Croatia · Dalmatia
Makarska
A Dalmatian beach town with a 1,700 metre mountain wall at its back and a glass skywalk on top of it.
Makarska is the main town of the Makarska Riviera, a strip of pebble beaches and pine on the Dalmatian coast between Split and Dubrovnik. What sets it apart is the wall behind it: the Biokovo massif rises straight off the shore to over 1,700 metres, so the town sits in a horseshoe bay with mountain above and clear water in front. The old core around Kačić Square is Venetian and baroque, the harbour front fills up every evening, and the beach and the summit road start from the same few streets.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Croatian
Currency
EUR
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Makarska
Biokovo the massif climbs from sea level to Sveti Jure in a few kilometres, with a hairpin park road and a glass skywalk cantilevered over the drop
The beaches white pebble and pine shade run the length of the Riviera, from the town bay at Donja Luka out to Brela and Tučepi either side
The riva at night the harbour front and Kačić Square turn into one long promenade of cafe tables, and in summer the town stays up late
Value on a costly coast this is a working town rather than a resort, so it asks less than Hvar or Dubrovnik for the same sea
Best time to visit
Apr-Oct
15-31° days
43.294° N, 17.020° E
UTC+2 · Europe/Zagreb
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Weather & when to go to Makarska
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Makarska
July and August are the crunch: the Riviera fills with Central European holidaymakers, the beaches go shoulder to shoulder and the coast road crawls. Winter is the other extreme, and January is the low point, with much of the beachfront shut, the bura wind coming hard down off Biokovo and the mountain road closed by snow. June and September give you the sea without the queue.
Top things to do in Makarska
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Biokovo Skywalk - the glass balcony over the Riviera
scenic nature wildlife 👍 PopularA horseshoe of glass floor cantilevered off the cliff at Ravna Vlaška, high on the Biokovo park road, with the coast and the islands laid out something like a vertical kilometre below. Getting up there means a long series of hairpins on a narrow one-lane road, and the number of vehicles allowed into the park is limited.
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Sveti Jure - the summit of Biokovo
hiking scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedAt just over 1,760 metres this is the second highest peak in Croatia, with a small stone chapel of St George beside the relay masts at the top. The park road runs almost to the summit, and on a clear day the view takes in the Dalmatian islands and, people here insist, the Italian coast beyond them.
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Kačić Square and St Mark's church - the old town centre
history culture arts 👍 PopularThe baroque heart of Makarska: a paved square between the harbour and the hillside, with the parish church of St Mark on one side and a monument to the Franciscan poet Andrija Kačić Miošić in the middle. The lanes behind it hold the town museum, the market and most of the evening.
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Franciscan monastery - the malacological museum
culture arts historyThe monastery above the harbour keeps one of the region's great shell collections, built up by a friar with a scientific streak: cases of Adriatic and tropical shells, corals and fossils, alongside a quiet cloister. It takes an hour and it is the town's oddest and best indoor hour.
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Donja Luka - the town beach
nature wildlife scenic 👍 PopularThe long pebble crescent west of the harbour, backed by pines and a paved promenade, with shallow clear water and the mountain filling the view behind you. It is the default swim, it is busy from morning in August, and the far end towards the campsite is always calmer.
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Nugal - the hidden cove east of town
nature wildlife off beaten path ⭐ Highly recommendedA pebble cove wedged into a ravine below the cliffs, reached on foot in about half an hour through the pines from the Osejava headland, or by small boat from the harbour. No road, no buildings, textbook clear water, and long a spot where swimsuits are optional.
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Osejava promenade - the pine headland walk
scenic nature wildlifeA shaded path runs from the end of the harbour out around the wooded peninsula that closes the bay to the east, past swimming rocks and war memorials, with the coast opening up as you round the point. Best late in the day, and it is the way to Nugal.
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Kotišina botanical garden - the karst garden under the cliffs
nature wildlife off beaten pathAbove the village of Kotišina, a stretch of wild hillside was fenced off as a botanical garden rather than planted as one, so what you walk through is the Biokovo flora in place among the rock, with an old fortified house built into the cliff at the top.
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The riva after dark - Makarska's summer nights
nightlife musicThe harbour front is one continuous line of cafe tables and bars, the square behind it fills with families doing laps, and the town has a long-running club scene that includes a dance floor inside a natural cave on the peninsula. It runs hard from June to September and stops dead in winter.
