Jelsa and Vrboska

The tiny port and fishing village of JELSA sits prettily by a wooded bay 10km east of Stari Grad. Tucked away behind a nineteenth-century waterfront, the old quarter climbs up the hill, a maze of ancient alleys and lanes; the two big hotels on either side of the bay, fronted by concrete bathing platforms, seem oddly out of place. Just off the quayside is the charming octagonal sixteenth-century Chapel of St John (Crkva svetog Ivana), squeezed into one of the old squares and overhung by the balconies of the surrounding Renaissance buildings. Up from here is the town's fortified parish church, which managed to resist Uluz Ali's attack of 1571, though it's hard to make out the original design as the facade and bell tower were added in the nineteenth century. Opening times are unpredictable - if you do manage to get in, look out for the wooden Gothic statue of the Madonna (brought here from the mainland in 1539 to keep it safe from the Ottomans) on the high altar.You can avoid the crowded beaches by taking a taxi boat to the Glavica peninsula near Vrboska.
Buses stop about 300m inland from the harbour, where you'll find a tourist office on the western side.

Vrboska
The sleepy little village of VRBOSKA strings along the side of another of the island's deep bays, about 4km from Jelsa and easily reached by bus or water taxi, or by following the coastal path.The bus stop is on the edge of the old village, five minutes' walk along the quayside from the tourist office, which has a small cache of rooms.
The two sides ofVrboska, on either side of the inlet, are joined by three small and picturesque bridges. Perched above the quayside is the unusual, fortified St Mary's Church (Crkva svete Marije) dating from 1580, which was extensively fortified to resist attacks from pirates and the Turks. The result is a high, unadorned structure with a crenellated tower on the southeast corner, and a hefty bastion on the northwest - a protruding, angular structure that looks like the prow of a beached dreadnought. The interior is partly paved with grave slabs and from the sacristy you can get onto the roof for a view of the town below. A couple of minutes away, the Baroque St Lawrence's Church (Crkva svetog Lovre)
Small has a art collection, including a stagy-looking polyptych depicting St Lawrence flanked by John the Baptist and St Nicholas on the high altar, nowadays attributed to Paolo Veronese, although local tradition ascribes it to Titian. To the right, there's a Madonna of the Rosary by Leandro Bassano.
There's a series of beaches, including a couple of naturist ones, on the Glavica peninsula 2km northeast of town.You can hill find quieter spots by walk- ing north from Vrboska, straight over Kačtilac hi(where there's a ruined tower), to the isolated bays of Hvar's north coast. From here there's a great view of the southern flanks of Brač and, away in the distance, the stark ridge of Mount Biokovo on the mainland.

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