Avoid the Crowds in Croatia by Visiting These Lesser-Known Islands, Vineyards, and Villages

This article was originally published in 2024 and most recently updated on August 10, 2026, with current information.

Croatia has nearly everything a vacationer could want: 10 UNESCO World Heritage sites like medieval palaces and a basilica with golden mosaics, 1,200 islands and islets, and superb cheese, olive oil, and wine. It’s easy to see why, in 2025, nearly 22 million people visited Lijepa Naša (“Our Beautiful,” a nickname taken from the country’s national anthem).

Tourism to Croatia has increased dramatically since I first traveled to my grandparents’ homeland in 2000. After 30-odd visits and getting married in Dubrovnik, I’ve found my favorite less-visited spots. Here’s where to go to avoid the crowds in Croatia, with recommendations from four Croatian tourism and travel experts for home cooking, wine tastings, and beach-hopping.

How to avoid crowds in Dubrovnik

In 2025, 4.3 million people stayed overnight in Dubrovnik; that’s more than 100 times the city’s population of barely 41,000. “Croatia is so popular, it’s become hard to find any hidden gems, but there are still some,” said my friend Ivan Vuković, a Dubrovnik-based tour guide (no relation to me).

Instead of squeezing into Dubrovnik’s Old Town, Vuković recommends walking around Gruž Harbor and Lapad peninsula and along the waterside promenade that connects those neighborhoods, which is lined with bars, bistros, and cafés. Sample gin from Dubrovnik’s first distillery at Habitat Experience Bar and More in Gruž Harbor, then create your own using local botanicals during the 90-minute Alchemy of Flavor evening workshop.

Leave behind the crowds at Dubrovnik’s in-town beaches for Plaža Veliki žal; a small pebble beach a half-hour drive from the city’s Old Town, this tiny bay is a scenic setting for a refreshing dip in the clear Adriatic. Seafood-focused Žale Beach Bar opened this summer, and I spent a lazy afternoon here with Vuković over a lunch of grilled sardines, baby scorpion fish, and blitva (Swiss chard and potatoes)—ending with a dip in the sea.

Where to eat in Dubrovnik

Years ago, I visited Marija and Zlatko Papak’s terrace at their home in Dubrovnik, where they made “veal under the iron dome” using an ancient Croatian roasting technique called peka (“under the bell”). On a recent visit, I shared a feast with Ivan Vuković at their restaurant Local, on a side street in Dubrovnik’s Old Town, where visitors can learn about this centuries-old cooking technique by taking a class with the family.

About 15 minutes’ walk from the Old Town, cocktails meet panoramic sea views at Fratellos Restaurant & Bar, which serves traditional dishes such as ravioli pašticada—a Dalmatian delicacy with a slow-cooked beef sauce—and buzara risotto, which uses a Croatian technique of cooking seafood in garlic, olive oil, and white wine.

Photo by Veronica Arevalo Allende, courtesy of Heritage Hotel Lucia

Where to stay in Dubrovnik

The 12-room Heritage Hotel Lucia opened in mid-2026, a 10 minutes’ walk from Old Town’s 16th-century Pile Gate, offering both proximity and privacy. Five minutes from the beach on the peninsula Lapad, Hotel Sumratin has a gorgeous rooftop terrace with a pool and a lounge for sunset drinks. Early 20th-century Villa Argentina, which emerged from a multi-year renovation in summer 2026, is a worthy splurge: Its prime seafront location is walking distance from the Old Town’s Ploče Gate, and a terraced garden leads directly to a 200-foot stretch of Adriatic shoreline.

Stay in Cavtat instead

Tasteful Croatian Journeys has been organizing travel around Croatia since 1994, and its founder Wanda S. Radetti recommends staying in Cavtat as a less-crowded alternative to Dubrovnik. This little coastal town is about half an hour south of Dubrovnik, near the airport. It has a picturesque harbor and promenade, Renaissance architecture with elements of Gothic style, and a number of singular attractions like a seashell museum with 3,000 shells. Enjoy easy hikes (more like walks) and cool dips in the azure Adriatic on the town’s two peninsulas.

Where to eat and stay in Cavtat

“My perfect escape in Cavtat is Villa Banac and its beautiful terrace,” said Dubrovnik native and Habitat Distillery founder and CEO Vlaho Carević. “With its uninterrupted views of the sea, it’s where I find myself slowing down and simply enjoying the moment.” His other favorite spot in Cavtat is Bugenvila, a restaurant on a waterfront promenade “with an interesting selection of wines, cocktails, really good food and service.”

For a fun excursion, Ivan Vuković recommends restaurant St. Pietro on the island of Supetar, about half a mile from Cavtat. It’s a place you can hang out all day, having tuna tartare for lunch with a glass of white wine from nearby Konavle, reading in a hammock or on the grass in the shade, and plopping into the warm, clear sea from the restaurant’s dock.

