Lastovo Island

Lastovo is one of Croatia's most remote inhabited islands, situated approximately 70 kilometres southwest of Split in the southern Adriatic and accessible only by a multi-hour ferry journey or seasonal fast catamaran. The island served as a Yugoslav military base from 1945 and remained closed to foreign visitors until the military withdrew in 2006, two decades later than Vis. This isolation has preserved Lastovo's distinctive character: there are almost no package-tourism hotels, minimal commercial development, and the island's villages and fishing coves retain an unhurried traditional rhythm. Lastovo Town is the main settlement, unique in the Adriatic for being set back inland from the coast and oriented inward on a hillside, its 16th–17th-century stone houses with distinctive chimneys of varying height — a celebrated local architectural peculiarity — terraced into the slope above the valley. The island and surrounding sea are a protected nature park covering 53 square kilometres, encompassing 46 smaller islands and reefs. Lastovo has been designated a dark-sky site and is considered one of the best stargazing locations in Croatia due to negligible light pollution. The annual Lastovo Carnival (Poklad) held before Lent is one of Croatia's most distinctive folk festivals, involving the ceremonial capture, trial, and burning of a straw effigy on a donkey — a centuries-old tradition. Diving around the island's reefs and the wreck sites in the surrounding waters is exceptional, and the island hosts occasional liveaboard dive charters. Limited accommodation exists in private rooms and a handful of small guesthouses.