Photo: BiljanaST / CC BY-SA 4.0
Rab town announces itself with four bell towers in a row on a narrow peninsula, the skyline that has stood for its island since the Middle Ages. Three parallel streets, Lower, Middle and Upper, thread the stone core past palaces and the park forest of Komrčar. In late July the Rapska fjera turns the whole town into a medieval crafts festival with crossbowmen.
The island's north answers with something Dalmatia rarely offers: the Lopar peninsula and its Paradise Beach, real sand shallow enough for toddlers.
11 places.
Start with Great Bell Tower, Paradise Beach, and Kalifront Peninsula. After that it depends on what you enjoy: the guide holds 11 places in Rab, sorted into sights, activities, food and shopping, so you can skip whole categories that bore you.
Great Bell TowerFollow the hidden gems: 7 places that rarely make the guidebooks, most of them a few streets off the main drag. Great Bell Tower, Paradise Beach, and Kalifront Peninsula are good ones to start with.
Paradise BeachA focused day covers the essentials. Combine two or three nearby sights with a long lunch, and leave room for whatever you stumble into: all 11 places are grouped by area, so nothing forces you across town.
Goli OtokDay trips within reach of Rab, plus the routes and quiet corners our editors keep coming back to.
A 12th-century bell tower, at 26 metres the finest on the Adriatic; the climb leads to a lookout over Rab's roofs.
Photo: BiljanaST / CC BY-SA 4.0
A mile of sand at Lopar with knee-deep sea for hundreds of metres, the Adriatic's most famous sandy beach.
Photo: Isiwal / CC BY-SA 3.0
A former political prison camp on a bare island opposite Rab, today a haunting excursion among abandoned buildings.
Photo: Roberta F. / CC BY-SA 3.0
Open the category you need now, then take the full set with you in the app.
A mile of sand at Lopar with knee-deep sea for hundreds of metres, the Adriatic's most famous sandy beach.
Photo: Isiwal / CC BY-SA 3.0
A former political prison camp on a bare island opposite Rab, today a haunting excursion among abandoned buildings.
Photo: Roberta F. / CC BY-SA 3.0
Places unlock as you reach them, with a passport that fills up as you explore.
