Dugi Otok - The undiscovered island

Croatia is nice. The coast of the Adriatic Sea is lovely. Some of the islands are really pretty too, but Dugi Otok - at least for me - is the most marvelous of all! The untouched forests, the quiet bays and the beautiful natural beaches with their turquoise water are just some of the factors that makes people want to go there to enjoy their relaxing, peaceful holiday. Luckily not many people know about it yet, we didn't experience any sort of crowd during the two weeks we spent there.

About the island

Dugi Otok literally means “Long Island”, it’s the seventh largest island of the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea (45 km long, 5 km wide on average and 124 km2 altogether). In 2009 four of us spent a great week there, and this year we decided we want to go back again. You have to know I’m not the type of person who likes to return to places, in most times I’m always into for something new, but Dugi Otok was an exception. We rented an apartment in Sali, the so-called capital of the island. The family who owned the place were really nice people, the apartment was clean with a balcony looking right down to one of the hundreds of small bays on the island.

Before we get into more details it’s important to say that Dugi Otok is only reachable through a ferryboat starting twice a day from the harbor of Zadar. One boat sails around noon, the other in the evening around 8pm. It’s worth hurrying a little bit to reach the first one, because the sailing time is around an hour and a half, plus 30 minutes to reach the town of Sali. It’s not that it’s too far, but the only road that is crossing the island is quite winding, you can’t do more than an average of 60 km/h on it. In case you’re without any vehicle, Sali can be directly reached from Zadar by a fast-speed passenger boat as well.

Sali

The town of Sali is also the administrative and cultural center of the island. Life around its center in the evenings is lively, you’ll find different restaurants and bars right next to each other on the two sides (the one with the fresh pizzas looked especially inviting).

During the day it’s possible to rent a scooter or book a boat tour around some of the smaller islands. The market is also here in the main square, although there is another one up the hill (close to where we stayed). The city also has a big and two smaller churches.

Telascica

The closest sight to Sali is definitely the Nature Park of Telascica. Here dark, mediterranean forests meet with rugged white cliffs, quiet, peaceful bays and several little islands. It possible to cruise around the main bay by car, even up to the highest point of the island, from where you have a beautiful panorama all over the southern part of the island. You can even spot the many little islands of the Kornati National Park in the distance, as well as the salt lake of the island called Lake Mir. Dugi Otok is impressively equipped with renewable energy generators, like solar panels and wind turbines, the biggest collection of them we saw was up here at the top observation sight.

Lake Mir is a salty little lake with no surface connection to the sea, and its temperature is approximately around 30 degrees. It’s a major tourist spot, many people are brought here by boats from Zadar and Biograd as a part of a daily trip. You can reach it on foot in about 30 minutes from a designated parking place where you have to leave your car, and you’ll most probably have to pay an entrance fee to the park as well. This happens in a strange way: we were just walking on a dirt-road with not a soul around, when a guy in a green dress literally jumped out of the woods and asked for the fee. I don’t remember exactly how much it would have cost, but I know we didn’t have that amount of cash with us, so we simply bargained. The man even gave us a receipt!

For me Lake Mir was no big deal, it was full with tourists and donkeys trying to get food out of people’s pockets, I was looking for something more relaxing. Finally we decided to hang our hammocks on some trees on the shore of the bay around half way back to the car, and did a little snorkeling and swimming there. The donkeys found as, begged for food, but we resisted.

 

Mezanj

The best and for me the most beautiful beach of Dugi Otok is called Mezanj. Originally Mezanj refers to a small island a little bit south from the town of Dragove on the other side, but the shore with its beautiful green water here is often referred to as Mezanj as well. There is basically no infrastructure there, just a little shack next to the parking place and a few little boats pulled out to the side. From where we left the car we have to start walking further another 10 minutes, and soon we’ll spot the sandy shore with its beautifully colored water. It’s a beloved place of nudists (or shall I say naturalists?), so don’t be surprised if you see naked people walking around.

 
The shore is filled with roundish, white pebbles all over, it’s worth collecting a few if you want to bring some memories home. Finding shade is not easy on Mezanj, there are a few trees on the other side of the rock buttress which provide shelters underneath, but if you arrive late you’ll find all of them occupied and there is no other thing left for you but to put 2 cm thick layer of suncream all over your body. In the water we spotted a few flatfishes hiding in the sand, it was fun to caress them and see them digging deeper and deeper in the sandy bottom around 3-4 meters from the surface.

Sakarun

The other famous sandy beach of the island is called Sakarun (or Saharun), it’s between Soline and Veli Rat at the northern part of the island. You can’t miss it from the road, you’ll see its beautiful turquoise water from up above when your descending the hill. It has a shady parking area where we were supposed to pay according to the sign, but we didn’t find anybody whom we could give money to, so we didn’t force it too much. 

The shore of the beach is about 300 meters long; on one end you have a bar with some music and cocktails, on the other end there is a pleasant, shady area for people not willing to lie on the sun all day. The water is shallow, you can walk in about 60-80 meters without the need to swim. A little bit further towards the open water there is a line indicating that boats shouldn’t come closer than that, we could see some pretty impressive yachts anchoring out there - one even with a helicopter on top.

On the right side of the beach there is a dirt-road on which one can walk out to the peak of that little peninsula, but there is not too much to see except the terrible amount of garbage the waves brought out to the shore.

Veli Rat - The lighthouse

On top of the island north from Veli Rat is the famous lighthouse, which is definitely worth visiting. For 10 HRK per person you can climb up a long spiral staircase inside the tower and have an astonishing view from the top over the surrounding area. 

At the bottom of the lighthouse there is a little chapel and something like a family market-garden, which was funny but on the other hand very stylish and did not disturb the atmosphere of the place at all. If you have kids don’t miss the two swings hanging from the big trees next to the parking area!

As a summary, if you love nature, love the sea, and looking for a place where you can refresh yourself from the all-year-round hamster wheel, Dugi Otok is the place for you to go! I think it’s absolutely an ideal spot for couples and for families with little children. If you have a boat, even just a small one, feel free to take it with you, you’ll have plenty of fun cruising around those little deserted islands. There is no campground on Dugi Otok, but there are plenty of great apartments to choose from.

You can find more specific information on the official website at http://www.dugiotok.hr - and don’t forget to check the sailing schedule of the ferry at http://www.jadrolinija.hr

I hope you’ll love it as we did!