Korčula
Croatia
A walled town on a spit of rock, laid out like a fishbone, on an island of vineyards and pine
Photos by Fabiana Rizzi, Joanna, Lothar Boris Piltz and Meg von Haartman on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Croatia
May to June, and September — much of the island closes in winter
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 135mm in Nov
Where it is
42.96°N, 17.14°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Book the Moreška, performed weekly in summer for visitors
- Climb the cathedral bell tower and look down on the fishbone of streets
- Take a taxi boat to Badija and swim off the rocks
- Cycle to Lumbarda for Grk and the sandy beach at Pržina
- Treat the Marco Polo house as a tower with a view, not as proof
- Check the boat timetable for the day you leave before you book anything else
Korčula travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Croatia
Mid-rangeEuro since 2023. Cheaper than Hvar and Dubrovnik for the same water. Cards work in the town; the boat taxis, village konobas and wine cellars are often cash.
ATMs & cards
Use Zagrebačka banka, PBZ or OTP machines. The independent machines by the harbour and the old town gate are the expensive ones. Decline conversion, and draw before heading out to the villages.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- machines by the harbour and the old town gate
Use these instead
- Zagrebačka banka
- PBZ
- OTP
The villages have little or nothing; draw in Korčula town.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Croatia
Very safeVery safe. The catamarans are the thing to plan around: the bura and the jugo cancel them at short notice, and out of season there may be one a day, so do not book a flight off the last boat. Scooters on the island roads and sea urchins on the rocks cause the injuries.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the catamarans in the bura or the jugo — cancelled at short notice, and out of season the next boat may be tomorrow
- scooters on the island road — narrow, winding and shared with coaches in summer
- the rocky entries off Badija and the town — sea urchins; water shoes
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Croatia visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Croatia
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for inland forest areas
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Coastal towns have clinics geared to the tourist season; islands are thinner, and serious cases go to Split or Zagreb.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodDrink Grk, the white grown in Lumbarda’s sand and almost nowhere else, and Pošip from the middle of the island. Žrnovski makaruni is the island’s hand-rolled pasta. Across the water on Pelješac are Plavac Mali reds and, at Ston, the oysters.
Travel tipsNightlife
Modest: a drink on the walls at sunset and dinner that runs late in summer. Out of season there is little evening at all.
- Massimo — cocktails on top of a defensive tower, up a ladder
- the western walls — the terraces facing the sunset over Pelješac
- the harbour front — for a late glass after dinner
Closing: Around 01:00 in season; the old town is small and lived in.
Getting around
Limited- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- Against a taxi
- Well under the street taxis, which is why the taxi drivers protested about it for years.
On the islands supply collapses out of season — in November a car may be twenty minutes away or nowhere.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Zagreb — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Croatia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Croatian
- HelloDobar danDO-bar dan
- PleaseMolimMO-leem
- Thank youHvalaHVA-la
- Yes / NoDa / Neda / neh
4 more phrases
- Excuse meOprostiteo-PROS-ti-teh
- How much is it?Koliko košta?KO-li-ko KOSH-ta
- The bill, pleaseRačun, molimRA-choon
- Cheers!Živjeli!ZHIV-yeh-li
Religion
Catholic
Strongly Catholic, particularly along the coast and in Dalmatia. Sunday Mass fills churches that are otherwise full of tourists.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Cover shoulders and knees to enter churches
- Greet with dobar dan on entering shops and restaurants
- Take coffee slowly — a kava can last an hour and that is the point
- Try the local wine rather than defaulting to Italian
Don't
- Do not call Croatia part of the Balkans casually, and avoid glib talk about the 1990s war
- Do not wear swimwear away from the beach; several coastal towns fine it
- Do not tip more than rounding up
- Do not compare Croatian to Serbian in company
Where to stay in Korčula
No Holistay rentals in Korčula yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Korčula on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Split SPU
3h 30mfrom the airport, roughly
Bus to Split harbour, then the catamaran to Korčula town, about 2h30 on the water.
Also worth pricing: Dubrovnik DBV — about two and a half hours: the road over the Pelješac bridge to Orebić, then the car ferry across.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
