Stari Grad does not do flash, and Heritage Villa Apolon does not either. It is a restored 19th-century captain’s house on the waterfront of the island’s oldest town, and its appeal is almost entirely a function of where it is rather than what it contains.
That makes it an unusually easy property to be decisive about. It suits one kind of trip very well and another kind badly, and the price is the same either way.
What the position gets you
Stari Grad sits on the north coast, at the head of a long inlet, about 25 minutes by road from Hvar Town. Two things follow from that.
The first is quiet. Stari Grad takes a fraction of Hvar Town’s evening crowd, and empties further once the day boats have gone. If your picture of Hvar is the one from the party-island coverage, this is the opposite end of the island in every sense.
The second is the Stari Grad Plain, the UNESCO-listed agricultural landscape that begins just outside town — Greek field boundaries from 384 BC, still farmed. It is free, rarely crowded, and best in the last hours of light. Being able to walk or cycle to it from your accommodation is a genuine argument for basing here rather than visiting for an afternoon. Background is in our Stari Grad Plain guide.
What the position costs you
Everything that makes Hvar Town famous is 25 minutes away, and that journey has a last bus. The restaurant density, the marina, the bars along the riva, and — importantly — most of the boat departures leave from Hvar Town, generally early. A 7:30am Blue Cave departure from Hvar Town harbour is a different proposition when you are starting the day on the other side of the island.
That is manageable with a car, and awkward without one. Which is the honest test for this property.
Rooms: the trade-off worth knowing
The property distinguishes between waterfront-facing rooms and rooms at the rear, and the price gap between them widens in peak season.
Guest reports are consistent on the pattern here, and it is the usual one for a stone building on a Dalmatian waterfront: the rooms with the view are the warmer ones in August and pick up more sound from the harbour front. The rooms without it are cooler, quieter and cheaper.
So the decision is not “which is better” — it is what you are buying the room for. If the water view is the reason you chose the property, take it. If you will be out from nine until late and want to sleep well in August heat, the rear rooms are the better value and nobody who took one seems to regret it.
Featured Stay
Heritage Villa Apolon
Stari Grad, Hvar
Waterfront rooms book out months ahead for June–September. Check current rates and what the nightly price includes before you commit — that varies by season here.
Getting there without a mistake
This is the one logistical point that matters, and it is easy to get wrong.
Stari Grad is served by the car ferry from Split, which takes about two hours and docks a few kilometres outside town. The fast catamaran from Split lands at Hvar Town, on the other side of the island, and carries no vehicles. If you book this property and then book a catamaran ticket, you have a taxi across the island at the end of your journey.
Match the boat to the bed. The full breakdown is in our Split to Hvar ferry guide.
The verdict
Book it if you want the quiet half of Hvar, you are arriving on the Stari Grad car ferry, you have a car or do not mind not having one, and the UNESCO plain sounds like a reason to stay rather than a detour.
Book elsewhere if this is a short first visit, you want restaurants and boat departures on foot, or the evening on the riva is a meaningful part of why you chose Hvar. In that case take a harbour-view boutique in Hvar Town and spend the difference on a boat day.
If you are still weighing the two towns rather than the two properties, that decision comes first: Hvar Town vs Stari Grad.
How we assess a stay: this is a researched profile built from the property’s published information and from guest reports read in volume. We have not stayed here, and we do not write as though we have — our editorial standards explain why we think that is the more useful basis for a booking decision.
