Novalja Waterfront

Why it is worth your time

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.