Carpe Diem started as a single cocktail bar on the Hvar Town waterfront in 1998, Croatia’s first, and has since spun off into a full beach empire on the Pakleni Islands. A ten-minute boat ride from Hvar Town lands you at Stipanska Bay on Marinkovac, where cabanas, a pool, and a full restaurant sprawl across pine-shaded sand that Condé Nast has ranked among the world’s top ten beach clubs. Days run toward paddleboarding and Thai massages; by 5pm the Terranza After Beach party takes over, and by midnight the whole place has flipped into an open-air nightclub with taxi boats running guests back to town until 5am. Hvar has leaned hard into its reputation as the birthplace of the phrase “seize the day,” and whatever the historical accuracy, Carpe Diem has spent 25-plus years living it out loud on the Adriatic.
