Novalja. Things to do, map and hidden gems

The Lun olive gardens are Pag's oldest living inhabitants: on the island's far northern cape, around the village of Lun, grows a protected garden of tens of thousands of wild olive trees, among which many are older than a thousand years, and the oldest trees measure their age in a millennium and a half. The landscape is unique on the Adriatic: silver crowns rise straight from white karst, kilometres of dry-stone walls braid between them, laid by generations without mortar, and sheep pass to this day through the same gaps as hundreds of years ago. Through the groves lead arranged paths with boards, lookouts and resting spots, so the visit composes itself as an easy walk of an hour or two; in summer set out earlier, shade is rare and the stone hot. By the entrance work tasting rooms of Lun olive oil, which owing to the wild variety carries a sharper, richer taste than the tame ones; a bottle from Lun is northern Pag's smartest souvenir. From Novalja one drives half an hour to Lun on a road along the sea's very edge, itself an experience. Few places show so convincingly how old the Mediterranean is.

The Novalja waterfront is the town's living room: a promenade along the deeply drawn-in harbour, where fishing boats, excursion boats and sailboats tie up at the stone piers, and beside them cafés, pastry shops and taverns line up in two rows with terraces to the very sea. The waterfront's rhythm is best described by the day: in the morning the fishermen unload their nets and the town smells of coffee, in the afternoon the bathers return from the sea, and in the evening the riva becomes the corso on which all of Novalja is met, from families with ice cream to crews just warming up for Zrce. From the riva the excursion boats leave for Rab, Losinj and Pag's hidden coves, so this is also the departure point for days at sea; tickets are bought directly on the pier. The view across the harbour catches sunsets that light exactly over the bay's entrance, which makes the western benches the town's most sought-after property. Whoever wants to understand Novalja needs no beach but an hour on the riva: a town that works by day as a fishing harbour and by evening as a stage, and stays itself in both editions.

Zrce is a beach with two lives and works both excellently: by day this is a wide shingle crescent above the turquoise sea of the Pag bay, with loungers, families and water attractions, and by night the most famous going-out address on the Adriatic, with clubs that put Novalja on the map of the European summer. The festival season runs from June to September, when names play on Zrce for which people come from half of Europe; whoever dislikes bass comes before noon, when the beach looks like any other big Kvarner cove, only tidier and better equipped. The shingle is coarse and clean, the sea deepens quickly, showers, cabins and catering abound, and a lifeguard service keeps watch in season. The beach is reached by car or by summer buses from Novalja, the car parks are roomy and charged. Two things are worth knowing: the prices are club prices, and peace is not sold here in July and August. For quiet choose the neighbouring coves; for one day on which a beach becomes a stage, Zrce has no competition.