Eighty-nine islands, almost no fresh water, and nobody living there. The Kornati look like nowhere else in the Mediterranean because they are, effectively, a stone desert in the sea.
George Bernard Shaw’s line about the gods creating them from tears, stars and breath is quoted on every tourist board on the coast. It survives because standing in the middle of the archipelago at dusk, it does not feel like an exaggeration.
The islands are national park, uninhabited, treeless, and grazed bare by sheep for centuries. There are stone walls running over hilltops built by people who no longer live there. The effect is austere rather than pretty, and it is the single most distinctive sailing ground in Croatia.
The practical facts
- Park entry
- A ticket is required for every vessel and is cheaper bought in advance than from the wardens on the water. Buy it before you enter.
- Mooring
- Buoys and concessioned bays rather than free anchoring in much of the park. The konoba that owns the buoy usually expects you to eat there, which is the arrangement and is generally worth it.
- Water and supplies
- Effectively none. Provision fully before you go in and plan your water accordingly.
- The crowns
- The cliffs on the seaward side of Mana, Klobučar and Rasip are the reason to go. They fall vertically into deep water and are best seen in the last hour of light.
There is no light pollution here at all. On a moonless night the Kornati are one of the darkest skies in the Adriatic.
Weather
The archipelago is open and exposed, with little natural shelter from the north-east. In a bura the funnelling between islands is severe and the park becomes a poor place to be. Most experienced skippers treat a bura forecast as a reason to leave rather than to find a better bay.
In settled weather it is as calm as anywhere on the coast, and in the shoulder season it is close to empty.
When to go
May, June, September and October. July and August bring day-trip boats from Šibenik and Zadar, and the park is at its least remarkable when there are forty other vessels in the same bay.
Two nights is the minimum worth planning. One night means you arrive, eat and leave, and never see the archipelago in the light that makes it worth the ticket.