Dock or the bay?

Belinda Archer sets off on a trip with Sail Croatia and finds their new combined land and sea package a thoroughly fulfilling experience

Sailing around the southern shores of Europe holds a certain magical appeal. Within just a few hours you can be enjoying the very best of holidaying on a yacht: scudding across warm, turquoise waters in a gleaming teak-decked boat, dropping anchor in secluded coves for a little lunch and post-prandial dip, then going ashore whenever and wherever appeals before setting sail once again.

But there is a drawback to such boat-based vacations: they often mean you just skim the surface of the land around which you are moving. Trips ashore tend to be so brief and snatched that you could almost just as easily be travelling around Greece's Ionian islands as the Turkish Lycian coast. The transport becomes the thing, rather than the location.

Sail Croatia, however, seems to have hit on an inspired formula. This new UK-based company, which specialises in trips around this emerging central European destination, has forged links with Hidden Croatia, the inland specialists, to offer combined land and sea packages. The aim is to give visitors the chance to properly explore Croatia's relatively unknown land-based treasures as much as experience its still unspoilt coastline, which stretches over a majestic 1000km.

"It's a unique concept designed to showcase the very best that Croatia has to offer," urges Luka Grubor, the enterprising Croatian-born British co-founder, who boasts pukka boating credentials as a former Olympic rowing champion at Sydney 2000 as well as having 20 years sailing experience in the Adriatic.

Both companies also specialise in bringing visitors to the lesser documented regions of their country, hence my integrated land-sea experience began in the city of Split, rather than the over-visited Dubrovnik 100 miles further south down the Dalmatian coast. Split is, in fact, a sort of second Dubrovnik, similarly steeped in maritime history with a fabulous natural harbour. The city today sprawls messily but its old town is housed within the ancient walls of what was a vast summer palace built for the Roman Emperor Diocletian around 300AD. It consists of charmingly winding narrow alleyways and tucked-away smart boutiques, cosmopolitan restaurants and designer bars. The feel is surprisingly modern European and prosperous.

As with Dubrovnik it has a rich variety of historical sights to see too, not least the extraordinary octagonal Cathedral of St Domnius—what was originally Diocletian's mausoleum and is the oldest building to house a Catholic cathedral in the world. Beside this is a Romanesque bell tower which soars over the city. I climbed a slightly hair-raising series of steps to the very top, from where you can catch spectacular views of the harbour and out to the islands beyond of Hvar, Vis and Brac.

My land-based accommodation in Split was at the unarguably stylish Hotel Vestibul, dubbed the city's 'first and only' designer boutique hotel. As with the whole of Croatia, the city is still shaking off its communist past and only slowly waking up to the more luxury end of the tourist market, hence hotels like the Vestibul are rare. Perfectly located right within the old town, it has just seven bedrooms and is a modern oasis of urban chic amid all the surrounding crumblingly ancient buildings. Rooms are minimally designed, with chocolate brown silk bedding and leather padded bed-heads, Philippe Starck bathroom furniture and flat-screen TVs. The hotel also offers guests exclusive use of a Jeanneau 755 speedboat during the summer months for day trips out to the islands.

Two days later, long enough to have thoroughly explored Split, I left dry land and transferred to a yacht for the sea-bound phase of my trip. Arrakis was a shining eight-berth 45-foot Jeanneau Sun Odyssey, brand new this season and meticulously kitted out with monogrammed linens and fully provisioned fridge. The company's impressive fleet includes a full range of high-spec 35-54 foot yachts, including a 48-foot racer for those more interested in speed and gnarly competition, plus a spanking new Ferretti 760 motor-yacht, complete with thrusting 2840-horsepower engine, champagne-stocked fridge and The Refinery skincare products, favoured by City boys.

Ivo the skipper gently steered us out of Split's Kastela marina and we were soon heading south to Hell's Islands, a three hour passage away off the coast of Hvar.

"The sailing conditions in Croatia are ideal," he told me, as the expertly-trimmed sails began to draw us across the Adriatic's pristine waters. "The winds are mainly westerly, reaching a maximum of 18 knots in May and September and less in the high summer months when the heat slows everything down. It is mostly just a nice moderate breeze with small waves and no need to reef."

Soon it became clear, too, that Croatia has an interesting, varied coastline. On our first short cruise we were never far from any land—the country, in fact, has no fewer than 1264 islands off its coast, making passages much shorter than in other sailing areas and providing plenty to look at instead of featureless open seas. We passed bays and hidden coves, lavender-strewn limestone cliffs bursting with fig and olive trees, dramatically located lighthouses and even dolphins—a regular site off these shores.

