Sahara Beach

Why it is worth your time

Sahara Beach is the reward for those willing to walk: a sandy cove on the north of the Lopar peninsula, reached by no road, only a path through maquis and vineyards, some twenty minutes from the last car park. The name is no exaggeration, the cove is a bowl of yellow sand among low clay bluffs, with sea so shallow one wades a hundred metres to depth, warm from May to October. Sahara has been a naturist beach since old times and keeps that spirit to this day, relaxed and unarranged: no loungers, concessions or music, in summer just an improvised bar with drink and shade.

Precisely that bareness is the charm: whoever comes, comes for the sand, the silence and the sea, not for facilities. Bring water, food and a parasol, natural shade is nearly none, and oil your back for the walk out too. The neighbouring coves of Ciganka and Stolac offer the same sand with even fewer people, so from Sahara a whole day of roaming cove to cove is easily composed. Toward evening, when the day-trippers leave, the cove remains to those who know why they came.