When someone says to you: 'I know a perfect sandy beach!', Croatia is probably the last place you would think of. But I have been vacationing in Croatia every summer when I was younger, with my parents, of course, and we have discovered some beautiful beaches, that even some tropical island would be jealous of! One of those places is called Baška, and I have been there recently, this July. I must say, that this place is much more beautiful than I remember it from my childhood memories!
And there is one more important thing to note, this beach has a lifeguard on duty 24 hours per day, which is great for families with little kids! Well, I have not been there at night so I can not confirm whether this is true or not, but the staff member at the tourist information centre told us so. Also, if you like to swim long distances, let me tell you that the safety net is put over two hundred meters away from the shore, which means more than enough space for a nice swim.
The beach itself is well maintained and there is a small pine forest, surrounding it. Between the pines, there are benches where you can put your towels and other stuff. I think that this is the best thing to do – you have all your stuff at one place, in the shadow, meanwhile you can enjoy in the water.
Also, there is another thing that I like about this beach – all along it, you will see beach umbrellas. You do not have to pay to use them, but there is a principle 'first come, first served'. So if you come there early in the morning, it is almost guaranteed that you will be able to use one of those umbrellas the whole day. After all, it is nice to know that you do not have to go back to your hotel when the sun is the strongest, but you have a guaranteed shadowy place right at the beach.
How to get there?
The Baška beach is situated at the very bottom of the Croatian island, named Krk. To get there, you have to cross the bridge first. The bridge is usually closed on windy days and days with heavy rain, so it might happen that you will not be allowed to cross it until the weather gets better. To cross the bridge, you have to pay a small fee of a few euros, which goes per car and not per person. When on the bridge, you will see a breathtaking view of the bay below you.
Once you are on the other side, all you have to do, is follow the road signs that point to 'Baška'. It should not take you more than fourty – five minutes to get to your destination: Baška. The landscape through the island is quite nice, so the time will pass quickly.
Once you arrive in Baška, you can park your car in one of several parking spaces that this small town has to offer. They are all payable, but not very expensive. If you decide to take a daily ticket, it will cost you about five Euros, depending on the parking space. If you do not pay, you risk your car to be towed away. And this can be very expensive in Croatia.
There is also public transport available on the island, but from what I heard, it is not very reliable, and the buses pass by at very unusual hours. But if you do not have your own car, you might give it a try, although renting a scooter might be a better option.
To get to the beach from anywhere in town, just follow the signs that say 'Plaža – beach'. You will find those signs on almost every corner and there is almost no chance of getting lost. Once you are on the beach, all you have to do is find a nice spot and enjoy your day.
What to do there?
Well, besides the obvious, which would be enjoying in the water and getting some tan, there are much more things to do at Baška beach than you could possibly imagine.
One of them is snorkelling. The water is crystal clear, and there are a few nice coral patches not so far away from the shore, where you will definitely spot a lot of colourful fishes and even morays. I saw two of them and they look very scary from such a close distance. The sea there is generally very calm, so swimming is not difficult at all.
If you are not a big fan of snorkelling, you can still see what underwater life looks like in Baška. How? Actually, you have two options here:
One of them is an aquarium that specializes in sea life that you can find around the Krk island. If you are a fan of tropical fishes, the Krk island also has a tropical sea life aquarium, but I have not been there. And what is better than that? The aquarium is situated right above the Baška beach. I was very curious so I went there. And it did not live up to my expectations, sadly. Maybe I have chosen a bad time to go there, but I must say that the aquariums were dirty, and most of the animals were just resting motionlessly on the floor, so I was asking myself several times whether they are still alive or not.
They indeed have a lot of different species, but they do not have enough space to swim. They also had two sharks in a tank that was definitely too small for them. There was a little girl in front of the tank that said something like: 'They must be really sad, swimming in circlestheir whole life. ' And I must say that I have left this aquarium sad. I really expected that, since it is situated in the most touristic town on the island, that it will be well maintained.
But there was a positive thing: they also have a collection of sea shells and conches that you can find in the Mediterranean sea, and the collection itself is really big, and each item is also briefly described. But honestly, even considering the rather awesome sea shell collection, this place was so bad that it did not even deserve a separate entry to describe it.
The second option, which is in my opinion way more friendly to all the sea animals, and also way more exciting, is the glass bottom boat tour. The price is ten Euros per person, the tour lasts half an hour and it departs every hour throughout the day. You also have an option of the night tour, which is slightly more expensive, and it would cost you fifteen Euros per person. The boat departs from the pier in the middle of the Baška beach, and I was really surprised how much I could actually see. The only negative thing is that the tour is too short. The staff speaks several languages and they are very friendly.
