One day in Makarska, station by station

Start where the town meets itself. Order at a table on the square, look up: the co-cathedral on one side, the monument to the poet-monk Andrija Kačić Miošić in the middle, and the grey Biokovo wall filling the sky behind both. At this hour the square belongs to locals and the light is still soft on the stone.

Two steps up from the square. The co-cathedral was built in the mid eighteenth century from pale stone quarried on Brač, the island you will see all day across the channel. One slender bell tower, baroque altars, a marble pulpit. Outside mass the door usually stands open and it costs nothing.

Six minutes south along the water. The Franciscans have watched this shore since the fifteenth century, and inside their cloister sits the Malacological Museum: thousands of shells and sea snails from every ocean, gathered over decades. It is the odd, specific kind of collection a coastal town builds when it has time. Step onto the terrace afterwards, the Adriatic starts right behind the garden.

Walk the stone breakwater to its tip. From out here you see the whole town front at once, the bell tower against the wall, and the ferry to Sumartin on Brač sliding past close enough to wave at. It takes fifteen minutes and it is the best free view in Makarska before you have gained a single metre of altitude.

Ten minutes west of the harbour, then the paths take over. Follow the loop to the small church and the lighthouse at the tip; the rocks on the seaward side drop straight into clear water. Bring shoes you can walk in and swim from, there is no sand here and no need for any.

Back along the palms. The Riva is the town's outdoor living room and at this hour it is also its shadiest street. Eat slowly. The two hours after lunch are the worst on the mountain and the best in a museum, which is why the next stop is indoors.

A handful of rooms on life between the wall and the harbour: fishing, seafaring, the everyday of earlier generations. Forty minutes is enough, and afterwards you read the streets outside differently, which is the whole point of a small museum.

East of the old town the promenade turns into a cliff path under pines. Resin and salt, the sea against the rocks below, the Biokovo directly overhead. Walk far enough and the noise of the town simply stops. This is also the trailhead for the next stop, so decide here whether you have the legs for it.

The forest path from Osejava runs about half an hour south to a bay of white pebbles under high cliffs. No road reaches it, which is exactly why it is worth the walk and why you carry your own water. Late afternoon the cliff throws shade across the pebbles and the water still holds the day's warmth.

Makarska walks in the evening, the whole town at once, up and down the Riva under the floodlit wall. Take a table at the water, order late, and let the night assemble itself around you. The lit Biokovo above a harbour full of masts is the picture people take home.

The wall you looked at all day is drivable. Thirteen kilometres of hairpins from the park gate lead to the Skywalk at 1228 metres, with Makarska directly under the glass. Entry is capped per hour, so it needs planning; the separate guide has the times, prices and the rules of the road.

Half an hour north along the coast road, the Cetina comes out of a gorge straight into the sea, with pirate fortresses on the cliffs above the old town. It is the natural counterweight to a beach day and works as an afternoon.

An hour up the coast is Diocletian's retirement palace, except it never became a ruin: people moved in and never left, so the cellars, the peristyle and the laundry lines are all the same building. Easy as a day trip, and the road back at dusk is worth the drive on its own.