Hotel Podstine

Hotel Podstine goes down to the sea in stages, and the best of them is the first. Round the pool the terraces are wide, with plenty of room to sit, and of three nights in July they are what stayed with us. Below them smaller decks carry on towards the water. At the bottom is the hotel's own shore, rock rather than sand, with sunbeds set out in the full sun or under centuries-old pines, depending on how much sun you can take. Podstine says it is the only resort on Hvar with a private rocky beach front, which is a narrow category to win. The pool and sauna are for hotel guests only.

Ours was an Economy Twin or Double, roomier than the name promised, if not much to look at. Some recent guests have found the rooms small or dated, so book Podstine for what is outside them. Children are not turned away, and some rooms take an extra bed, but there is no kids club or creche, and a rock shore is short on sandcastles. It is a grown-ups' hotel, and the spa makes the case: it can be booked whole for an evening, sauna and pool included, with champagne and a couples' massage.

The one restaurant is Amo, Latin for "I love", which is a lot for a menu to live up to. Its tables are on a terrace among pines and palms, and fish and meat go on the grill outside, the fish from whatever local fishermen brought in that day. By day the beach bar does cocktails and snacks, and a smoothie bar looks after anyone pacing themselves. A scuba diving club works off the same rocks, for beginners and old hands.

Hvar town is twenty minutes on foot, by a waterfront path with no cars on it, and the walk ends at the harbour: white motor boats along the quays, palms round a small square. Boats leave from there for the Pakleni Islands, fifteen or twenty minutes across the water, though the hotel will arrange a sail or a speedboat out to them itself. A car opens up the old road inland, which climbs past the lavender fields and vineyards at Brusje and on to Stari Grad on the north coast. Coming home is the same twenty minutes along the water, until the town gives out, the rocks and pines take over, and the decks start stepping down to the sea.