The Adriana

The Adriana is the latest of the revamped hotels to open, located on the opposite side of the harbour to the Riva. Standard rooms are small, but there’s a gorgeous rooftop terrace with suitably squidgy day-beds, and the restaurant terrace at the front of the hotel does a tip-top shrimp risotto, with a good side order of people-watching. The Sensori spa offers all manner of treatments (there are outdoor massage cabanas) and something called a Mindfulness Walk. There’s a rooftop seawater pool that provokes just one question – why on earth did they build it indoors? Doubles from £185 per night.

The Podstine

There are a few options besides the Suncani Hvar sleekness. The Podstine is a fifteen-minute walk from the main square, right next to the pebble beach – being a short way out of the action can be a good thing if you’re after a little peace. Doubles from £95, B&B.,

If you can’t drag yourself away from the gorgeous pine-fringed beach on Palmizana and feel like missing the boat back, there is a fantastic place to stay – the Pansion Meneghello tel. 21 717 270, has bungalows and villas, set among the trees, from around £30 pp per night.

WHERE TO EAT

Restaurants: Eat anywhere on the main square or harbour and you’ll pay top dollar for a standard – at best – choice of fish, grilled meats and salads – and at worse, overpriced lazy dishes. Yet head just one or two streets behind and there are plenty of excellent options. Petra Hektorovica, an alleyway just behind the main square is home to a couple of good options; Macondo (21 742 850) has long been popular and is pretty top-end (and you’ll have to reserve to get a table in high season) but if you like a starched tablecloths (and I do) and a slab of perfectly grilled swordfish with a zingily fresh salad, then it will hit the spot. Dinner for two from £40.

Staying on Hekotorovica, avoid the overly-praised Luna, and head instead for Zlatna Skoljka (98 168 8797), one of Croatia’s only ‘slow-food’ restaurants – which basically means good traditional food that appears at your table in its own time. All the more time to knock back a glass or two of Malvasia (good Croatian white wine) before tucking into goats cheese in olive oil and a succulent lamb stew. Seriously yummy but, being Hvar, not cheap – approx £50 for two. There are simpler options. I stumbled upon the Gostiona Kod Matkovica on a small square (Anton Markovic) just behind the Riva. It's rustic, authentic and wonderfully cheap; a vast platter of mussels, glass of local wine and cost about £8.

More info: www.tzzadar.hr

Beach: The nearest thing to a beach is on the outlying Pakleni Otoci, a pine-forested archipelago buffering the town's harbour, £4 return by water taxi. The best beach is on Parmizana, with sandy stretches flanked by restaurants, its small bay dotted with yachts mooring for lunch. Idyllic, and reasonable: a four-course meal including buttery pasta with lobster and local wine cost £12 a head.

SUMMER 2007

June 21 - September 30: annual summer festival, one of the Croatian coast's oldest summer events, with concerts, theatre and folk performances from Croatian and international artists. More information: www.travel-2-croatia.com

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