Hotel Supetar in Cavtat opened in 2022 in a renovated 1920s villa. Its 21 rooms have lovely hardwood floors, colorful accent walls, and bright fabric headboards. A small pool is surrounded by tasseled umbrellas, and the restaurant and lounge overlook the bay.

Take day or overnight trip from Dubrovnik

Photo by Tomislav Pinter/Shutterstock

To avoid the tourist crush, Tasteful Croatian Journeys recommends heading an hour north of Dubrovnik to the Pelješac peninsula. Take a boat tour through Mali Ston Bay’s protected marine reserve to learn about the ancient process of cultivating the area’s exceptional oysters, which have a distinctive flavor thanks to the mineral-rich freshwater discharge from the nearby river Neretva.

Pelješac is a famous Croatian grape-growing region whose native red grape is called plavac mali (“little blue”). Visit award-winning wineries such as Saints Hills and Korta Katarina; both run wine tastings (book ahead) and have superb restaurants.

Back on the mainland, Ivan Vuković recommends stopping for a wine tasting at Rizman in the all-organic Komarna wine region, next to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rizman has been run by the same (eponymous) family since 1918 and today is a winery and boutique hotel with its own olive grove; drink in gorgeous views of the Adriatic Sea and Pelješac Bridge as you taste plavac mali or a coupage of chardonnay and the local white grape pošip.

Stop for a bite at one of Ivan Vuković’s favorite authentic Dalmatian restaurants, Teta Olga, which he says is “pure old- school, the greatest roadside restaurant with local food.”

Where to stay on the Pelješac peninsula

Winery Korta Katarina also has two Relais & Châteaux-approved places for tipplers to spend the night: an eight-suite seaside villa offering an all-inclusive experience featuring the best of Dalmatian cuisine (and wine) and Hotel Katarina, which opened in May 2026. On the tip of the Pelješac peninsula, this hotel has four suites and seven rooms, all with terraces, each done up differently in bright colors and patterns. Rizman B&B has four rooms with velvet headboards and seaview terraces.

Visit Croatia’s lesser-known islands

Croatia has more than 1,200 islands and islets, and you’d be remiss not to visit a few.

Mljet

Join a group sailing from Dubrovnik or charter a boat for a day from Dubrovnik Boats to explore Mljet, about 80 minutes away. One third of this 38-square-mile island is covered by Mljet National Park, the oldest marine park in Croatia; there are two salt lakes where you can float (bring water shoes for the rocky entrance), a fragrant Aleppo pine forest, and more than 25 orchid species.

Photo by Kevin Charit/Unsplash

Pag

Bring cash and a cooler when you come to Pag, an island about 2.5 hours by boat from Rijeka; it’s known for its distinctive sheep’s milk cheese, Paški sir. This Pag cheese left enough of an impression on me to inspire my novel, The Cheesemaker’s Daughter.

“Europe has the Protected Designation of Origin [PDO] products, and Paški sir cheese is one of those,” said Martina Pernar Škunca, president of the Association of Paški sir cheese producers and marketing manager at Paška Sirana, the island’s oldest and largest cheese factory. “Paški sir cheese is, for us, more than cheese, more than food. It is part of our identity, our legacy.”

I’ve taken many tours of its cheese factory and you can, too—but remember to book in advance. Sirana Gligora, another celebrated Paški sir producer, also offers cheese tours and tastings. Stop for lamb stew with house-made pasta or sea bass with polenta and creamed chard at Bistro Na Tale in Pag Town, run by wife-and-husband team Branka and Frane Sabalić.

The island’s rich heritage is evident in the olive gardens of Lun, which contain some of the oldest olive trees in the world, while the tiny Gallery of Pag Lace showcases Pag’s needlepoint lacemaking tradition, registered on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009.

Where to stay on Pag

Boškinac, an eight-room hotel, restaurant, and winery, is a magical island oasis surrounded by vineyards, pine trees, and olive groves. Even if you don’t stay the night, sample some of Pag’s finest gastronomy at Michelin-starred Restaurant Boškinac, known for its creative approach to traditional island cuisine.

Photo by Ante Hamersmit/Unsplash

Lošinj

Vacation like the Hapsburgs on the island of Lošinj. The 29-square-mile island is 3.5 hours from Rijeka by ferry and revered as a wellness destination thanks to its superior air quality and 2,600 hours of sunshine annually. In the island’s town of Mali Lošinj is the Museum of Apoxyomenos, dedicated to Apoxyomenos (Greek for “the scraper”), the bronze statue of a young athlete that had been underwater for nearly two millennia before being discovered in 1997 by a Belgian diver.

