We left Split early this morning on the Krilo ferry, stopping in Brac and Hvar along the way. We got to Korcula Town at around 10:00am and made our way to our hotel, the Hotel Korcula. Surprisingly, our room was ready and available, so we had the luxury of getting settled in, showering and getting our act together at the hotel, before heading out. We’d been reading online reviews of the various things to do in Korcula and had three things in mind for our two days here: (1) walk around old town, (2) wine taste in Lumbarda and (3) hang out at Moro Beach Club. We figured we could explore old town at our leisure, since we were staying there and opted to hit Moro today and wine taste tomorrow.
The reviews for Moro are a bit mixed. Lots of people love it and lots of people think it’s a little overpriced. Having spent a good amount of time in places like Ibiza and more recently Positano and Capri, I guess we were a little less price sensitive than some of the people posting reviews. Was it cheap? No. Was it unreasonable given that it’s a remote island off an island off a sparsely populated part of the Dalmatian coast? No. Overall we really loved it.
Getting to the island (Stupe) itself is a bit of a pain. We were told that any water taxi would take us there for about 150 kuna ($25). The reality is that there are more “popular” routes that are easier and more profitable (more passengers) for the drivers, so we had a hard time convincing anyone to take us. After a little bit of asking around, we were pointed in the direction of a boat that is associated with Moro Beach Club (ferrying supplies and staff back and forth), so we hitched a ride with them and headed out.
It’s about a 10-15 minute ride from Korcula Old Town to Stupe. Like all of Croatia, the coastline it breathtaking. Crystal clear, blue & green water, jagged rocks, pine trees and cactuses. It’s a really unique place and always brings a smile to our faces. Moro Beach Club is really the old thing on Stupe, which is a super-small island. Moro consists of a small restaurant, a beach bar, several beach chairs, a dock for the water taxis and a “sea swing” which is literally a wooden swing set that’s been set up on the water. Pretty much designed to be an Instagram hashtag, the swing is the visual highlight of the island/club.
We hung out for most of the day, swimming in the water, taking pics on the swing, enjoying local wines and having a light lunch at the restaurant. After so many days of walking, site seeing, touring and running for planes, today was a much needed relaxation day. We even got to have a little beach nap! We headed back to Korcula at around 5:00pm and went back to our room to change.
You can walk the perimeter of Old Town Korcula in about 20 minutes, so just by walking to our hotel and to the water taxi, we’d seen most of the town. The two places that caught our eye were Massimo Cocktail Bar and Nonno’s Restaurant. Massimo is a converted watch tower. The main seating area is on the roof, overlooking the water and the city. The only way to get there is to climb a 10 foot ladder and drinks are delivered from the main floor to the roof by rope and pulley. The ladder is a little scary and the opening to the roof is narrow, but the experience is worth it. From Massimo, we went to the restaurant that had most caught our eye in our earlier walk: Nonno’s. Their pasta (freshly made each day) is to die for. We split a Bolognese and a Seafood pasta and immediately slipped into a food coma. Although we had planned to hit a wine bar afterwards (to narrow down our choices for tomorrow when we hit the wineries), we both agreed it was time for bed and that we’d wing it in the morning.
More to come tomorrow!