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Dalmatian grill and konoba cooking - eating in Makarska
foodFish and squid off the grill, brudet stew, lamb or octopus done slowly under the peka bell, air-dried pork from the hinterland and olive oil from the slopes behind town. The harbour places trade on the view; the better cooking is usually in the lanes behind, or up in the hill villages.
Best areas to stay in Makarska
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Old town and the riva
First-time visitors $$Baroque lanes behind a busy harbour front
Explore hotels in Old town and the riva →
Donja Luka
Families and beach $$Hotel strip along the town beach
Explore hotels in Donja Luka →
Osejava
Quiet and walks $$$Pine headland east of the harbour
Explore hotels in Osejava →
Veliko Brdo
Value and views $Hillside apartments under the mountain
Explore hotels in Veliko Brdo →
Tučepi
Resort beach $$Long resort beach down the coast
Explore hotels in Tučepi →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Makarska
Getting to & around Makarska
Getting there
Fly into Split (SPU), then about 1.5 hours south by road
Flight
Split Airport, Resnik (SPU)
About 90 km from the terminal, roughly 1.5 hours: the old coast road through Omiš, or faster on the A1 motorway inland and the tunnel under Biokovo. Airport buses run to Split's bus station for onward coaches, and seasonal shuttles and private transfers run straight down the Riviera.
Coach
Makarska bus station, above the harbour
The workhorse arrival: frequent coaches along the coast from Split and Dubrovnik, plus services from Zagreb and over the border from Mostar and Sarajevo
Ferry
Makarska town harbour
The car ferry crosses to Sumartin on the eastern tip of Brač in well under an hour, and is how island traffic reaches this stretch of mainland
Drive
The A1 motorway runs inland behind the mountain with a tunnel through to the Riviera; the old coast road is slower, prettier and jammed in August
Getting around
Walking
The default along the front, which is flat and mostly pedestrian in summer; everything behind it climbs steeply
Free
Local bus
Riviera services run the coast road to Tučepi, Baška Voda, Brela and Podgora, thinning out sharply outside the season
TBC
Taxi
Ranks at the bus station and the harbour, and the usual fallback for the Biokovo road if you have no car
TBC
Car hire
Worth it for Biokovo, the Imotski lakes and the hinterland; central parking is tight and close to hopeless in high summer
TBC
Boat taxi
Small boats run in season from the harbour to Nugal and the coves either side of town, and across for a day on Brač
TBC
Bike or scooter hire
Easy along the flat coastal promenade; the climb up Biokovo is for people who came specifically to do it
TBC
Day trips from Makarska
Split
Full dayRoman palace city
Diocletian's retirement palace is still the middle of the city, its cellars, peristyle and mausoleum-turned-cathedral threaded with bars and market stalls. Add the Riva, the walk up Marjan hill and the Meštrović gallery, and coaches run back down the Riviera late into the evening.
Getting there
bus | car
About 1 hr 15 min by coach or car up the coast
Brač and Zlatni Rat
Full dayIsland beach
The ferry lands on the eastern tip of Brač and the run west brings you to Bol and Zlatni Rat, the shingle spit that shifts its point with the current and appears on every poster of the country. Vidova Gora above it is the highest summit on any Adriatic island.
Getting there
ferry | car | bus
Ferry to Sumartin, then about 1 hr by road to Bol
Imotski lakes
Half dayKarst crater lakes
Two enormous sinkholes in the limestone behind the mountain: the Blue Lake, which locals swim in when it fills and play football in when it dries out, and the Red Lake, a sheer-walled shaft hundreds of metres deep. A ruined fort sits on the rim above the town.
Getting there
car | tour
About 45 min by car over the pass behind Biokovo
Mostar
Full dayOttoman bridge town
Over in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rebuilt Stari Most arches over green water with divers working the parapet and copper and coffee sold in the bazaar lanes below. Kravice waterfalls or the hill town of Počitelj usually get bolted onto the same day. Bring your passport.
