Hvar Island.

Hvar is the long, lavender-scented island off Croatia's Dalmatian coast, separated from the mainland by an hour of ferry. Stari Grad — a 4th-century BC Greek harbour — anchors the calm side; Vrboska sits in a fjord-like inlet; Jelsa and Sveta Nedilja look south toward Vis. The town of Hvar itself is louder, but the rest of the island is one of the slowest in the Mediterranean: morning swims off limestone shelves, long lunches in stone konobas, and evenings that smell of pine and salt.