Croatia - Eastern Europe - page 162

MODERATE
Hotel Adriana The Adriana's accommodations are really rooms over its pop-
ular restaurant . If you can snag a booking, you will be in an ideal location for
sightseeing. Guest rooms are plain but comfortable, especially those with a sea view.
Preporoda 8. & 021/340-000. www.hotel-adriana.hr. 9 units; 2 apts. Mid-Apr to mid-Oct from 850kn ($147/£78)
double. 1,400kn ($242/£128) apt. AE, DC, MC, V. Amenities: Restaurant. In room:A/C, TV, minibar.
Korcula & Brac
The islands of Korcula and Brac are among the most popular day-
trip destinations from Split. Korcula Town is the big draw on Korcula,
while Bol and its Zlatni Rat (Golden Horn) beach pull tourists to Brac.
Spend your day exploring Korcula Town's medieval streets, soaking up the
sun and international atmosphere on Bol's shape-shifting beach, or riding
the waves on a wind board off either island.
Korcula Town: After you climb the Grand Staircase that leads across the
town's only remaining wall, you'll think you've walked through a worm
hole to the past. Marco Polo's alleged birthplace is crisscrossed with pictur-
esque stone structures that house restaurants, museums, families, and
offices laid out on streets that branch off from the enclave's major north-
south thoroughfare (Korculaskog Statuta). You can spend hours exploring
these narrow offshoots and never know exactly where you are in time or
space, and you can spend hours more hiking or biking around the island. At
its widest point, Korcula is just 8km (5 miles) wide and it is just 32km (20
miles) long.
Note: The approach to Korcula Town from the sea makes for one of the
best vacation pictures ever if snapped in the morning.
Korcula Town's well-preserved walled core and medieval attractions, plus
the city's claim that it is the birthplace of legendary explorer Marco Polo,
are the island's main draw. Seasonal visitors also come to Korcula to see the
Moreska Sword Dance, a summer spectacle that recalls a battle between
Christians and “infidels” that was fought over a woman. Finally, the island
is an excellent source of olive oil and wine, most notably white wines
(Posip, Grk).
Brac: Croatia's third-largest island (Krk and Cres are nos. 1 and 2 respec-
tively) and its Zlatni Rat (Golden Horn) beach are magnets for those
who love sun and surf. Brac is one of Croatia's least-developed populated
islands, but it is much more than that. This rugged land about an hour's
ferry ride from Split is also famous as a windsurfer's paradise, the source of
the stone that built Diocletian's palace, the White House in Washington,
D.C., and the Reichstag in Berlin. Brac also has a reputation as the source of
Bolski Plavac and other highly regarded wines. Brac is really a two-town
island because only Supetar on the northern shore and Bol on the southern
shore are easily accessed by tourists.