In late spring, we sailed around an island off the main nautical routes. We discovered numerous reasons to visit the Island of Pag and explore its harbours.
As the fifth-largest and most indented island in the Adriatic, Pag hasn’t been favored by recreational sailors or chartered yachts. Its elongated shape, deep southern bays, and lake-like Pag Bay suggest it would be bustling with sails and motorboats, much like areas around Hvar, the Kornati Islands, or Lošinj.
However, Pag’s waters see significantly less nautical traffic. Routes from the north to the south typically follow the outer chain of islands from Lošinj to Dugi Otok. Sailors from Kvarner marinas stick to Kvarnerić, while those from Vinodol Channel ports are drawn to Rab’s Kalifront coves and the enchanting town of Rab. Thus, Pag’s southwestern coast is often overlooked, and its northeastern side facing Velebit and the bora wind even more so, making it one of the least navigated areas of the Adriatic.
Limited Moorings
Except for Novalja and the marina in Šimuni, there’s been little investment in harbours here. Consequently, there are few transit moorings, and the only fuel station for sailors has closed. To refuel, one must head to Rab (20 NM) or Zadar (18 NM). This issue was temporarily addressed by mooring a boat equipped as a fuel station.
So, is it worth sailing to this island of salt, sheep, cheese, and recent decades of vibrant nightlife? Absolutely. From a boat, you can experience a different Adriatic than you’re accustomed to. While finding moorings and monitoring weather forecasts may require extra effort, the rewards are plentiful. You’ll witness the ancient olive groves of Lun after docking in a small harbour on this peninsula pointing towards Rab.
Those seeking Ibiza-like parties will head to Novalja and nearby Zrće. In the town of Pag, unique for its urban design, lace, and saltworks, you’ll journey back to the 15th century, to a time of its creation following principles reminiscent of ancient Roman planning. For complete solitude, anchor in the harbours of Povljana or Dinjiška. And then there’s the barren northern coast with its moon-like landscape, unmatched anywhere else.
Lun – Pag Island’s northernmost harbour
Approaching Pag from the Kvarner islands or coast, the first encounter is the long Lun Peninsula. You can moor in Tovarnele, Pag’s northernmost harbour, or slightly south in Jakišnica. Here, you’ll find a landscape quite different from the rest of the island. This is its greenest part. Excluding the barren northern coasts, thousands of olive trees grow here. It’s estimated there are 80,000, alongside countless holm oaks.
Lun is renowned for its significant number (about 1,500) of olive trees with roots reaching deep into the past. Researchers believe they are at least 1,500, possibly even 2,000 years old. These impressive Methuselahs were created by grafting the oblica variety onto wild olives, a cultivation method preserved to this day. This persists despite modern times viewing physically demanding work as less valuable.
Tovarnele and Jakišnica
Whenever I’ve visited this area, I’ve left convinced that olives hold the same significance in residents’ lives as they did for their ancestors. Take the opportunity to visit the presentation center in Tovarnele and stroll through the Lun olive groves dedicated to them.
You’ll see the care and love locals invest in them. They prioritize ecological production, continue to raise sheep grazing freely among the olives, build and restore dry stone walls, and tend even to neglected trees whose owners have moved away. Be sure to purchase a bottle of oil here. If you’re looking for a good meal, follow us to Palma by Davor Badurina in Jakišnica. In the absence of Pag lamb (gone by early May), we enjoyed boiled scorpionfish and squid.
Leaving Lun, we reach its base and the over two-mile-long Stara Novalja Bay on the north, and the large Novalja harbour on the south. Greenery still surrounds us, especially where it hasn’t given way to mass construction. Notably in Novalja, which over the past 25 years has transformed into a resort for those seeking parties and all-night fun. Although most of this occurs on Zrće Beach on the island’s other side, Novalja also exudes this somewhat wild atmosphere. Keep this in mind if you plan to visit.
Harbor for Fishermen and Boaters
Let’s first see if there’s a chance to find a berth in Novalja. The local harbor is a wide bay open to the west and exposed to storms. A secure berth here is crucial, as the locals well know. To protect the waterfront and part of the harbor, a breakwater more than two hundred meters long was gradually constructed. Later, a pontoon was added. For this fast-growing town, it wasn’t enough, so a few hundred meters further west, another jetty was created. Local boats tied up there. It is equipped with moorings, electricity, and water facilities and is managed by Port Authority Novalja. On the first jetty, there were places for about twenty or even more vessels in transit.
But as a considerable fleet of purse seiners and local fishermen sail in the Kvarnerić and further towards the open sea, Novalja became their nearest unloading port. Thanks to the bridge connecting Pag island with the mainland, it’s only about sixty kilometers from the highway. Due to this, the outer jetty was completely refurbished, expanded, and transformed into a fishing harbor.
This certainly benefited the fishermen, but boaters visiting Pag felt the consequences. Local boats, including yachts, of which there are quite a few, had to move to the inner jetty. Thus, the number of berths available for vessels in transit decreased. Additionally, the previously mentioned gas station for boats was closed, and it’s unknown when a new one will be built.
