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The strip of coast immediately south of Makarska is one of the most intensively developed in Croatia, reminiscent of the Spanish costas in the number of hotels and apartment blocks that straggle along the coast.

MAKARSKA, 10km south of Baška Voda, is a lively seaside town ranged round a broad bay, framed by the Biokovo massif behind and two stumpy pine-covered peninsulas on either side.

BAŠKA VODA, 3km southeast along the Magistrala (though you can just as easily walk along the coastal path), is less charming and more commercialized than Brela.

Surrounded by aromatic pine groves, the northernmost settlement of the Makarska Riviera, BRELA, sports a fine strand of beach next to a steep war­ren of alleyways, where a mixture of old stone houses and modern holiday homes pokes out from a blanket of subtropical vegetation. The beach, backed by a …