Croatia: Playing Bumper Boats in Hvar

Hvar is surrounded by many little islands, so we decided to rent a boat for the day to go exploring!

The speedboats were all rented by the time we got there, so we ended up with a funny little 5 HSP boat for about $10 each for the day. We decided Ashley wasn’t allowed to drive when she wanted to pick boats based on the statement: “looks like it would be okay if I hit something with this one”. All we needed was a map and our El Capitan, Kailey, and we were ready to set sail!

It was great having the freedom to cruise around and anchor wherever we wanted to go for a swim. We pulled into some hidden coves and relaxed on secluded beaches.

We all took turns driving the boat, which was quite easy. Thank goodness, because really none of us but Kailey had experience maneuvering a boat. The challenging part was anchoring. Our tiny boat and its even tinier anchor were so light that, if we couldn’t rope tie ourselves to a nearby rock, we were constantly at risk of floating away.

Whenever I travel, I’m reminded about how carefree most of the world is. For a boat rental in Canada, you’d need a boating license and then you (and every member of your party) would have to sign about 35 different forms before you could head out. Here you can fill a boat with however many people you like, with no prior boating experience, and send them into the sea! You can argue which way is better, but I just always find it so interesting to observe.

Our most humorous struggle was when our boat motor wouldn’t start and the current starting carrying our little boat out of the cove we were anchored in. Thankfully, a fancy yacht had parked just outside the cove minutes before and it was only moments before the skippers arrived in their dinghy to fix the problem! Coincidence or not that we bumped into these two at a nightclub later that night? I’ll let you decide…

We stayed out for over 6 hours and there was still so much more to see and do. This is definitely a must-do in Hvar!