A first-timer's guide
The Hvar catamaran day, stop by stop
Coffee at the pier, a swim off Brač before the bar opens, lunch among the Pakleni islets, a guide through Hvar town, and a last swim off Šolta before the sail home — here is the actual shape of the day.
See the Hvar, Pakleni & Brač catamaran tickets on GetYourGuide ↗The day in order
| Morning | Afternoon | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | Check-in, cast-off, first swim at Brač, bar opens | Pakleni swim and lunch, Hvar town, Šolta swim |
| Time | 08:15 check-in, 08:30 cast-off | Return to Split around 18:00 |
| Food | Breakfast pastry, coffee, soft drinks | Chicken salad lunch, cake and fruit |
| Drinks | Coffee, water, soft drinks only | Beer and wine, unlimited from mid-morning |
| Total | About nine and a half hours door to door | About nine and a half hours door to door |
Before the first swim: a dry start on purpose
Check-in opens at 08:15 at Obala Lazareta, berth 4, and the boat casts off at 08:30 sharp — with one sailing a day, there's no later slot to catch if you're running behind. What's poured in the first half hour is deliberately mild: coffee, still water and soft drinks, while the catamaran clears Split's harbour and heads out into open water. It's a small piece of sequencing worth knowing about if you were picturing a glass of wine before breakfast — that part of the day comes later, and on purpose.
Brač, and the bar switching on
The first swim stop is off Brač, roughly an hour out from Split depending on conditions. Masks and towels come out, the gangway goes down, and this is also the point at which the bar opens for the rest of the day — beer, and white and red wine, unlimited from here to the last mile home. The exact bay the operator uses shifts with wind and sea state; this isn't a fixed, named beach so much as whichever sheltered stretch of Brač's coastline suits the conditions on the day.
Pakleni Islands, and lunch on deck
From Brač the boat crosses to the Pakleni Islands, the pine-covered archipelago directly opposite Hvar town's harbour — their name comes from paklina, the pine resin once harvested there to waterproof boat hulls, not from any association with the underworld the name coincidentally resembles. This is the day's second swim stop, and it's also where lunch is served: chicken salad and bread, plated on deck, with a vegetarian option available if you ask ahead. Expect the longest stop of the day here, roughly two hours between the water, the food and simply not being anywhere in particular.
Hvar town, guided and then free
The boat then crosses to Hvar town itself, where a guide leads a roughly 45-minute walk through the old town — St Stephen's Square, the Arsenal building with its 17th-century public theatre upstairs, and the climb toward the Spanish Fortress above the rooftops if time allows. After the guided portion, you get about an hour on your own: time enough for a coffee in the square, a walk along the harbour, or simply sitting somewhere shaded before the group reconvenes for the last leg.
Šolta, and the sail home
The final swim stop is off Šolta, the quieter island closest to Split, known locally more for its honey and olive oil than for its beaches. From there it's the sail back into Split harbour, arriving around 18:00 — music and a dance floor tend to feature on this last leg for anyone with the energy left for it, while others simply watch the islands slide past from a shaded seat. Either way, the day is genuinely done by the time the ropes go back on the pier; there's no add-on evening component to plan around.
If the order runs differently on your sailing
The sequence above is how the operator's own tour page lays the day out, and it's the version this site builds its timings around because it's the one that adds up to the 9.5 hours GetYourGuide states for this product. Wind, sea state and which anchorages are calmest on a given morning can still change which island comes first or how long the boat lingers at each — a standard, sensible practice for small-boat excursions on this stretch of coast, not a sign of anything going wrong. Treat the stop order as the plan rather than a guarantee, and the day reads as generous rather than rigid.