Abandoned Marina Plans
There was also an intention to build a marina in the harbor. Despite extensive preparations a few years ago, local authorities abandoned this plan. For now, visitors who arrive by yacht and cannot find a berth have only the option of anchoring. The harbor is relatively shallow, and its inner part does not exceed five meters in depth. Thus, in the season, about ten buoys managed by the local port authority were anchored there. Berths on the waterfront and pier are used by a catamaran line and excursion boats.
Fortunately, just a few months after our visit to Novalja, work began to expand the waterfront by the fishing harbor. Pontoons will be anchored there, and the southern breakwater will also be extended.
It’s hard to say how many boaters stop in Novalja intending to spend the night at one of the clubs on Zrće beach. Certainly, the number is significant. The town itself, which has grown uncontrollably in recent decades, is deeply marked by these activities. Most offerings consist of casual eateries and various types of bistros that can be found everywhere. Of course, you can find places with a much more local flavor. Dražen Šegota, a sailor operating the ferry line from Tovarnele to Rab, introduced us to one. We had an excellent experience at the Pod zvon tavern-pizzeria. The pleasant atmosphere, good food, friendly and fast service, and reasonable prices made us note this as a place worth returning to.
Stara Novalja
To reach Stara Novalja from Novalja by sea, you must sail nearly 23 miles around Lun. Over the hill, it’s just a few kilometers, so it’s wiser to drive unless you intend to sail the Velebit Channel around the northern coast of the island. Today, Stara Novalja (Old Novalja) is anything but old. The former miniature settlement has expanded into three rows of newly built, quite large houses stretching three kilometers along the northern shore of the bay, almost to the ferry dock.
Fortunately, the beach at the bottom of the bay and the entire southern shore have remained untouched. For those sailing here, Stara Novalja doesn’t offer much. There are no berths available in the settlement itself. However, anchoring at the end of the 2.2-mile bay is possible, providing protection from the bora wind but not from the tramontana. Near the ferry dock at Cape Deda, there is a quay accommodating about ten boats. There’s also a plateau used for hauling out and repairing boats, managed by the local port authority, where you might occasionally find a berth.
Michelin Star, Sheep, and Cheese
This part of the island is also home to Boškinac, one of the most important gastronomic and family tourism projects in the Adriatic. It was created by Boris Šuljić, who forty years ago opened Calypso, the first small beach bar on Zrće, igniting the transformation of that beach into what it is today. A few kilometers away, he launched an entirely different project.
On wooded slopes above the isthmus connecting Stara Novalja and Pag Bay, he built a luxurious family hotel with a restaurant and wine cellar. He surrounded it with olive groves and vineyards. Persistent and visionary in preserving Pag traditions and perfecting them, he created a place of relaxation and fine dining of the highest standard.
Together with chef Matija Bregeš, he earned and maintained a Michelin star. They added high-quality wines labeled Boškinac, suitable for long aging. If you visit this part of the island and want to experience top-level fine dining and seasonal island produce, Boškinac is the right place.
Speaking of delicacies, Pag island has always been famous for sheep, lamb, and cheese. In the Adriatic, it’s followed by Brač in general sheep farming and Cres in raising sheep, but neither can match Pag. Despite modern tourism challenges, locals haven’t abandoned sheep farming.
Pramenka and Pag Cheese
Wherever you move across the island, you will encounter local pramenka sheep in fields or rocky terrain. Dry-stone walls, crisscrossing the entire island and sometimes descending to the sea like those in Kornati, keep flocks together. At this time of year, most lambs have already met their fate as the famous Pag lamb. However, sheep milking continues, as their milk produces the most famous island product—Pag cheese.
Traditionally, local shepherds made cheese. But seventy years ago, when branded under Paška sirana (Pag Cheese Dairy) and winning international awards, Pag cheese production turned into a major movement. Today it can be found both with small sheep farmers and larger cheese producers, modernized and scaled up to hundreds of tons annually. The most famous among these are MIH and Gligora, the latter having the largest facility on the island.
Kolan Field / Photo – Mladen Šćerbe
Gligora cheese / Photo – Mladen Šćerbe
Both dairies are located in Kolan. They have their own herds, collaborate with other shepherds, and produce various cheese types, including cow’s milk cheese. If you have the chance, visit them, taste their cheeses, tour the production, and buy something. You won’t regret it. Gligora’s facilities, aging a hundred tons of various cheeses at once, left us speechless. Afterward, we tasted nearly all in their Cheese&Caffe, which offers beautiful views of Kolan’s green fields. We also visited Paška sirana shepherds near Košljun and observed their afternoon milking.
The Only Marina on the Island
Kolan is most easily reached from Šimuni, the only place on the island that has a marina. It belongs to ACI, and only privately-owned boats are moored there. It occupies the northwest part of a large, well-protected natural bay. Although the settlement near the marina has seen considerable development in recent years, the marina remains peaceful. Here, you’ll find yourself in a completely different environment compared to Novalja, for instance. It lies slightly outside the main sailing routes but offers beautiful waters ahead.
