Nightlife In Croatia — Small Bars & Big-Time Fun
The nightlife in Croatia does not jump out at you like it does in some other places in the world.
It’s not exactly hidden, like in underground caves or anything, but it doesn’t reach out and grab you with big neon signs and velvet ropes. Instead, the bars and clubs sit disguised as quiet restaurants for much of the night or are squeezed into tight alleys.
Oh, Croatia has its big clubs to be sure. In the city of Split there is Central The Club, a multi-level nightclub like can be found in any other major city, for instance. But overall, the nightlife scene in Croatia must be found.
I know this from personal experience because I was wandering around the Palace (or the Old Town as locals call it) in Split, wondering where to find the nightlife. The Palace area is a maze of small streets in no apparent orderly fashion and takes a few times walking through it to get your bearings. I used an unusual water fountain — the water poured from above and into a giant cup — as a landmark.
It took a few laps but I eventually found some fun and lively bars, my “big three” being Sanctuary, the very lively Charlie’s Bar (fortunately, the two places are just steps from one another) and O’Hara’s, a small Irish bar that has people flowing in and out of it like the tide in the sea.
Feeling I had conquered the nightlife in Split, I then headed off to the party island of Hvar. I had heard about Hvar for years, and had the vision of it being Croatia’s version of Mykonos in the Greek Islands, where you start at a beach bar in the daytime and — after a solid early-evening power nap – go crazy at night in the many bars in town.
Well it wasn’t quite that way. The days were quite tho let me state that I was there in mid-May before the onslaught of summer party tourists arrive when the Carp Diem Beach Bar roars into its full wild self. Still, the first time I went to Mykonos was also in mid-May and while the bars were hardly at their peak, I could certainly sense the wildness to come in another month.
Hvar was a bit like Split in that I had to go exploring to find the best bars. And find them I did, one in an alley just past a couple of “hangout” bars in the harbor and another around the corner from it in another alley.
Kiva Bar — or really Kiva Bars – instantly reminded me of the Skandinavian Bar in Mykonos because it’s not one but three bars tuked into little spots. Each one is different and people don’t stay in them but rather go in to get drinks and then meet and mingle in the alley. It was a scene very familiar to me and I felt at home there.
But it wasn’t until I found the other bar, Lola Bar, that I really found my favorite bar on Hvar. I loved the vibe of the place. The bartenders were smiling and laughing, the music was fun 80s-ish party music and not the modern dance tunes (a welcome change becuase nearly every bar in the world plays the latter and it gets redundent after a while). I sat on a barstool in the alley and had a great time.
I used that positive exprience as a launching pad to find what other bars might be happening during the day and night during the peak party season and without too much difficulity came up with a pretty good and complete guide to the bars and nightlife in Hvar.
Yes, I had to work on it a bit but it’s all research to me and now after reading this piece you can go straight to the hotspots. Although I do encourage you to get out and explore a bit, too, because sometimes getting there is almost as much fun as being there.
This story is a result of my time spent traveling to Croatia for my blog, PubClub.com. On it, you can find many more stories about this country, the places to visit, things to do, its food and drinks and, of course, its nightlife.
