How Hvar got hip

Stylish hotels have never been Croatia's strong point but one island has
given its accommodation a radical makeover. Annabelle Thorpe reports
The Observer, Sunday May 18 2008 Annabelle Thorpe

Strolling into Hvar Town in the late afternoon sunshine, for a moment I feel as though I have arrived in the middle of a tourist board photo shoot. It looks too brochure-perfect; the polished cobbles of the piazza gleam in the rich sunlight, chisel-jawed yachting types and blondes in skimpy frocks curl up on rattan sofas beneath pristine white parasols, sipping cold beers and caipirinhas that come with neat heaps of roasted almonds and a Café del Mar soundtrack. A cluster of terracotta-roofed houses clambers up the hillside behind the harbour, opposite a glittering sea stretching out to some hazily blue islands.
Blessed with a picturesque natural harbour, elegant 17th-century piazza and a striking Renaissance cathedral and arsenal where ships once docked for repairs (now a modern art gallery), the island of Hvar has always been one of Croatia's biggest draws.
Beyond Hvar Town, the rest of the island is relatively untouched by tourism - a few sleepy villages dotted among the lavender-clad fields that colour the island mauve in summer and infuse the air with the shrub's sweet scent.
Yet until recently Hvar Town suffered, as does much of Croatia, from accommodation that was average at best. Hotels, though affordable, tended to be either the standard 1970s horrors so beloved of Croatian architects, or a clutch of properties around the harbour in Hvar Town that had seen better days.
Nine of the island's hotels were owned by one company, Suncani Hvar, but when that company was bought by a group of investors a few years ago, with an eye to Hvar Town's massive potential, things began to change. One by one, Suncani Hvar's hotels have been closing, then reopening as sleek boutique properties - with prices to match - that are luring the kind of crowd who normally holiday on the French Riviera. The first three refurbished properties, the Riva, Adriana and the Amfora - a more family-friendly resort with a state¬of-the-art spa - have recently reopened. Next year will see the relaunch of the Pharos and the Palace, which looks out over the main piazza and was the first hotel on the island.
I check into the Riva, open my shutters, and lean out to look across the glistening yachts to where the sun is just beginning to droop. My room is cool and sleek, in grey and muted reds with an open-plan, smoked-glass bathroom. It's the kind of room I'd expect to find in a design hotel in Barcelona or Berlin; a familiar format, pulled off with some panache. It's just a little unexpected to find it in Croatia.
The hotels certainly bring a much-needed injection of style; the Riva's bar and restaurant, both on the waterfront terrace in front of the hotel, are very Ibiza-chic; cubist sofas in varying shades of brown, sunglasses de rigueur - particularly after dark. Next day I drop into the Adriana, with its sleek cocktail bar on the ground floor and a roof terrace - cabanas flowing with white drapes, sumptuous day beds and an inviting pool - the kind of place that wouldn't look out of place in a sleek interiors magazine. The flipside of this boutique hotel development is that it is bound to change Hvar. It has always been the playground for the Croatian elite; Wimbledon winner and national darling Goran Ivanisevic likes nothing more than to sail into the harbour in time for sundowners at the super-cool Carpe Diem bar, while Roman Abramovich has been known to drop by on his yacht.
But Hvar Town is an egalitarian place; that evening, eating supper on the main piazza, I hear German families bickering, Euro-aristos braying, American backpackers and Brit yachties debating which bar to visit for late-night drinks.
Until now, simple pensions and affordable hotels meant it was accessible to everyone, but as the chic hotels start to dominate, smaller properties are struggling to compete. A few independents, such as the charming Hotel Podstine, a short walk from Hvar Town, remain, but their numbers are dwindling.
For now, at least, the town retains an appealing mix of its simpler past and more glamorous future. Days are spent on boat taxis, drifting off to the unspoilt beaches on the nearby Pakleni Islands or the tiny coves that dot Hvar's coastline. And as the sun goes down and Hvar Town really comes alive, there's still a choice of how to spend your evening; reassuringly touristy restaurants on the main piazza or sophisticated eateries such as Luna, tucked away in the cobbled alleys, where sea bass comes roasted to perfection in olive oil and capers.
One evening, I sat among the beautiful people at the Riva hotel, sipping a cocktail, then slipped into the backstreets for supper at a konoba (a traditional restaurant serving simple, local food) where a plate of mussels, salad and a cold beer cost almost the same as my earlier Cosmopolitan.
But the change is unstoppable; talk is of Hvar becoming the new Cannes and as more hotels get a stylish makeover, this looks increasingly likely. This summer the crowd stepping on and off the boats to the Pakleni Islands will be a little glitzier. Go now, before it becomes the exclusive preserve of the Euro-elite.