Hidden beaches we found in Dalmatia — and how to reach them
The problem with the famous ones
Zlatni Rat on Brač is magnificent and also has four hundred sunbeds by 11 a.m. in summer. The beaches of Hvar town are excellent and also require arriving by 9 a.m. to claim a reasonable position. Bačvice in Split — fine, accessible, historic — is better described as an urban beach than anything remotely remote.
None of this makes these beaches bad. But it does mean that anyone wanting to swim in something that feels like a discovery rather than a shared event needs to put in a little more work.
We’ve accumulated a list of less-visited beaches over three trips. Some of these are genuinely unknown to international tourists. Some are known to locals but not heavily promoted. A few are hard enough to reach that the effort itself is part of the experience.
Stiniva Bay, Vis
Stiniva is on every list these days and has stopped being secret, but it remains genuinely different from anything else in Dalmatia: a pebble beach at the base of a limestone bowl, accessed through a narrow gap in 200-metre cliffs, reachable only by sea.
In peak summer (mid-July to mid-August), Stiniva has become a destination for organised boat tours, and the “hidden” quality diminishes accordingly. In September it’s a different experience. We arrived by local boat at 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday and had the beach to ourselves for thirty minutes before two other boats appeared. The limestone walls make the light inside the bay strange and concentrated. The water is cold and incredibly clear.
Getting there independently: take the Jadrolinija ferry to Vis (2–3 hours from Split), then book a local boat excursion from Vis town harbour. Ask for a small boat rather than a large tour vessel — several fishermen offer morning trips to Stiniva for €15–25 per person. Our Vis island guide has more detail on access.
The unnamed coves of Šolta
Šolta is the island Dalmatians escape to when everywhere else is too crowded. It’s close to Split (regular Jadrolinija ferry, about 50 minutes), substantially quieter than Hvar or Brač, and dotted with small villages surrounded by olive groves.
The island’s south coast has several coves that have no official names, only local nicknames. The best of what we found was reached by walking along the olive grove paths east of the village of Stomorska. It’s about a 25-minute walk from the village over a low ridge, through pines that smell like a pharmacy, and down a rough path to a ten-metre-wide pebble cove that we found empty every time we visited in September.
There’s no infrastructure at this cove — no sunbeds, no café, no path marker. Bring water and something to lie on. The swimming is excellent.
Getting to Šolta: the car ferry from Split to Rogač (Šolta) departs multiple times daily, about 50 minutes. From Rogač, local buses and taxis connect to the main villages.
Kasjuni Beach, Marjan Hill
Technically within Split city, Kasjuni is on the southwest face of Marjan Hill and requires either a 20-minute hike over the hill or a taxi to the road access point at the hill’s base. It faces open sea rather than the sheltered harbour, which means cleaner water and occasional gentle swell that makes it feel more like the open Adriatic.
In the morning on a weekday, Kasjuni has a proper beach feel — pine trees to the water’s edge, lounger rental available for around €8–10, a small café for coffee. By afternoon in peak summer it fills; it’s not secret, exactly, but it’s the kind of local beach that visitors often miss because it requires the extra walking. Combine it with a morning hike over Marjan as described in our Marjan Hill guide and you have a full morning plan.
The Pakleni Islands: beyond the first bay
The Pakleni Islands (Paklinski otoci) form a scattered archipelago off the western tip of Hvar. Most boat tours stop at Palmižana — the main bay with restaurants and a sandy beach — but the chain extends further west through smaller islands with progressively fewer visitors.
The island of Marinkovac, accessible from Hvar by water taxi (€5 each way, 10 minutes), has a beach called Zdrilca on its southern coast that requires a 15-minute walk from the landing point. We found a rocky cove with clear water, no infrastructure, and no other tourists on two separate visits. The walk isn’t marked — follow the path over the low hill from the landing point and descend toward the sound of the sea.
Water taxis from Hvar town run frequently in summer and can drop you at various points in the Pakleni chain. Tell the taxi driver specifically where you want to go. For the Pakleni in more detail, our Pakleni Islands guide covers the main spots.
Dubovica Beach, Hvar
On the eastern coast of Hvar, 7 km from Hvar town (accessible by water taxi or a 90-minute walk along the coast road), Dubovica is a pebble cove backed by an old stone house and olive trees. In July and August it appears on enough travel posts that it gets crowded by mid-morning. In September and May it’s genuinely peaceful.
The specific advantage: the walk there from Hvar town follows the coastal road with intermittent sea views and passes a handful of small coves accessible by scrambling down from the road. Most people who drive to Dubovica miss these interim spots entirely.
The honest caveat
Most Dalmatian “hidden beaches” cease to be hidden by about 11 a.m. in summer. The best strategy for finding the uncrowded version of a beautiful cove is always the same: go earlier than you think is reasonable. A 7:30 a.m. hike to a beach that becomes busy by 10 a.m. gives you two and a half hours of exactly what people come here for. This applies especially in July and August.
For beaches that remain uncrowded by nature of being harder to reach — requiring a longer boat journey or a real hike — our hidden island coves guide covers the ones worth the extra effort.
For more accessible beaches around Split specifically, our best beaches near Split guide has the options ranked by accessibility, crowd levels, and water quality.
September and May make every beach on this list better. For the case for shoulder-season travel, see why September is the best month to visit Split.
