Makarska

A glass-floored lookout jutting from a Biokovo cliff edge in a horseshoe, with a drop of hundreds of metres and the Makarska coast beneath your feet. Getting there means paying at the park gate and climbing a mountain road barely wide enough for one car.

At 1762 metres the highest summit of Biokovo, topped by a small chapel of St George and a transmitter tower. A car can reach the top, though the winding narrow road eats up nearly an hour, and the summit stays far colder than the beach, so pack a jacket.

The old town's main square before St Mark's Cathedral, centred on a statue of the eighteenth century poet and friar Andrija Kacic Miosic. A fruit and vegetable market sets up each morning in the lane beside the cathedral, so it buzzes early.

A shell museum inside the Franciscan monastery, its glass cases crammed with thousands of shells gathered from seas around the world. A visit takes just 30 minutes, making it a good escape from the summer midday sun.

Paths run through the pinewood covering the headland east of the harbour, with small coves hidden among the rocks. Even on days when the town beach is packed, the rocks where the forest trail runs out leave room for a swim.

A small peninsula curling round the harbour's west side, with a lighthouse and the chapel of St Peter at its tip. Around sunset its rocks fill with people sitting to watch the light fade beyond Brac.

A white pebble beach along a cape at Brela, north of Makarska, with the Brela Stone, a rock islet topped by a pine, sitting just offshore. In summer cars fill every space soon after breakfast, so walking in along the coastal path works better.

A garden a Franciscan friar laid out on an old village site on the Biokovo slope, growing the mountain's native plants among the rocks where they stand. No ticket is needed, and the ruined fort above it looks out over the whole coast.

A pilgrimage site modelled on Lourdes in France and founded in the early 1900s, with a grotto altar and Stations of the Cross on a pinewood slope. On 15 August, the Assumption, it overflows with pilgrims and the roads around it jam.

Palm promenade, cafes and fish restaurants follow the horseshoe harbour, where fishing boats moor beside excursion boats. The car ferry to Sumartin on Brac leaves from here, so a day trip to the island starts on the first morning sailing.

Over Biokovo near Imotski, two lakes fill pits left by collapsed cave roofs. Red Lake, 287m deep, is the deepest known sinkhole holding a lake, seen only from the cliff rim. Blue Lake drops in summer, opening a path down to its floor.

Shingle at the foot of rock cliffs between Makarska and Tucepi. It is reached only on foot, about 30 minutes down a trail from Osejava forest park, with no road. Nude bathers use one end, so know which rocks are theirs before you go.

South of Makarska the Neretva splits into many channels before the sea, with mandarin orchards lined up between them. Villagers take visitors through the reeds in old flat-bottomed lada boats. Water birds abound, and a dawn trip brings herons close.