Getting there
car | tour | bus
About 2 hr 30 min by car or tour bus across the border
Omiš and the Cetina gorge
Half dayGorge and pirate town
The Cetina river bursts out of a limestone canyon into the sea at Omiš, a town that ran a genuine pirate operation in the middle ages and still has two fortresses on the crags above it. The gorge upstream is this coast's rafting, canyoning and zip-line run.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About 40 min by car or coast bus northwest
Brela
Half dayRiviera beach
Punta Rata is the postcard beach of the whole Riviera: white pebble, pines down to the waterline and the Brela Stone, a pine-topped rock sitting just offshore. A shoreline path carries on through Baška Voda if you want to walk part of the way back.
Getting there
bus | car
About 20 min by bus or car northwest
A little history of Makarska
The Romans knew a settlement here as Mucurum, and the shelter of the bay kept it in use through every change of ruler. After the Slav settlement the coast belonged to Pagania, the Narentine principality whose sailors raided Adriatic shipping hard enough that Venice paid them off. Makarska was Ottoman from the end of the fifteenth century, a port on the sultan's short stretch of Adriatic coast, until Venice took it in the Morean war and held it for the last century of the republic.
Venice left the shape of the baroque town centre, and the Franciscans left the monastery and the poet Andrija Kačić Miošić, whose verse chronicle of Slavic heroes was for generations among the most-read books in Croatian; his monument stands in the square named after him. Austria followed, with a brief Napoleonic interlude, then Yugoslavia. Tourism arrived properly in the 1960s and 1970s once the coast highway opened the Riviera up, and Biokovo was made a nature park in 1981, which is why the mountain above the hotels stayed empty.
A settlement called Mucurum sits on the bay, on the Roman road down the Dalmatian coast
Church councils at Salona record a bishopric here, ancestor of the Makarska diocese
The coast forms part of Pagania, home of the Narentine sea raiders
The Ottomans take Makarska and run it as their outlet on the Adriatic
Venetian forces capture the town in the Morean war, ending nearly two centuries of Ottoman rule
Venice falls and Makarska passes to Austria, with a Napoleonic interlude to follow
The Adriatic coast highway reaches the Riviera and package tourism begins in earnest
Biokovo is declared a nature park, keeping the mountain above town undeveloped
The Biokovo Skywalk opens on the park road, high above the coast
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+385
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
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FAQs about Makarska
▸ When is the best time to visit Makarska?
Late spring and September are the sweet spot: warm sea, everything open, and room to move on the beach and the mountain. July and August deliver the fullest version of the town and the biggest crowds. Winter is very quiet, with much of the seafront closed and January the flattest month of all.
▸ How many days do you need in Makarska?
Three nights covers the town, a full day on Biokovo and a proper amount of beach. Five lets you add Split, the Imotski lakes or a ferry over to Brač without feeling rushed, which is how most people end up using it. Beach holidays here routinely run a fortnight.
▸ Do you need a car in Makarska?
Not for the town, which is walkable, and coast buses cover the Riviera villages. A car pays for itself on Biokovo, the Imotski lakes and the hinterland villages, but parking in the centre is tight in summer, so check your accommodation has a space before you book one.
▸ How do you get up Biokovo?
By the park road that climbs from above town in a long series of narrow hairpins to the Skywalk and on towards Sveti Jure; vehicle numbers are limited, so book ahead in season, and organised jeep trips run if you would rather not drive it. The road shuts in snow and in high wind.
▸ Can you day trip to Dubrovnik from Makarska?
You can, and tours do it, but it is roughly three hours each way on a busy coast road, so you get a few hours in the old town for a very long day. Better to break the journey there overnight, or to see Dubrovnik on the way south.
▸ What are the beaches like?
Pebble, not sand, with pines coming almost to the water and the seabed shelving gently: easy on children, hard on bare feet, so water shoes earn their place. The town bay is the busy one; the coves out past Osejava and the beaches at Brela and Tučepi are the escape.
▸ Is Makarska expensive?
Less than Dubrovnik, Hvar or Split for a comparable room, because it is a working town with a lot of apartment stock rather than a boutique destination. August is its own price bracket everywhere on this coast; shoulder season is markedly cheaper, and eating away from the harbour front costs less again.
More in Croatia
Dubrovnik
A complete ring of medieval walls around a car-free stone city, with the seafaring republic that built them still legible in every street.
✓ best Jun-AugHvar
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✓ best Mar-OctPlitvice Lakes
Sixteen lakes spilling into one another down a forested limestone valley, crossed on boardwalks laid just above the water, with the barriers between them still growing.
✓ best Apr, Jun-Aug