Lojena Bay

Lojena Bay cuts into the southwest coast of Levrnaka Island, inside Kornati National Park, and holds the beach of the same name — widely described as the only natural sandy beach in the whole Kornati archipelago, where every other shoreline is bare karst rock. It is the most photographed patch of sand in a park otherwise defined by stone, and it can be reached only by boat.

A National Park Made of Bare Stone

Kornati was declared a national park in 1980 and takes in 89 islands, islets and reefs strung along roughly 35 kilometres of the central Adriatic. Their combined land surface is only about 62 square kilometres, of which some 85 per cent is bare rock and barely five per cent is cultivated — mostly olives, which account for around 80 per cent of the worked land. Kornat, at 32.44 square kilometres, is by far the largest island and makes up about two-thirds of the park's land. The limestone has been weathered into cliffs, flat rock pavements and caves, and the seaward faces of the outer islands drop away in sheer walls into deep water. Roughly 200 Mediterranean plant varieties have been recorded across the archipelago, though centuries of grazing have left the vegetation heavily degraded.

These islands are not wilderness in the strict sense. They supplied the Venetian fleet, were grazed for generations, and were bought up by families from the town of Murter in the late nineteenth century. Most of the land is still privately owned, which is why walking is confined to marked paths, and drystone field walls and simple stone cottages remain the only architecture on most of the islands. Fishing inside the park is tightly limited so that stocks can regenerate.

Anchoring at Lojena and the Overnight Rule

The bay is shallow and well sheltered, with a sandy and pebble seabed; boats typically anchor around 15 metres off the beach in 5 to 10 metres of water. The clear, calm conditions make it a reliable stop for swimming and snorkelling rather than an overnight anchorage, and it gets busy in July and August. That is not only a matter of taste. The park authority permits overnight stays in a fixed list of eighteen bays, and Lojena is not among them; Anica, on the other side of the same island, is — as are Stiniva, Statival, Lučica, Kravljačica, Vruje, Opat, Ravni Žakan, Lavsa and the Piškera–Vela Panitula area, among others. Park moorings have been laid in the busiest bays, and the stated long-term goal is to establish moorings in all nineteen designated bays and prohibit free anchoring inside the park altogether.

Levrnaka Island and Konoba Levrnaka

Levrnaka is uninhabited, covers 1.84 square kilometres and rises to about 117 metres; a short, easy climb from the beach reaches a viewpoint over Lojena and the neighbouring islands, and it is worth the ten minutes it takes. There are no facilities on the beach itself, though the Ježina family's Konoba Levrnaka restaurant sits a short walk away on the same island, in the well-protected harbour on the far side, with its own jetty for mooring and the slow-cooked peka that Kornati konobas are known for. For yachts and gulets cruising out of Šibenik, Lojena is one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet charter from Sibenik, usually as a midday stop rather than an overnight.

Tickets and Rules of Conduct

Every vessel entering the park needs a ticket, and it is cheaper bought in advance — online through the park's webshop or at authorised sales points on the mainland — than from a ranger on the water. Tickets are date-specific and valid from midnight on the day of entry until noon the following day, and rangers do patrol and ask for proof of payment. Spear guns and firearms are banned outright, autonomous diving requires a park licence obtained in advance, fires may be lit only in settlements or specially marked places, and picking or damaging plants is prohibited. Even stacking stones into little towers is forbidden, because it strips the microflora from the rock. Four zones carry strict protection and are closed to visitors entirely.

When to Come and What to Bring

Lojena is at its best outside the July and August peak, when a dozen or more boats can be lying off a beach barely wide enough for them. Late May, June and September bring warm water, long daylight and far more room on the sand. Whenever you come, carry water, shade and whatever you intend to eat: there is nothing on the beach, no shop on the island, and the nearest supplies are back on Murter or in Šibenik. Families with small children should plan for that, and everyone should plan to take their rubbish away again — the reason Lojena still looks the way it does is that the park keeps it that way.