Veli Lošinj

The prettier and quieter twin of Mali Lošinj, the small port of Veli Lošinj wraps a perfectly protected inlet where the water often looks glassy even in a bura wind. Its skyline is dominated by the Venetian-era Uskok Tower (1455), built as protection against pirate raids and now home to a small municipal museum with icon collections, model ships and an exhibition on Lošinj's remarkable 19th-century career as a sea-captain training centre — at one point per capita Veli Lošinj had more registered ship's masters than anywhere else on the Adriatic. Behind the tower, the ochre baroque church of St. Anthony the Hermit hides one of the finest small collections of Italian and Croatian religious painting on the coast, including a Madonna attributed to Vittore Carpaccio. Down at the harbour, the Blue World Institute runs the Lošinj Marine Education Centre — an accessible aquarium and research station devoted to the resident bottlenose dolphin community of about 200 animals that feeds year-round in the surrounding waters. A gentle 45-minute coastal footpath connects Veli to Mali Lošinj through pine and heather, ideal at dawn. Come in early June for the maritime tradition festival, or in autumn when the aromatic maquis fills the air with the scent of sage, myrtle and immortelle.