Budikovac island

Veli Budikovac — usually shortened to Budikovac — is a small, all but uninhabited island in the Vis archipelago off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. It lies between the islet of Ravnik and the south-eastern shore of Vis, roughly 3 kilometres south-east of the village of Rukavac and about fifteen minutes away by boat. Its near-twin, Mali Budikovac (Little Budikovac), sits immediately alongside; the smaller island covers 0.317 square kilometres and has a coastline of some 3.46 kilometres.

The Blue Lagoon

The island's main draw is the sheltered bay on its south-western side, universally known as the Blue Lagoon. A pebble beach sits at the head of the bay, and the water over the pale seabed turns an intense turquoise in bright light, which is why the spot appears on almost every excursion itinerary leaving Vis. The middle of the bay is shallow, so boats need to approach with care and read the water rather than assume a clear run in to the beach.

The seabed carries a notable population of sea urchins, which locals treat as a sign of clean water but which makes sea shoes sensible for anyone wading in. Snorkelling is good: shoals of fish come in close to the shallows and visibility is usually excellent. The lagoon pulls in day-boats not only from Vis but from Hvar and Brač as well, so it is busiest through the middle of the day and quietest early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

The Island's Only Resident

Remarkably for somewhere so heavily visited, Budikovac has essentially one year-round inhabitant: a former ship's captain known locally as Andro, who holds the concession for the island and runs a small seasonal restaurant beside the bay. Alongside it he keeps vegetable plots and a few animals, donkeys and chickens among them, and much of what reaches the plate is grown or raised a few metres away.

There are no hotels, no apartments and no other businesses. That single restaurant is the whole of the island's infrastructure, which is a large part of why Budikovac still feels different from the busier Dalmatian anchorages despite its popularity. Anchoring in the bay is possible for private yachts, but the area falls under concession, so it is worth checking the arrangements locally rather than assuming a free-for-all.

Part of a UNESCO Geopark

Budikovac belongs to the Vis Archipelago Geopark, which joined the UNESCO Global Geoparks network in 2019 and covers some 666,100 hectares centred on Vis together with Biševo, Sveti Andrija, Brusnik, Jabuka and Palagruža. The geology is what earned the designation: most of the archipelago is built from Mesozoic limestone and dolomite laid down as marine sediment on the Adriatic plate, cut through by sea cliffs, sinkholes and caves, while Jabuka, Brusnik and the extinct Mount Hum on Vis — at 587 metres the archipelago's high point — record volcanic activity that is unusual in an Adriatic otherwise dominated by sedimentary rock.

The geopark's remit runs beyond rock. UNESCO's citation also singles out the archaic Chakavian dialect still spoken across the archipelago, shaped by centuries of navigation and fishing and handed down through generations, along with protected sites such as the Monk Seal Cave.

In practice this means Budikovac is rarely visited on its own. The Green Cave on neighbouring Ravnik, where swimming inside the cave is permitted, sits a few minutes away, and the Blue Cave on Biševo and the narrow cleft of Stiniva on Vis are usually taken in on the same circuit. The chain of stops is the reason the lagoon sees so much traffic in a bay that has no road, no village and no pier.

Reaching Budikovac

Budikovac lies well outside the city of Split itself — it belongs to the Vis archipelago, a half-day's sail from the mainland — so it typically features on longer, multi-day routes rather than short hops out of the harbour. The shortest crossing of all is the quarter of an hour from Rukavac on the south-east coast of Vis, and excursion boats work the lagoon from Vis town as well. Fast day tours do run from Split in season, but the island rewards an unhurried approach, and it is best reached during a Split gulet cruise that also takes in Vis, Ravnik and the surrounding islets, with the lagoon timed for early morning or late afternoon once the excursion fleet has moved on.