieter patch to sunbathe, and clear water over a mix of pebbles and sand. Marinkovac is small enough that a walk over the ridge takes you to the other bays of the island in a few minutes.

By night, in high season, Carpe Diem Beach becomes an open-air club in the forest, with parties that run into the early hours and DJs that people cross the Adriatic for. The club's own taxi boats shuttle from the Hvar riva through the night, so you can get there and back without a boat of your own.

Coming by private boat changes the day. Our Pakleni Islands Half-Day tour anchors off Stipanska for a swim and, if you want it, a drink at the club, then moves on to Jerolim, Ždrilca and Palmižana at your pace instead of the taxi-boat timetable. If you rent a boat yourself, Stipanska is the closest of the Pakleni bays to the harbour, so it is the obvious first stop out and the easy last swim on the way back in.

One practical note: the bay faces Hvar and gets busy with taxi boats and tenders from mid-morning in July and August, so if you want the quiet version, come early, swim, and be somewhere else by lunchtime.