March 15, 2018 – After many years of the island of Hvar holding the mantle of the sunniest place in Croatia, it appears that another Dalmatian island has claimed the throne.
Having been born in the rain in Manchester, moving to Hvar was a complete shock, for many reasons.
Man, that island was just so sunny!
It was only some years later that I learned that not only was Hvar the sunniest island in Croatia, but also in Europe, with one winemaker – Ivo Dubokovic in Jelsa – actually putting sunshine in a bottle, with one of his excellent Plavac Mali wines called 2718, after the average hours of sun on Hvar each year.
Promoting Hvar was just so easy when I start the first Total website back in 2011. Here was an island which was the sunniest in Europe, had been named in the 10 most beautiful in the world, had more UNESCO heritage than any other, not including the oldest public theatre in Europe. The list went on. It was – and remains – the most beautiful place I have ever lived.
But, it seems, some partial clouds have appeared on the horizon in recent years.
One of my recent private client writing assignments involved a piece on some of the sunniest places in Croatia. In order to help me with the article, my client sent me this spreadsheet, data of the sunniest places in Croatia, by hours of annual sunshine, from 2012-2016.
And, I was astonished to see, Hvar has not been the sunniest place in Croatia for the last five years, perhaps longer. Was there a ring of truth in the local joke that Hvar’s sunshine had gone into hiding since a Manchester boy moved to Jelsa 15 years ago, then proceeded to sell houses to lots of other Brits?
In 2015, it appears, Hvar slipped down to third place in the Croatian sunshine stakes, with Dubrovnik offering more sun to its visitors and residents.
As for the sunniest island (and place) in all Croatia, that title (as you can see from the DHMZ weather website data below) goes to – for each year from 2012 to 2016 inclusive – to the island of Lastovo.
