#3 – (Editor’s Note: Now this was technically a Sunday, but it was a result of some questionable Saturday decisions. The Rules Committee has allowed to let it slide)

Hvar From Home, but Always Reppin’

Woke up Sunday morning having just slightly overslept my 8AM hike after a rather late night. An abridged version of the climb dropped me in the port with my camera, my laptop and a notebook to document my bad decisions.

A bubbly little Croatian tour guide named Guiliana let me know that I could get on the ferry to Hvar at 16:30 (Euro stuff)((She also gave me her WhatsApp number. More Euro stuff. NBD)). Hopped on (the ferry, to be clear) and booked my Airbnb along the way

REMINDER: You can get up to $40 off your next Airbnb stay with this link righhhhht here. 

My host Ivan met me at the port to take me to the car where our “driver” (his mom) awaited to whisk me off to my apartment. She didn’t speak a lick of English, but gave me one of those great two-handed handshake hugs that old ladies do. Picture perfect form.

Hvar was everything I had read about and more. It was still the offseason and the nightlife was still crazy. If you do visit, be sure to try out Bar Seven and Pink Champagne and then, of course, make your way to Carpe Diem for the 2-5AM shift. I actually ran into two kids I had never met before who went to the same college as me and they dragged me to Carpe Diem on a Monday night. I’m glad I went.

The island itself was beautiful. Great food. Crazy sunsets. A lot to love. If you ever go yourself you HAVE to rent a scooter to tour around. Granted, I nearly had the thing run away from me a few times, tipped it over at the gas station and couldn’t get it to start, but besides that… it made for a perfect way to see the whole island.

I started my trek in the town of Hvar where I was staying to Stari Grad on the northern coast of the island, passing through all the olive fields. Then headed east to Jelsa before ripping through the southern coast and hitting all the beaches.

I wrapped up my spin around the island with some solo cliff jumping on the very tip of the island. I launched from a 10ft and 50ft spot to the applause of a nearby diving boat (if I sunk to the bottom, at least someone could have come to save me).

I think the thrill of the jump got the best of me though and I couldn’t find my way to the path out of the woods, so instead just crawled through a half mile of prickers and brush in my flip flops and no shirt. Not the battle wounds you’d expect from cliff jumping.

All in all, perfect trip to Hvar. Would love to go back mid-season when it’s really hoppin’. I think it also got me hooked on the solo travel life. I’m going to try and take at least one trip a month on my own. Walk through a few more prickers…