The island of Maun is just two and a half miles away, Škarda is only slightly further. To reach the lovely coves of Olib, it takes about ten to twelve miles. If you leave a thirteen-mile wake behind you, you’ll find yourself already at Silba. The marina has a restaurant, with several more located in the village. The best among these is certainly Didova Kuća, run by Gordana and Kristijan Fabijanić. They are descendants of the first family to settle in Šimuni. They are renowned for excellent, varied, authentic Pag cuisine, and a unique ambiance and tableware which they craft themselves. Stipe Žunić, the young marina director, told us the marina is well-occupied but always has around twenty places available for transient boaters.
We could continue along the southern coast of the island, anchoring off Košljun or Povljana, although berths there are scarce. Alternatively, we could enter the bays of Povljana and Dinjiška on the eastern part of the island. However, we’ll leave that story for another time and instead head towards Pag. Sailing there and staying in this Renaissance town is a unique story in itself. It’s difficult to compare it with any other Adriatic location.
Through Paška vrata to Pag
Whether entering Pag Bay from the east or west, we sail along a harsh coastline whipped by the bora wind. When it starts blowing strongly—something I experienced here once—the Velebit Channel becomes dangerous. Apart from a small section of Žigljen harbor and the previously mentioned bay of Stara Novalja, there’s no place to find shelter.
Therefore, if weather conditions aren’t favorable, sailing here shouldn’t even be attempted. But when Aeolus permits, you’ll experience both the harshness and beauty of this coast simultaneously. You’ll quickly understand why Pag is called a lunar island. Its barren landscapes, secluded beaches, and deep blue sea merge into an unprecedented yet strangely calming sight. During a bora wind’s fierce gusts, with the sea steaming and waves powerfully striking the coast, we’re reminded of our vulnerability before nature.
Paška vrata, one and a half miles long and half a mile wide, serves as the entrance to the spacious bay. For sailors caught by the bora, it provided refuge from its fiercest blasts. Here, they could anchor beneath the northern shores or moor at the Pag waterfront. Who knows how many sailors, in the age of sailing ships navigating along Pag island, owe their lives to this bay?
Nowadays, during good weather, we can anchor near some beach. From there, we can continue sailing, passing charming villages like Metajna, Zubovići, Kustići, and Vidalići, towards Caska and the bay’s western shore. Finally, we can anchor near Zrće and indulge in the rhythm of its nightlife. Many yachts, some up to fifty meters long, choose this route through Paška vrata.
In the Town of Pag
We choose to head to Pag, hoping to find a berth at the waterfront or by the small breakwater at the former ferry dock. If we succeed or anchor nearby, we gain access to a town worth every mile we’ve sailed to reach it. Here we can discover important layers of its history.
Inhabited since Illyrian times, Pag received a defining feature during Roman rule—a salt pan. In the mid-15th century, construction began on a new town of remarkable urban planning and beauty. Under the guidance of renowned urban planners and builders of the time, reportedly including Juraj Dalmatinac, the town was carefully designed. It features a network of regular streets intersecting at right angles, and a central square. All of this was built in a typical Renaissance style within defensive walls and towers. The poor strategic position of the former Pag on the opposite side of the bay was precisely why the new town was built.
Beauty with Measure and Harmony
When you disembark on the Pag waterfront, you can stroll its streets, sit in the square, visit the cathedral or the Benedictine monastery, and buy famous baškotine. You’ll reflect on how modern times, dominated by machines and ruthless builders—with some honorable exceptions—have set us back. We’ve drifted away from beauty, where everything was created thoughtfully, with measure and harmony.
Therefore, let yourself enjoy a town that remains peaceful and uncrowded even today. Visit the salt fields and experience their program “Mornings in the Salt Fields.” Discover the painstaking labor once needed to bring these white crystals to our tables at the Salt Museum. The museum is located in former salt storage warehouses, right across from the waterfront where you might have managed to dock.
Pag Lace
Do not forget to visit the Lace Museum located in the main town square. There, you’ll learn everything about this important part of the town’s identity. Even today, when everything we desire seems to come from China, a lace-making school still exists here. Two hundred women and one man in the town have completed it. Many of them continue to make lace at home.
We visited Mrs. Ankica Oguić, a skilled lace-maker who showed us how lace is crafted using a needle. She demonstrated how combinations of ornaments are arranged to create lace, expressing the personality of its creator. She explained that the finished lace must be stiff enough to stand upright on three fingers without any adhesive, among other fascinating details.
If you prefer comfort and good food, coffee in the main town square, shaded by the cathedral and overlooking all this beauty, is simply better than elsewhere. You will eat well without spending too much at Natale restaurant and Boduli and Bile taverns. After experiencing all this, sail off to one of the beaches in the bay to enjoy the sea and sun.
We will leave this town and Pag island, sailing along its northeastern coast until we pass under the bridge connecting it to the mainland. Then we’ll continue past the previously mentioned bays of Dinjiška and Povljana. From there, we’ll sail through the channel between Pag and Vir, eventually reaching waters crowded with hundreds of sails and motor yachts. Pag is truly a different world.