Anoher thing to do there, are differen kinds of watersports. If you walk along the beach, you will notice several stalls, and each one of them represents a different watersports company. You can try virtually everything for a really low price. Some of the companies also offer happy hours. The price is in general the lowest at the time of the day when sun is the strongest, but as soon as you use enough sunscreen, you should be fine. At least I was.
Also, it might be a good idea to compare the prices at different stalls, because the watersports do not cost the same at every stall. Here are a few examples of what you can do: windsurfing, jet skiing, parasailing, riding tubes or banana boats, and my new favourite, wakeboarding. This one is slightly more expensive, but it is totally worth it, however, if you do not have a very good balance, this might not be a thing for you. The whole point of wakeboarding is standing on a board that lifts you out of the water. The description might seem boring, but in reality, this watersport is one of the most fun ones I have tried!
Besides the typical watersports, Baška beach also offers the following:
- Water slides: at the far end of the Baška beach, you will see three big water slides. This is a payable attraction, but it is totally worth the money. The more rides you purchase, the cheaper the price will be. For example, if you choose just one ride, you will pay about eighty Cents, but if you purchase a package of ten, the price will lover to approximately fifty Cents per ride. The good thing here is, that there is almost no queue, and the worst scenario that happened to me when I was there, were five people in front of me. But if you choose to go there, please be careful, because the stairs that lead to the top of the waterslides, are very slippery! Once you reach the top, you will be rewarded with an amazing view of the beach below you.
- Playground on the water: this is also a payable attraction, and it consists of a few trampolines, a moonwalk and an iceberg. To use this playground for one hour, you have to pay approximately five Euros, and you will get a bracelet that will allow you to acces the attractions. But believe me, it is not worth it. First of all, there is too many people there, who are very impatient. Secondly, the attractions are not in a very good condition. The inflatable iceberg is often not inflated enough, so there is no way you can climb to the top. And last but not least, this place only operates when the sun is the strongest. You really do not want to get a bad sunburn during your vacation, do you?
- SUP center (stand – up paddling): this sport is getting more and more popular, and the sea at Baška beach is calm enough even for absolute beginners. There are several SUP centers that offer beginner courses all along the beach. If you want, you can, of course, just rent an equipment without taking the course. But I have done that and I have immediately realised that this was a mistake. This sport migh seem easy, but once you are on your SUP board, you wish you would know how to stand on it and how to paddle. So my advice here is definitely to take a beginner course, which lasts one hour and costs twenty Euros – and the rent of the SUP board is included in that price!
- Trampolines: besides the trampolines on the water, there is also a place next to the water slides, where you can become a child again by jumping on the trampolines. The price is ridiculously cheap – one Euro for fifteen minutes, and guess what, I simply could not resist it! But the catch here is, that you get tired very quickly because of the heat. But hey, it is fun and it is cheap!
- Bungee trampolines: this is a much more fun version of an 'ordinary' trampoline. You get strapped on a few bungee cords, and when you start jumping, those cords lift you a few meters high into the air! It could not be more fun! And wait, there is more – you can easily do frontflips and backflips and feel like you are an artist in a circus.
- Water bikes: this sounds more fun that it actually is, but it is still worth a try. A water bike looks almost like a normal bike, but it has giant inflatable wheels, which will allow you to ride it on the water. Sounds fun, doesn't it? But here comes the bad part: this thing is so difficult to control that, for a moment, I was thinking I will not be able to get back to the shore again. And I was seriously considering just jumping into the water, swimming to the shore and leaving that water bike in the water. But that is not it yet. The water bike is very slow. It will take you a lot of time and effort to get somewhere. And considering the high temperatures in summer, it can get very exhausting.
- Zorbing on the water: if running around on the water on a giant inflatable ball sounds like a good thing to do, then you should definitely try water zorbing. On the shore, you have to squeeze yourself throug a tiny door and then you have to run like a hamster on its wheel to get the ball moving. It is fun until you fall, and when you fall, it is very difficult to get back up. But I guarantee you that you will laugh a lot. Once you figure out how to control the ball, you can get very far with it. Luckily, there is fence all around the water zorbing area, so you do not get to go to the open sea.
The Baška beach is also a very popular spot for swimming at night. The water here is particularly warm and if you thought that you will be the only person, swimming there at night, you could not be more wrong. But as I have mentioned above, the beach is big and you can easily find a quiet spot far away from other people. And if you decide to go swimming at night, there is another thing you can do at the same time – star gazing. Since Krk is a very small island and there are no big cities anywhere nearby, the stars are perfectly visible. Now imagine swimming on your back and staring into the night sky, full of stars. Seems awesome, right?
Can I eat there?
Yes, you can. Actually, I am sure that you will have a hard time to decide where to eat because there are so many restaurants to choose from! There is a promenade that goes all along the Baška beach, and it is filled with restaurants and bars, and each one of them is trying to lure you in by setting the lowest price possible for the dish of the day. In fact, you can eat in most of those restaurants for about ten to fifteen Euros per person, which is, in my opinion, a fairly good price. And the portions are huge!
