Makarska Riviera Guide: Best Beaches & Towns Under Biokovo

The Makarska Riviera is a 60 km ribbon of white-pebble beaches on Croatia’s central Dalmatian coast, running from Brela in the northwest to Gradac in the southeast, with the grey wall of the Biokovo mountains rising straight up behind it. This is the mainland’s best stretch of beach that needs no ferry: pine-shaded coves, water the colour of a swimming pool, and the islands of Brač and Hvar sitting just offshore. The trick to getting it right is choosing the correct town to base in, because the seven main resorts are more different from each other than the brochures let on.

The other thing that makes this coast unusual is vertical. You can swim off a pebble beach in the morning and, within a 40-minute drive, stand on a glass platform 1,228 m up the mountain looking down on the whole Riviera. Biokovo tops out at Sveti Jure, 1,762 m, one of the highest peaks in Croatia, and the road up it is a genuine reason to come, not just a beach backdrop. So this splits two ways: where you sleep and swim, and the mountain above it.

Which town should you base in?

All seven resorts share the same pebble-and-pine formula, but the atmosphere and the price change a lot as you move down the coast. From northwest to southeast:

• Brela - the prettiest and the priciest. Home to Punta Rata, the beach that lands on “most beautiful in Europe” lists, and a quiet, upmarket feel. Great for the beach, thin on nightlife.
• Baška Voda - a lively small resort with good beaches and a pleasant promenade, a notch cheaper and busier than Brela. A solid family middle ground.
• Makarska - the capital of the Riviera and the only town with real evening life: a big palm-lined harbour, the most hotels and restaurants, bars, and a beach curling round the wooded Sv. Petar peninsula. Base here if you want things open after dark.
• Tučepi - just south of Makarska, family-focused, with the Riviera’s longest beach.
• Podgora, Igrane, Živogošće, Drvenik and Gradac - progressively quieter, cheaper and more local as you go south. Gradac, at the far end, has the long Gornja Vala beach and the lowest prices.

The short version: Makarska for buzz and choice, Brela or Tučepi for the best beaches, Baška Voda for a balance, and the southern villages for quiet and value. There is a bus along the coast, so you are not locked to one beach wherever you stay.

Makarska itself is more than a bed for the night. Its old core wraps around Kačić Square and the parish church of St Mark, the seafront Franciscan monastery holds a well-known shell (malacological) museum, and the pine-covered Sv. Petar peninsula gives you a shaded loop walk straight from the harbour. It is the one town on the coast that still feels like a town when the day-trippers leave.

The beaches

Get one thing straight first: like almost all of Croatia, these beaches are pebble, not sand. What makes them special is the fine white stone, the Aleppo pines that shade the back of the beach, and water so clear it looks filtered.

• Punta Rata (Brela) - the star, and rightly famous: fine white pebble under old pines, with the little pine-topped Brela Stone standing just offshore as its trademark. It flies a Blue Flag, so facilities and water quality are good. It fills up in August; come early.
• Nugal - a naturist pebble cove under forested cliffs, a 15-20 minute walk south of Makarska. The classic escape when the town beaches are packed.
• Tučepi - the longest continuous beach on the Riviera, backed by hotels and cafés, easy for families.
• Podgora - a pebble-and-sand mix with the mountain wall as a backdrop, good for swimming.

A few practicals worth knowing: the pebbles are easy on the eye but hard on bare feet, so water shoes earn their place, and the pines make midday shade simple to find. Many beaches set flat rock or concrete sunbathing platforms beside the pebble, and the shallow, gentle entries at Tučepi and Podgora suit small children better than the steeper coves. Because the coast faces southwest towards the islands, the beaches hold the sun for most of the day, and the water is warm - 24 to 26°C through high summer, and still swimmable into October. Our best beaches in Croatia guide sets Punta Rata against the rest of the country, and when the sea is warmest has the month-by-month temperatures.

Biokovo Nature Park and the Skywalk

The mountain is not just scenery. Biokovo Nature Park protects 196 km² of the massif, and a paved road climbs it in a series of tight hairpins to viewpoints, hiking trailheads and, near the top, Sveti Jure at 1,762 m. The massif is also a botanical hotspot of rare endemic plants, and the small Kotišina botanical garden clings to its lower slopes just above Makarska. The headline is the Biokovo Skywalk (Nebeska šetnica), a horseshoe of glass that opened in 2020 and juts about 11 m out over the cliff edge at 1,228 m, with nothing but air and the sea far below under your feet. On a clear day you can see the length of the Riviera, the islands, and on the best days across to Italy. Our full Biokovo Skywalk and Nature Park guide covers the tickets, the drive up and the hiking in more depth.

A few things worth knowing before you drive up, because this catches people out:

• You must book vehicle entry online. The park caps entry at 20 cars per hour to keep the narrow road moving, and in July and August the slots go. Turning up on spec in high season can mean not getting in.
• Tickets (2026): around €10 per adult in April-May and October, €15 in June-September; children under 7 are free. The ticket covers the road and the Skywalk.
• The road is open roughly April to late November and is narrow, steep and winding - drive it slowly, in a car you trust, and not in fog. If you would rather not, organised Skywalk tours from the coast take the driving off your hands.
• On the glass platform itself there is a 10-minute limit and a cap of 30 people at once, so allow time in summer.

The reason the drive is worth it is the contrast: nowhere else in Croatia do you go from a Mediterranean beach to a bare 1,700 m limestone summit in under an hour. The view down over the coast, with the islands laid out in the haze, is the single best thing to do on the Riviera that is not swimming.

How to get there and around

There is no airport on the Riviera. The nearest is Split (SPU), about 70 km northwest; from there you drive the coastal D8 through Omiš, or take the A1 motorway to the Zagvozd exit and drop down to the coast, reaching Makarska in a bit over an hour. Coming from the north, the road crests the Dubci Pass with a first, wide view over Brela and the northern Riviera.

Without a car, buses run the coast frequently - the Split-Makarska-Dubrovnik line stops at the main towns, with Split to Makarska taking around 1 hour 15. Be warned that in summer the coastal road clogs, especially on Saturdays when the weekly rentals change over, so leave a buffer either side of a ferry or flight. For islands, two car ferries cross to the Adriatic islands: Makarska to Sumartin on Brač takes about an hour, and Drvenik to Sućuraj on Hvar further south is about half an hour. Timetables are seasonal, so check Jadrolinija before you rely on a crossing. Our Brač island guide covers the far end of the Makarska ferry, and Split travel guide covers your likely arrival city.

When to go, and fitting it into a trip

June and September are the sweet spot: sea already or still warm, the Biokovo road open, and far fewer people than July and August, when the beaches and the mountain slots both fill. May is fine for the coast but the sea is cooler; winter is very quiet and the Biokovo road closes.

The Riviera sits squarely on the coastal drive between Split and Dubrovnik, so it slots into a bigger trip without a detour - see our Dalmatia coast route from Split to Dubrovnik, which runs right past Brela. It also works as a long day trip from Split if you only want a taste, though a place this good deserves a few nights. Base in Makarska, pick your beach town by mood, and give one clear morning to the mountain.

Biokovo ticket prices, park hours, the mountain road season and ferry timetables change each year - confirm current details with pp-biokovo.hr and Jadrolinija before you travel. Last checked: 21 July 2026.