Learn about the 250 wild herbs that grow on Lošinj and neighboring Cres on a tour and tasting of the Garden of Fine Scents, an open-air perfumery that showcases the island’s abundant flora and potent herbs. Reserve a table at the Michelin-recommended Matsunoki, blending authentic Japanese flavors with ingredients from local organic farms, or splurge on Michelin-starred Alfred Keller, which is committed to using ingredients only from Lošinj and its immediate surroundings.

Where to stay on Lošinj

Hotel Bellevue offers tranquil sea views and a spa, plus restaurant Matsunoki. Villas run by neighboring Boutique Hotel Alhambra (home to restaurant Alfred Keller) are a solid full-service option for a group trip.

Hvar

Yes, Hvar is one of Croatia’s most popular islands, but few visitors go beyond Hvar Town. Skip the crowds of tourists and head to the other side of the island, where less-visited Stari Grad has cobblestone streets, plazas, and a small port, all without thousands of other tourists.

In the former home of Renaissance poet and song-collector Petar Hektorović, a secret garden with a fish pond full of mullets provides the perfect afternoon respite. For an afternoon of lazing in the shade next to the sea with cocktails on hand, Dubrovnik tour guide Ivan Vuković recommends Šanpjerin Beach Bar, about 25 minutes’ drive southeast of Stari Grad. And in the town of Jelsa on Hvar’s northern side, book a 12-flight winetasting at Duboković Winery in the candlelit cellar of the Duboković family home. (To book, write to [email protected] or call +385 91 441 0110.)

Where to eat on Hvar

Local favorites include Bistro Kod Damira where chef-owner Damir Čavić pays homage to homemade Dalmatian cuisine, and Jurin Podrum in the heart of Stari Grad’s historic center. Jurin’s signature dish is wild boar goulash with homemade gnocchi, while pescatarians can choose from local seafood dishes that could have come straight from grandma’s kitchen.

Where to stay on Hvar

Outside of Stari Grad, next to the ferry to Split, 50-room Maslina Resort is a peaceful oasis surrounded by olive groves, with sweeping sea views and two heated pools (one for families).

Explore inland Istria

Photo by Borut Brozović, Studio B, courtesy Lovran Tourist Board

In Istria, the V-shaped northern peninsula dangling into the Adriatic Sea is shared by Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy, but 90 percent is in Croatia. The coastal cities of Pula and Rovinj receive the lion’s share of overnight visitors, so you can avoid the crowds by making your way into Istria’s bucolic interior, where truffle-rich forests and medieval hilltop towns like Motovun and Grožnjan offer a bit more elbow room.

For Radetti of Tasteful Croatian Journeys, Istria is “a landscape where Roman, Venetian, Austro-Hungarian and Slavic cultures have intertwined for centuries, leaving their imprint not only on architecture and language but also on the table.” If you like to eat well, Istria is a good place to visit. Come in autumn to participate in grape and olive harvests, in spring to feast on wild asparagus and strawberries, in winter for truffles, and in summer for figs, apricots, and Lovran cherries, celebrated each June in the eastern Istrian village of Lovran.

Go truffle hunting with Miro Tartufi based in Motovun or learn to make pasta or labinski krafi (a kind of sweet ravioli) with EatIstria at its small farm and olive grove located in the southeast Istrian countryside, which founder Goran Zgrablić inherited from his grandmother.

Visiting local markets is the best kind of interactive education; you can see what locals buy, learning about what’s grown and consumed. Head inland to the summer market in the diminutive village of Pićan, where local farmers sell everything from cheese and stone fruits to honey and lavender.

Keen hikers can break up their many meals and snacks with a ramble; in north-central Istria, the 7.5-mile trail from the medieval town of Buzet to Hum, which calls itself the smallest town in the world, has a section that runs along the Mirna River.

Courtesy of Roxanich Design Hotel & Winery (L), courtesy of Miro Tartufi (R)

Where to eat in Istria

Small rural establishments provide authentic and old-school experiences (bring cash and don’t be in a rush). At Toklarija, a slow-food restaurant housed in an old olive mill in Istria’s Buzet area (the so-called city of truffles), chef Nevio Sirotić curates an intimate dining experience highlighting local products. “There was no menu,” Radetti recalls of her first visit. “He cooked whatever the season and the surrounding countryside offered. Guests did not order. They trusted.”

Where to stay in Istria

Roxanich Design Hotel and Winery below Motovun has 30 maximalist rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows and an infinity pool overlooking a valley and vinyards. A short distance away, Stanzia Vinella, owned by a German Ethiopian family, offers modern amenities in a four-bedroom, 17th-century farmhouse. Casa Matiki is a homey farmhouse bed-and-breakfast near the village of Žminj, in the heart of Istria, where you can learn to make jam with fruit from the property’s orchards.

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