Mljet National Park

Mljet is often called Croatia's greenest island — more than half of its surface is covered in dense Mediterranean pine forest that spills down to the water. The western tip was set aside as a national park in 1960, but what makes the place feel genuinely untouched is not the protection date — it is the much older, much stranger story of how the island was governed for the seven centuries before that. You arrive into a landscape where the sea has carved its way inland to form two interconnected saltwater lakes, framed by forested hills and the occasional stone chapel.

In 1151 Desa, Duke of Zahumlje, donated the island to a community of Benedictine monks who had travelled north from the Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano on Italy's Gargano peninsula. The monks built a monastery on the islet in Veliko Jezero, dedicated the church to the Virgin Mary, and ran the western half of Mljet as a feudal estate until Napoleon abolished the order in 1808. They allowed almost no permanent settlements inside their territory — which is the simple reason the forests around the lakes still feel medieval. No one was permitted to clear them.

At the heart of the park sits St. Mary's Island, the tiny islet in the middle of Veliko Jezero (Great Lake) crowned by the Benedictine monastery and the church of the Assumption of the Virgin. Built in Romanesque style in the second half of the 12th century and rebuilt in Renaissance form during Dubrovnik's golden age, the complex remains the single most visited landmark in the park. A short shuttle boat takes you across from Mali Most.

What makes Mljet feel different from anywhere else on the Adriatic is the combination: the luminous turquoise of the salt lakes, the stillness of the pine forest, and the absence of noise. This is not a party island. It is a destination for guests who want to swim in clear water, walk or cycle around the lakes, and step off the boat into a slower, gentler rhythm than the city ever offers.