While on Arrakis I soon settled into a routine of sun-bathing, supping Carlovako Croatian beer and providing only the occasional assistance to Ivo with a turn of the wheel or pull on a line. Sail Croatia's skippers are briefed to sail their yachts single-handedly, leaving clients to lie back and enjoy the blissful pleasures of yacht travel. I even tried a little leisurely fishing for tuna and squid off the back of the boat, with a simple line and hook trained in the water.

Hell's Islands were a remote contrast to the merry urban buzz of Split. Undeveloped apart from a few houses and a marina, they are a dream destination for committed yachties. We moored at the marina then I strolled inland where, among the almost jungle vegetation, I found a small local restaurant offering an impressively complex menu rather than just the limited, formulaic fare found on remote Greek islands. I dined in solitary splendour on some local Pag white cheese and Dalmatian prosciutto followed by a tangy tomato buzara stew, bursting with giant prawns, overlooking a perfect sunset. The contrast with Split was complete.

From Hell's Islands we crossed the next day to Hvar, known as the island of lavender and one of the Dalmatian coast's most beautiful locations. The main town, also called Hvar, is a smart port lined with palm trees and with lively cafes and restaurants fringing a beautiful square in front of a Renaissance cathedral. Windingly steep streets lined with vermilion and purple bougainvillaeas lead to a well preserved16th century Spanish fortress which overlooks the town and, once again, affords great views down to the harbour and surrounding islands.

The buildings are also all made of hand-cut limestone rather than the typical Mediterranean architectural formula of white render, lending the resort an elegant solidity. Not surprisingly, in the height of the summer Hvar is transformed into a mecca for the glitzy in-crowd. Shining gin palaces jostle for harbour space alongside flash sailing yachts and their beautiful occupants. It is Croatia's equivalent to St Tropez.

From Hvar town we sailed round the island to Stari Grad, or Old Town - indeed the oldest town on the Croatian coast, founded by the Greeks in 4000 BC. This is smaller and slightly less chic than Hvar but, like everywhere else in the islands, immaculately kept and litter free. More than perhaps Turkey or Italy, Croatia seems to cherish its monuments and national treasures and keep its old towns spick and span. Wherever I visited there were folk carefully putting rubbish in bins, workers weeding paths, restaurant owners busily applying coats of fresh paint and builders finishing off last-minute touches to new harbour walls or cobbled alleyways in readiness for the coming season. It all felt prosperous and cared for.

My final night was spent back on dry land, once again, in the north Brac town of Pucisca at the old Descovic Palace. This is a Renaissance mansion which has been lovingly renovated by its owner, the eccentric Countess Descovic, whose various relatives used to live there. It is adorned with quirky pieces of art done by the Countess herself as well as more traditional fine furnishings. My spacious suite overlooked the small village church and square which bustled with children dressed up to celebrate a local saint's day.

In the evening I dined in the hotel restaurant on a delicious cuttlefish ink black risotto followed by rosata, a Croatian take on crème caramel. Indeed, most of the food on my trip was more complex and sophisticated than other Mediterranean cuisines—an intriguing blend of Italian and Austro-Hungarian flavours, reflecting Croatia's rich and varied history. The wines were a real discovery too: sadly, only little is produced for export, but there were some excellent bottles, including the fine Ivan Dolac 2004 red and the Zlatan Plavac, another red.

Sailing, however smart the boat, invariably amounts to glorified roughing it compared with staying on dry land, but the hotel aspect of this land-sea combination worked well as a way of injecting luxury into a water-based holiday. The combo is also an excellent way of exploring a country, particularly the as-yet little touched areas of this undeveloped destination. Sail Croatia/Hidden Croatia itineraries are entirely tailor-made and can even incorporate a visit to Dubrovnik or across to Italy should you wish, but exploring the towns and shores to the north around Split was a most agreeable option. Forget Greece, Spain's Balearic Islands or even Turkey—head here, to the central part of Croatia's Dalmatian coast, and enjoy a sailing holiday that's about more than just water.

FACT BOX
Belinda Archer was a guest of Sail Croatia (0871 733 8686;  www.sailcroatia.net) and Hidden Croatia (0871 208 0075; www.hiddencroatia.com). A week's sailing holiday on a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45 (can accommodate 6 people) with Sail Croatia combined with one night at Hotel Vestibul in Split and one night at Deskovic Palace on the island of Brac on a B&B basis with Hidden Croatia starts from £1,775 per couple. Price includes route consultation, transfers and skipper. Flights, marina fees and fuel is extra. Daily flights from London Gatwick to Split, Croatia, on Croatia Airlines (tel:  020 8563 0022; www.croatiaairlines.hr).