We had breakfast and were in Hvar town ready for the 10:15am meet-up time for our Blue Cave Small Group Speed Boat Tour. The tour left at 10:30am.
There were 12 of us on the tour, plus the driver(captain) and a deckhand. There were 6 Americans, an English couple and 4 Australians (including us). It wasn’t a bad mix, and everyone got along pretty well.
Our boat cruised at about 25 to 35 knots.
As we made our way to our first stop, we saw a large group of boats off our starboard side, it was a yachting Regatta and a lot of spectator/support boats. We also saw a few old military Bunkers on top of the steep hills of an island we passed, not sure how long they had been there but they are now abandoned.
Our first stop was at a small bay between two islands, Blue Lagoon, where the water was about 6m deep, crystal clear and blue. It was beautiful for swimming, a little warmer than in Greece. The water was so clear the bottom didn’t look very far away, but when you dived for the bottom it just never seemed to be that close. 
We were there 40 minutes.
We left the lagoon at 11:40am and were at the Green Cave by 11:45am. After some information from our crew about the Green Cave, and looking at the number of boats already there and it being supposedly overrated, we jointly decided to pass on this stop. So it was a photo (of the outside only) opportunity. 
We left there at 11:50am.
At 12:00pm we pulled into another bay where we were introduced to the 2016 Best Beach in Europe , Stiniva Beach. It’s a small, about 20m wide, beach made of white polished pebbles of varying size. It was over a 100m swim into the beach from the boat. This was an opportunity I wasn’t going to miss, it wasn’t until I got close to the beach that I saw the pebbles, I thought really! I swam to the shore, walked on the “beach” , turned around and swam back.
There was a bar set up on the left side of the beach, but I guess you had to know that if you wanted to have a drink, I don’t usually carry $, or euro for that matter, in my swimmers. We left Stiniva at 12.45pm.
At around 1:10pm we pulled into the wharf for the Blue Cave. The Blue Cave is heritage and UNESCO listed, so you aren’t allowed to swim in it. To get there you need to go by small guided tour boats. There is a small kiosk where you buy tickets (and souvenirs). At peak season the queue for tickets and the boats can get as long as 4hrs! We had our tickets in 5 minutes and were on a tour boat in 15 minutes. The tour was fun. You start off with a short ride around a point after crossing over a shallow rock shelf in a narrow passage between the insland and a rocky outcrop. The entrance to the cave was blasted into the cave wall in the late 1800’s. The entrance is maybe 3m wide by just over a metre high, we had to duck as we entered.
A tour boat coming out of the Blue Cave, a tight fit
Once inside the cave opens up to maybe 10m high ceilings. The blue colour of the water in the cave is due to a small split in the roof allowing just a small amount of light into the cave and the pure white sand of the cave bottom reflecting the light back. The water glows a rich deep blue, truly amazing.
If the entrance had been blasted any bigger the effect would have been lost. Inside the main part of the cave, the two seaward walls don’t reach the bottom, they are sort of stalagmites I guess. One of them allows light in under it, the other not. Two tour boats can just fit in the cave at one time.
Leaving the Blue Cave
Our tour was over in under 10 minutes, but it felt so much longer. A great experience.
While we waited for the others, Deb used the facilities up the hill. When she came back she said a woman had somehow locked herself in a cubical up there, we saw the rescue party going up the hill to free her! Lol we left the Blue Cave at about 2pm.
Our next stop was lunch at a restaurant on Palmizana Island. Our group had a good laugh try to pronounce that name, all of us finished up sooner or later with Parmigiano. The restaurant perched at the end of a bay with views over the water was called Bucchus Palmizana Hvar. Deb ordered Grilled Squid and I got Tagliatelle with shrimp (way too small to be called prawns) with a mixed salad to share. While both meals were tasty, we were disappointed with the seafood again, it was over cooked. After lunch we sat in a shady area at the end of the beach under a palm for an hr watching the comings and goings around the wharfs.
Got back on boat at around 5pm and headed back to Hvar with a slow trip back between the islands.
On our walk back to the hotel we got a gelato each and sat on the edge of the seawall, I guess we were “sittin’ on the dock of the bay, Watchin’ the tide roll away, ooh. I’m just sittin’ on the dock of the bay. Wastin’ time” (sorry Otis 😀 )
Sorry for the earworm. 😀
After we finished our gelatos we stopped off at a waterfront restaurant and made a booking for dinner Saturday night and then made our way back to the hotel.
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