Activities

Biking and Wine tour with Korcula explorer (two of my favorite things!)

Sunset kayaking tour (a great tour, and I met a great friend!)

Ferry to the mainland (Oberić) to hike up to Monastery - skippable)

Eats

LD Restaurant (Michelin star restaurant, we went for lunch, and made our reservation by just stopping by the night before)

Lole Tapas Bar (yum yum, and the server was so friendly and fun)

Aterina (this was ranked #1 on TripAdvisor, but I wasn’t overly impressed. Maybe I just ordered wrong!)

Fabris (I had breakfast here b/c it was the first place I saw, it was large and good but kinda overpriced)

Aurora (I dream about the overnight oats here, they were so good!)

Radiona (I went for lunch where they have a limited menu, but my octopus salad was good!)

Drinks

Massimo Cocktail bar (this is worth seeing, it’s in the turret of the old castle walls and they bring the drinks up via pulley)

Wineries:

Popić

Vitis (Popić and Vitis are right next to each other with beautiful views and friendly vibes. I liked the wine but I’m also not picky about wine!)

Bire (recommended to us by people but the service was not very friendly, and no views, I think it’s skippable)

Acommodation:

AirBnb (great spot less than 10 min walk to old town. Many stairs to get up [typical Croatia])

I arrived to Korcula bright and early at 7:30 AM. I opted for the early ferry from Dubrovnik because I had my heart set on doing a tour that was only running once that week. More on that soon!

Korcula is a beautiful island, about a 1.5 hour ferry journey from Dubrovnik. It’s center is an old town (this will become a theme), with ancient cobblestoned streets and walls around that once protected the town; I also spent some time in the Lombarda part of the island, which has many wineries and its own town center (which I didn’t get the chance to properly explore). Korcula was very laid back and un-crowded (likely due to COVID), and again, I lucked out with an AirBnb with an incredible view!

My first morning there, I had second-breakfast at a hotel restaurant near my AirBnb called Fabris (overpriced, but tasty!). From there, I met up with my tour group for a day of cycling and wine tasting! The host was John, who is originally from London, but quit the rat race to enjoy life on Korcula several years ago. We biked for about an hour through the Lombarda countryside, passing olive groves and vines. Many people on Korcula still live a very traditional lifestyle, they harvest olive oil and make wine mostly for their own consumption or for selling locally, and that’s their whole job! Very different from a life of meetings and emails…

We enjoyed wine tasting at two spots right next to each other where we sampled the local varietal, Grk, as well as Rose, Plavace Mali (a red wine that, tbh, I didn’t really care for), and tasty sour cherry schnapps. No day in Croatia would be complete without a cheese and charcuterie board, and Popić did not disappoint in that department! It was a great afternoon of learning about local life and enjoying some laughs with my fellow tourists (one guy actually works with my best friend from college! Small world!)

Putting my Peloton practice to good use!

After an exhausting afternoon of relaxation at the wineries, I took a nap, and then spent the evening walking around Korcula until I worked up an appetite for dinner at Atarina (it’s rated #1 on TripAdvisor, but I thought it was just okay).

During my evening wandering, I peeped the breakfast menu at a cafe called Aurora, so returned there the next morning for the most delicious overnight oats of all time!

On the recommendation of John the tour guide, I decided to take a boat over to the mainland, a peninsula called Oberić. To be honest, I thought Oberić was going to be more exciting than it was….there just isn’t really anything to do there, aside from lay on the beach alongside vacationing Croatians. If you know me, you know that laying on the beach is not in my repertoire, so obviously I found something much less relaxing to do. There is an old monastery with sweeping views that is a steep 20-30 min walk from the port, so I set out to climb up to it…the best way to enjoy a view is obviously when you are covered in sweat. The monastery itself was boring, there is a nautical museum that I paid a few bucks to go into, but since I am not a model-ship enthusiast, it didn’t have much to hold my interest. But the views were great and I got to sweat out a little bit of that wine from the day before!

Some old model ships in the museum. Pass.

Back on the island of Korcula, I had a light lunch of octopus salad at Radiona. I’d been on the fence about signing up for an evening kayaking tour, because a) I don’t know if I like kayaking that much, and b) I was feeling kind of tired. But decided that I didn’t have anything better to do that afternoon, I signed up, and I’m do glad I did!

The tour took us to three different small islands off the coast of Lumbarda where our host, outdoorsman extraordinaire Boris, told us about some of the history and flora and fauna of the area. It was great to be out on the water, and I was able to paddle the whole 3.5 hours without my arms falling off (but it was close, tbh, kayaking is hard).

The best part of the kayaking tour was that I ended up meeting another girl traveling solo, Margot, who would become my travel companion for the next week! She is from America, but currently living in London for work, and we discovered that we had pretty much the same itinerary. While we didn’t initially decide to travel together for the whole week, that’s what ended up happening, and I couldn’t have asked for a better travel companion!

The first of many fun nights together, Margot and I decided to grab a bite together after our kayak tour, at Lole Tapas Bar. The waiter was super friendly, and invited us to sample some wine that he just got that he had been waiting years to try. So he uncorked the bottle, and poured a glass for Margot that unfortunately came with…A GIANT BUG. Ackkk! None of us had ever seen anything like that before! The next bottle was, luckily, insect-free.

Margot and I had both heard about a bar on the island that is housed in turret from one of the old walls, so we decided to check it out. You have to climb up a ladder to get to it, and they bring the drinks up by pulley system! While I was done drinking for the night, I served as videographer for the many flaming shots that guests were enjoying…

Very cool location for a bar! Photo from korculainfo.com

I had originally planned to leave Korcula early in the morning the next day, but Margot convinced me to stay another afternoon, because we both really wanted to try LD restaurant, and visit a couple more wineries. So after breakfasting once again at Aurora, we started our morning with some wine tasting, this time going by taxi (not bike) to Bire, which was recommended to us by the waiter at Lole. For me, it wasn’t a standout. The wine was probably better than the other wineries I visited, but there wasn’t any view to enjoy, and, unlike everyone else I met on Korcula, the man pouring the wine wasn’t very friendly (though he did look exactly like Tom Cruise!)

Next it was time for the main event of the day, a fancy lunch! Like most of the restaurants in the old town, LD Restaurant is located on the water, making a beautiful backdrop for a relaxing lunch. Lunch did not disappoint, we had four beautiful courses, including their signature Prawn gyoza.

After our leisurely lunch, we still had several hours to kill before the ferry to Hvar (there are only two per day), so decided to climb the clock tower for an aerial view of the old town, before continuing our day of wining and dining back at Popić winery, where I’d been the previous day on my tour.

Finally it was time to board the ferry for an hour-long journey to the island of Hvar! I loved the time I spent on Korcula, it’s quiet pace and all the amazing people I met

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