The largest town on western Korčula, and the closest village to the villa. Where to eat, where to swim, what to pick up at the market, and what the locals would never tell you to do.
Vela Luka isn't a tourist town the way Korčula Town is. It's a working harbour, a fishing village that grew, a place where the catamaran from Split comes in at four in the afternoon and a few people get off and the rest of the town carries on doing what it was doing. It has the kind of unpolished charm that people who've been coming for years quietly prefer. Here's what to do with a few days in it.
The harbour
Start with a walk along the riva. The catamaran comes in at the far western end. Fishing boats moor along the inside curve of the bay. There are five or six cafés along the front and the locals' favourite is Ranč, third from the left, which opens at six in the morning for the fishermen and still has the same espresso machine it had in 1998. Sit there with an espresso and watch the town wake up — it's the best half hour you'll have all week.
Walk the full length of the riva, past the church, past the fish market, all the way to the small chapel at the eastern end. Twenty minutes if you stop to look at things. Half an hour if you stop to talk to anyone.
Market days
Tuesday and Friday mornings, behind the harbour in the small square near the church. Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Three kinds of figs in August. Olive oil sold by the litre out of recycled plastic bottles, often pressed by the woman selling it. The cheese woman from Smokvica shows up around nine and is usually gone by eleven; her hard sheep's cheese is the best on this side of the island.
Bring cash, small bills, and a cloth bag. Don't try to bargain — prices are already fair. Do try to learn the words: rajčice (tomatoes), kruh (bread), sir (cheese), hvala (thank you).
Restaurants worth your time
Konoba Davorin, five minutes by car toward Mikulina Luka — the most reliable seafood on this side of the island. Family-run, generous portions, an excellent short wine list. Book in July and August.
Konoba Beppo — slower, more atmospheric, stone walls and the kind of light that makes everyone look good. Peka (octopus or lamb slow-cooked under an iron bell) if you book the day before. Allow three hours; don't make plans for after.
Konoba Feral — right on the harbour, the cooking is less ambitious than the other two but the terrace at sunset is the best in town. Order a cold bottle of Pošip and the grilled squid.
Skip the pizza places facing the catamaran stop. The locals don't eat there, and there's a reason.
Vela Spila
The cave above the town has been inhabited for twenty thousand years. The museum is small but genuinely good, and the walk up takes forty minutes through pine forest on a path that's well-marked and not too steep. Go in the morning before it gets hot. The view from the cave entrance over the bay is worth the climb on its own.
A swim from town
The town beach at Kale, on the western side of the harbour, is decent but busy. Better: walk fifteen minutes south along the coastal path to Plitvine, or further to the rocks below the small lighthouse, where almost no one goes. Bring a mat — the rocks are warm and smooth but unforgiving on bare skin.
Bakeries and small things
Pekara Belin opens at six and the bread is gone by ten. The burek is excellent and oversized; one is lunch for two. The little shop next to the church sells the kind of pastries — krostule, fritule — that everyone's grandmother used to make and almost no one's grandmother makes any more.
A small bar at the end of the harbour
There's a tiny wine bar at the far eastern end of the riva, no sign, just a few tables outside. They pour Pošip by the glass for two euros and the man behind the bar will tell you, if you ask, exactly which producer it came from. Go around seven, before dinner.
Evening
The promenade fills up around seven. People walking the length of the riva and back. Kids on scooters. Old men playing cards under the plane trees by the church. Younger men talking very seriously about football. Couples eating ice cream from the gelato place near the harbour, which is, surprisingly, one of the best gelaterias on the Dalmatian coast.
Order a cold Karlovačko, sit on the wall opposite the boats, and do nothing for an hour. That's the town at its best, and the cheapest holiday you'll ever buy yourself.