If you are not into eating in very fancy restaurants, there is a very cheap alternative, called Pizza Cut. No, I did not misspel Pizza Hut. Pizza Cut is a small 'restaurant' right above the Baška beach, that serves pizza slices. Each slice costs one Euro, but in fact, you get one quarter of pizza, so this is really a good deal. And the pizzas are yummy, they make some unusual ones, too. There is a big TV screen there, and they mainly show football matches or MTV. There is one special thing that I like there. The place has no air conditioning, but they spray little sprinkles of water from the ceiling. In my opinion, this is way more effective than air conditioning. And more fun, too!
Ice cream, the promenade, buskers, live music and stalls
Almost each restaurant along the promenade, which is almost a kilometer long, also offers ice cream. The price is in general everywhere the same, and one ice cream costs approximately one Euro. By the way, in Croatia, they do not use Euros yet, they still use the 'kunas'. But there are plenty of places everywhere where you can exchange your money, although the best option is probably if you just withdraw the desired amount from an ATM.
But back to the original topic, the ice cream. Epecially in the evenings, when there is a bigger amount of people there on the promenade, you can get a very special ice cream for the same price. When a certain restaurant wants to attract potential guests, they make whole sculptures out of an ordinary ice cream, such as a snowman, they throw the ice cream in the air and catch it again and stuff like that.
The whole performance is more than nice to watch, but the bad thing is that when they start doing this, there is a big crowd of people in front of each place, who are just watching. So if you actually want the ice cream, you will have to wait until the show is over. As I have mentioned, they are making whole sculptures out ouf that ice cream, and it can happen that you will get a double portion of ice cream and two or three extra cones! This is what my sister got one night:
It seemed so nice that she did not want to eat it until it started melting. But the shape is not the only thing that is good about this ice cream. The thing, that is even better, are its flavours. Of course, you can get more ususal flavours, like vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.
But you should also try those more unusual ones. In one week, I have tested a lot of them, and my favourites were 'after eight' (Which tasted exactly like the real after eight mints! I do not even like them that much, but I had to try that ice cream to check out the taste. ), red bull (This one is actually pretty common, but I still like the taste, it is very refreshing. ), choco banana (This was my second favourite one. It is just like you are eating the Casali choco bananas, and you can even find some pieces of them in the ice cream the only bad thing about it is that you eat it too quick. ) and rose (This is probably my all time favourite flavour. I do not know how exactly to describe the taste, but it tastes exactly like the rose smells. ).
Those places also offer the so – called 'granita', in other countries known as slushee or the brain – freeze thing. This is actually ice, crushed into tiny pieces and flavoured with different fruit juices. My favourite is definitely mango, followed by coca cola. For me, this is an even better refreshment for a hot day than the ice cream.
Street artists are quite common in Croatia and the Baška beach promenade is not an exception. Here, you can see everything, from fire- breathing, skipping the rope that is on fire, to street magicians, musicians and others. Some of them happen to be at the same spot every day, and some of them are moving. My favourite was definitely a guy with a glass ball. You might say that this is nothing special. But he made this ball seem to be weightless and levitating. This is really something you should see with your own eyes.
Since there is a big crowd of people, passing by every night, I decided to ask a magician after the performance how much does he earn per day. And the answer really surprised me. He said that on an average good day, he gets about as much as three hundred Euros. Not bad, right? But it is also true that his performance was more than great, so he totally deserves it.
Last but not least, you will find hundreds of stalls along the promenade, selling both useful and useless things. And they are opened through the whole day, and until midnight. They are selling everything that you could possibly imagine, and here is just a few examples:
- A stall where everything costs 50 kunas(which is about eight Euros): this stall was selling clothes, shoes, accessories and even handbags for this price. And everything is fashionable, good – looking and, the most important, it looks durable. I bought a couple of things, handbag included, and I will see how long it will last.
- Souvenirs: apart from those typical souvenirs, such as fridge magnets and little sculpures, on those stalls, you can also find more authentic Croatian souvenirs, like wall clocks, made out of Brač stone, lavender, different home – made alcoholic drinks, and the frog. The frog is a souvenir that gained popularity in the last few years. But what is it? It is a wooden sculpture of the frog, and if you travel over it with a wooden stick, it will imitate the sound of the frog that lives in Croatia. It is a nice souvenir, but believe me, after one week of hearing this sound, I can just say that it is quite annoying! The frogs also vary in size, from tiny ones to ones that weigh about five kilos. If you buy one of those, you better not be travelling home by plane.
- Snorkellig equipment: everybody knows this type of stalls. They are selling mask, snorkels and fins, which are a fairly good quality, for a nice price.
