Our boat sailed off as lunch was served. After our wonderful morning trip to the two beautiful islands of Kolocep and Sipan and some real Travel fun in Elaphiti Islands..our next destination, Lopud Island.
Second in size and best known for its sandy beaches, Lopud is located between Sipan and Kolocep islands. It’s well developed in terms of tourism infrastructure and is economically the most developed of the three islands. It is famous as the “island in the middle” and has seven miles of coastline, of which one mile is sandy.
Sunj beach is certainly the best beach in the Elafiti Islands. It’s composed of fine, white sand which is extremely rare in Croatia. The lush green hills as the backdrop makes it even more exciting for tourists and residents of Dubrovnik. Naturally it gets busy during the summer months, when Adriatic is at it’s best. It was a short ride and we reached quickly.
Lopud has been inhabited since ages starting as early as the seventh century. In the fifteenth century, refugees from the Turks flowed onto the island and the island grew rapidly from then to the seventeenth century when around fourteen thousand people started living here including sailors, sea captains and shipowners. At one time it’s ships comprised a quarter of the Dubrovnik navy and were a part of a number of important expeditions.
The island had two monasteries, thirty churches and a number of noble palaces. Like the rest of Dubrovnik, it was wrecked in the earthquake of 1667 and was never again able to attain its former glory. Now the island has around two hundred and fifty inhabitants only.
As we alighted from our boat on to Lopud harbor, the first piece of history that attracted our attention was the Franciscan monastery. Founded in 1458 for the purpose of cultural development & education and abandoned under the French occupation of 1808, it has been opened to public in 2018 after twenty years of restoration work. It now serves as an art gallery and displays a massive collection of Renaissance art and furniture from Germany, Italy and the Balkans. You should not miss the attached tranquil gardens designed for meditation. The monastery also serves as a private B&B available for rental. It certainly is a place where history, art, and botanical exploration would ignite your senses. Let’s explore more.
As we walk let me share with you a bit more about Elaphitus. Apart from the three inhabited islands that we are visiting, there are ten other uninhabited islets. They are Crkvina, Golec, Kosmec, Misnjak, Ruda, Tajan and Daksa where there are no activities.
Daksa used to be home to a thirteenth century Franciscan monastery of Saint Sabina, which was abandoned at the time of Napoleon’s conquest in the early 19th century. Later it became infamous as the site of the Daksa massacre, in which forty eight prominent citizens of Dubrovnik were executed in October 1944. The other islets – Jakljan has a children’s rest and recreation center, Olipa has a lighthouse and Sveti Andrija, a rocky island with a rich fauna has the status of a bird reserve. The island also has a lighthouse which was built in 1873.
We are now near the Botanical Garden. Those of you who love nature would surely have a great time with us as we venture in.
We looked at our watch. We still had some free time. And what better place to head to than another sandy beach which we were now close to.
As we settled down on the upper deck again, it was now the turn of the crew to welcome us back. With a surprise parting shot of Rakija. Come let’s enjoy the views as we head back towards Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik. A truly marvelous holiday destination.
Come over to Dubrovnik. Get lost and discover yourself 👻
Hope you enjoyed being at Lopud. PIN it for later reference
I wouldn’t mind getting lost along the beach in this paradise. I had never heard of the Elaphiti before this, but your photos are splendid and I’d love to look into them more
Thanks so much. So happy you enjoyed 😊
It must be a pretty interesting life to get to travel to such exotic places and dine and take boat rides and then write about it. I love how you include history. I wish I could see pictures of what it looked like after the earthquake but I guess that wasn’t possible since it happened in the 1600. Maybe there are drawings. I don’t know.
Thank you Alexandra. So happy you loved it. It’s readers like you who constantly keep motivating me.
There has been a buzz about Elaphiti Islands of late and oh my! I can definitely see why! Talk about Island hopping, a good boat ride and visiting the Botanical garden! Now I feel like I would love such a trip too!
O yes Dalene. You would surely love being there
This looks like such a beautiful island! I have never heard of it before but it’s now on my bucket list to visit
You must visit Alyssa for sure if you can sometime.
Ahhhh those orange trees! I just want to pick them! I enjoy reading your travel posts as this is an area of the world I know next to nothing about! I love the photos.
Thank you Kayleigh so much. You make me so happy 😊
That looks like such a beautiful place to visit. I would love to see that someday in person.
You must Shannon visit sometime whenever you can. You’ll love it
So many beautiful places in these islands! I am supposed to be going to Croatia this summer, provided that this virus gives us some break, and if it finally does I will try and check Elaphiti out 🙂
Sure you must. You have a day cruise to these islands including lunch which is nice.
Yes I do hope you can make it. You will definitely love Croatia. Much more beautiful that I thought it would be.
I had never heard of Elaphiti Islands before reading your posts. The more I read the more I feel like visiting them. I will definitely plan once this whole virus situation is over. Thanks for sharing this, I learned about a new place.
My pleasure Raksha. You must visit Croatia sometime whenever you can. It’s such a beautiful country.
Quite a helpful and an informative post this is. Croatia has been on my mind, but the plan never saw the day of light due to some reasons. Loved travelling all the way to Elaphiti Islands through your photos, which virtually replenished my Vitamin Sea.
Hope you can visit sometime soon. To experience this beautiful country in person.
It seems like Croatia has a lot more to offer than I thought. Lopud looks fabulous, and a great place to explore. Isn’t it odd that there’s only a few beaches with sand. Lucky to have found this.
Yeah Jay Croatia exceeded our expectations too. There are many beaches in the city of Dubrovnik but all of them are rocky and full of stones.