About 1,500 people a day visit the Blue Cave, where small boats are allotted ten minutes each inside, creating a rapid turnover and a maritime conveyor-belt experience. Many visitors arrive on speedboat tours that crowd Mezoporat Bay. The 45-minute foot ferry from Komiza to Bisevo provides a slower alternative. The island of Vis offers quieter, more satisfying experiences away from the Blue Cave crowds. Guesthouses in Rukavac provide restful stays with activities such as yoga, kayaking, paddleboarding and cycling. WearActive runs seven-day active-relaxation holidays with plant-based meals and flexible activity levels, allowing visitors to do as much or as little as they like.
I'm watching overtourism in action. Within the iridescent marvel that is Croatia's Blue Cave, four boats holding about a dozen people each have an allotted 10 minutes before we motor back out again so that the next batch of visitors can float in. About 1,500 people a day visit this beautiful grotto on the island of Bisevo, the biggest attraction within the Vis archipelago, two hours and 20 minutes south of Split by ferry.
Many of the other cave visitors are on one of the countless speedboat tours departing from all over Dalmatia and crowding into Mezoporat Bay before whizzing off elsewhere. I'm staying on Vis itself to take a longer, slower, more satisfying look at the island, where I spent a night three years ago and which I've been hankering to revisit ever since.
Actively relaxing' I find is a fitting description for this break In sleepy Rukavac on Vis's south-eastern coast, British couple Xania and Craig Wear welcome me into one of their four guest rooms in the large stone house they renovated after moving here 20 years ago. The former PE teachers run WearActive, offering yoga, kayaking, paddleboarding and cycling in Rukavac.
Collection
[
|
...
]