- Clothes and shoes: you might spot some nice clothing items that cost few Euros, with signs Dolce&Gabbana, Gucci etc. on them, but obviously, they are not the original brand. But I must admit that they indeed look nice and you might as well mistake them for an original.
They are also selling plenty of other stuff, but there was simply too much things to list all of them. Other than that, you will also find some food shacks, where you can buy pancakes, sweet corn, soft ice, frozen yoghurt and other stuff.
At this point, I would like to point out that none of those sellers is annoying. I have been to several places (Caribbean definitely takes the first place here), where the beach vendors are so pushy that they can completely ruin your day. I know they have different mentality and they are trying to make money for a living from what they are selling, but come on, I am on vacation, leave me alone! There are also some places in Croatia when this can happen, but do not worry, you will not see this in Baška! Here, the sellers will politely approach you and ask you if you need any help. Then, they will back away until you need any help.
Last but not least, there are several beachside bars that play live music. There is usually a small entrance fee, which does not cost more than a few Euros. Some of those bars do not have the entrance fee, but you have to buy a drink once you are inside. Some of the musicians that play there, also take requests for the music. For example, one of them had a list of songs that he can playon each table, and after he had finished singing a song, he asked the audience which song he should play next. You could go to him with that list and showed him the desired song.
There was one special bar that caught my attention, named Porto Club Baška. First thing that I noticed, was the nice ambient, romantic lighting and comfortable – looking sofas inside. Second thing I noted was the singer, who had an awesome voice. I asked one of the staff members who he was, and he told me that his name is Zack Dust, he comes from the United States and he resides here in Baška every summer.
Seriously, his voice is awesome, and the list of songs he is singing, is awesome too. He was mostly singing covers of famous country songs. I noticed that he was there everyday and he was always singing the same songs, which is good if you go there only a few times, but I guess it can be annoying if you are a local and you would like to hear some new music after a while. But nevertheless, I really enjoyed it there.
The panoramic point
If you are tired of resting at the beach (yes, it can happen), you can take a walk up the panoramic point. But where is it? If you look towards the hills from a beach, you will see a yellow church at the top of one of the hills. This is where you have to go. The way is well marked and it is easy to do, however, I would suggest you to avoid going there when the sun is the strongest. And make sure you have enough water to drink with you.
The walk itself takes a bit more than half an hour, and even on the way there, you are rewarded with breathtaking views of the Baška beach. When you reach the top, you have to walk through the cemetery. This is where the view is the best. Only from here, you can see how big this beach actually is. It will also seem very crowded, but in reality, there is more than enough space for everyone. You can also take a look inside the church, but unfortunately, it was closed when I was there.
This panoramic point is also great for admiring other islands that are surrounding Krk. Most of them are uninhabited (you will only find goats or sheeps on some of them), and they seem very close to each other, but in reality, there are several kilometers of sea between them. One of the islands, which you can see from that panoramic point, is the Goli Otok (The Naked Island), which was known as a political prison during the first world war. I have visited it, and I will write about my experience there in one of my following entries.
The one and only downside
Since I have written so many nice things about the Baška beach above, you are probably asking yourself if I forgot to list the negative things. I have not forgotten, but in fact, I was considering whether to list the only one negative thing or not. But, at the end, I have decided to describe it, so you will know what to expect.
The only negative thing at the Baška beach are the toilets and showers. Yes, you have them, but they are situated at only one spot, so if you pick the part of the beach that is far away, you might have to walk more than ten minutes to get to the toilets and showers. Or, the easier solution is to just use the toilets in a bar or a restaurant, but to do so, you must order something first.
And what is so bad about the facilities at the Baška beach?
- First of all, they are not clean. The toilets reminded me of the ones that you can find at the rest stops. Seriously, I almost threw up. And next time, I went into the restaurant and ordered some food just so I could use the toilet. This could tell you how bad it was. There was even trash on the floor.
- Secondly, all the facilities are payable. If the facilities are payable, they should be clean. Well, that is my opinion. It is not expensive (about fifty Cents per person), but you can only pay in Kunas. But still, why would you pay for something that is not well maintained?
- Last, but definitely not least, the showers and the toilets are situated in the same room. So this basically means that the line is the same for both of them. And now imagine this: someone would like to take a shower (and we all know that some people take showers for like half an hour or more), and you would just like to use the toilet, but you still have to wait until the person before you is finished with showering.
Conclusion
The Baška beach has everything next to it. Other than the things I have described above, there is not much more to see and do in Baška. But, on the other hand, this is more than enough for a relaxing vacation. Everything is just a walking distance away, you have a beautiful beach, a lot of watersports to choose from, and there is not a single beach vendor that would annoy you. What else would you possibly want?
