It is a good idea to use a different language.I’m witnessing overtourism. Croatia’s Blue Cave has four boats with about 12 people in each boat. Each boat is given 10 minutes of floating time before the next wave of visitors arrives. About 1,500 people a day visit this beautiful grotto on the island of Biševo, the biggest attraction within the Vis archipelago, two hours and 20 minutes south of Split by ferry. After paying the €24 entrance fee, I’m left underwhelmed by this maritime conveyor belt. At least the 45-minute foot ferry from Komiža, on the archipelago’s main island of Vis, to Biševo’s Mezoporat Bay, the launch point for boats to the Blue Cave, is only €4.
Most of the cave visitors are on speedboat tours that leave from Dalmatia, cram into Mezoporat Bay and then hurry off to other destinations. I am staying on Vis to get a more in-depth, slow, and satisfying look at this island. I spent one night there three years ago, and have been wanting to return ever since. The Blue Cave, its speedboat tours and the tourism boom on Vis following the filming of Mamma Mia! have not impacted the island’s popularity. Here We Go Again, which was filmed in Vis in 2017, has shown me that the island is not all about Mamma Mia.
Xania Wear and Craig Wear, a British couple who moved to Vis 20 years ago and renovated a large stone house, welcome me in one of the four rooms they have created. WearActive in Rukavac is run by the former PE teachers. They offer yoga, kayaking paddleboarding and biking. You can choose to do as much as you want on their “relaxingly” active seven-day holidays. “Actively relaxing” seems to be a more accurate description.
Xania prepares delicious, plant-based meals on the terrace with views of the ocean. Craig takes me through the yoga moves on the flat rocks at Bili Bok Beach before we eat breakfast. As I lunge, stretch and breathe in the clean air of the Adriatic, my lungs fill with salty fresh air. After this, I swim at the nearby Srebrna. Late afternoons are spent lazing on the pebbles at Tepluš beach, 10 minutes’ walk from the house. I could get used this.
My hosts suggested kayaking from Rukavac, Vis’s famous beach, to Stiniva Bay the next morning. It is a beautiful place with an unmatched beauty. The pebbly, limestone beach is surrounded by two giant limestone cliffs that almost meet in the middle. There is a steep, rock-filled path that leads to the beach from the hill behind the limestone cliffs. However, it is much more fun to kayak, paddleboard, or use a small rubber dinghies to reach the beach. Craig is on a paddling board, Xania, Xania, and I are sharing a kayak and my husband owns a single kayak. We have a lovely, peaceful swim at 8.30am.
Craig knew I had always wanted to paddleboard so we stopped in Ruda Bay on our way back to Rukavac. After some expert guidance, I am on the board, paddling, my initial nerves soothed by the hypnotic motion. Now I understand why there is so much fuss.
We get to know Vis better when we are not on the water. We explore its interior vineyards and winding mountain roads. Vis town’s capital is quiet during the day. Most restaurants close while sailors cruise. At night, the Venetian Harbour comes alive with restaurants on the terraces.
Smaller Komiža is the place for lunch, with everything from cheap pizzerias to smart restaurants. Near Gusarica beach we find Konoba Jastožera, a restaurant built on stilts over the water, where lobster pots hold the restaurant’s speciality.It’s only when I hear the soundtrack to the Mamma Mia! The Mamma Mia films are filmed in this location, so I immediately expect to pay high prices for low-quality products. Both are wrong. As long as we don’t order lobster, it’s one of the most affordable restaurants we’ve seen so far, with two courses for €25. Here, it’s not just about money.
For an island that was off limits to foreigners until 1989, when the Yugoslav army base here closed down, Vis seems to be taking its time in developing its tourism (Biševo’s Blue Cave (apart from that). Military tours are taking people through the massive network of bunkers and tunnels left by the military. Hiking up to a collection of caves located at the base of Mount Hum gives me a fascinating look into 1944 Vis. This is where future Yugoslavian president Tito, and his partisans, hid from Nazis.
Xania considers it a good thing that more active holiday companies are bringing people to the island. Even if this means there will be more competition, she sees it as a positive. She says that Vis would become a destination for adventure holidays. “And you’ll have more people come to do this kind of tourism.” I nod. The island’s natural rhythm – slow, unhurried – is one to be savoured, not raced through.
The trip was organized by WearActiveThen, you can say that Offers seven-night active holidays starting at €1,590pp, Included are breakfast, lunches and dinners for five days, as well as transfers to and from restaurants on four nights. Town ferry terminal
