Croatia: Trip tip Mali Lošinj

Mali Lošinj (Little Lošinj), located on the island of Lošinj in the south-east of a wide and well-protected bay, is popular with sports skippers. No wonder, as the harbor and the marina a little to the north of it are embedded in an attractive town with a wide promenade and offer good protection against bora and jugo. Just a stone’s throw away on the south-western side of the island is the picturesque Cikat Bay with some great gourmet restaurants.

In Dalmatia they say: She was born on Dinara, baptized in Makarska and married in Senj. In Istria, on the other hand, they say: The Bora is born in Senj, reigns in Rijeka and dies in Trieste. The Kvarner Bay with the beautiful island of Cres / Losinj lies exactly between Istria in the north and northern Dalmatia in the south.

Mali Lošinj, once the place of longing for the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy, has a decisive advantage: the town with its lavishly renovated houses on the water, the wide promenade, its town harbor and the marina not far from it are very well protected from the north wind and the Scirocco, which is called Jugo in Croatia.

 

 

The ethereal scents of the pine forests, wild medicinal herbs and the vitalizing effect of the sea once made the island a place of relaxation for the Habsburgs, who built numerous villas in the picturesque Čikat Bay. The Mediterranean oasis has not lost the charm and architecture of days gone by, making it a real insider tip for travelers.

If you are coming by boat from the northwest, use the Privlaka Canal

If you are coming to Mali Lošinj from Pag in a north-easterly direction with your own boat and have a draught of no more than 2.2 meters, you can use the Privlaka Channel (caution – dangerous in windy conditions); the swing bridge located here, which connects Lošinj / Cres with southern Mali Lošinj, opens twice a day, at 9 am and 6 pm.

 

 

 

Once you have mastered the passage, you will find the marina with petrol station on the right and the jetties of the Yacht Club Marina on the left, both of which offer services such as electricity and water, while the YC Marina also offers technical support, showers and a restaurant. This is also where the SeaHelp rescue boat of head of operations Stanko Kovacevic is stationed, offering assistance in the event of a breakdown in the shortest possible time.

The yellow SeaHelp rescue boat is also stationed in the Mali Lošinj marina

Towards the south-east, the well-protected city harbor is now within sight, from where you have direct access to the many cafés and restaurants on the wide, sunlit promenade. Visitors interested in history can visit the Museum of Apoxyomenos on the north side of the city harbor.

 

 

The museum is a unique archaeological-architectural cultural institution dedicated to a single exhibit – the bronze statue of the young athlete Apoxyomenos. The approximately two-thousand-year-old statue was discovered in 1997 at a depth of 45 meters in the sea just southeast of the island of Lošinj by a tourist from Belgium, carefully recovered and subsequently painstakingly reconstructed.

If you are visiting Lošinj from the outside, you can take a detour to the island of Ilovik/Sv. Petar and some beautiful, well-protected anchor bays for a cruise stop

If the passage through the Privlaka Channel is too shallow or too dangerous for you, you have no choice but to round Lošinj “underneath” to get to Mali Lošinj. Advantage: on this trip there are detours to the island of Ilovik with several restaurants (Amico, Porto, Dalmatinka) directly on the water (in the high season, advance booking is recommended).

 

 

Tourists are not permitted to enter the island of Sv. Petar opposite; yachts moor at the licensed buoy moorings or at one of the 60 Murin moorings on several piers.

 

 

We continue up the southwest coast of Lošinj – there are several beautiful anchor bays here, such as Krivica (YouTube) and Balvanida (YouTube), which are also well protected in Bora. Finally, rounding the Addio sculpture by sculptor Zvonimira Obad on the starboard side, you reach the picturesque Cikat Bay (mooring is possible in the Cikat Marina on the west side of the bay with electricity, water, showers and toilets).

 

 

There are several recommended restaurants around Cikat Bay, boats can moor in the Cikat Marina

Those who have moored their lines here have the choice between several gourmet restaurants in the bay: from Steakhouse Diana in Šetalište Dr. Alfreda Edlera of Manusso Montesole 2 to the fish restaurant Konoba Cigale just two house numbers away (recommended: the seafood risotto) to the starred restaurant Alfred Keller in the Boutique-Hotel Alhambra, Čikat 16.

 

 

If you want, visit the Japanese restaurant Matsunoki or the Italian Restaurant Bava im Hotel Bellevue, Čikat 9, which only opened in mid-June, or take a few minutes’ walk to the Lanterna Grill right by the small lighthouse next to the Addio sculpture, Čikat 24 (reservations are recommended during the season).

 

 

If you want to continue to Mali Lošinj from the south-west side of the island, you must first pass the Murtar lighthouse on the starboard side, then steer your course north-north-east to round the small green lighthouse on the northern tip of the island of Koludarc; please note – the previous passage between Cikat and Koludarc is very shallow and can only be passed by very small boats.

 

 

If you want, you can make a detour to the bay of Artatore a little to the northwest, where the restaurant of the same name serves a great Wiener schnitzel as well as many fresh fish specialties and traditional dishes.

 

 

Charters in Mali Lošinj? No problem, several charter companies have their bases here

Sports skippers who are not traveling with their own boat have several options for finding a suitable charter boat in Mali Lošinj. If you are traveling by car, take the car ferry from Valibska on Krk to Merag on Cres and then drive about an hour to the southeast. Arrival by plane: to Rijeka Airport, where several car rental companies offer their services. There are plans to expand Losinj Airport for larger aircraft in the coming years.

 

 

Tip: before the Osor swing bridge (opening times daily 9 am and 5 pm, depth 2 meters – caution: strong current possible) you should make a short stop at the small street market directly behind the church and try the delicious pistachio ice cream with olive oil.

Info Lošinj

The The island of Lošinj is part of the Cres-Lošinj archipelago and belongs to the western island chain of the Kvarner islands within the Kvarner Bay, which, together with the Bay of Trieste, is the part of the Mediterranean Sea that extends deepest into the European mainland. The Cres-Lošinj archipelago stretches 99 km from northwest to southeast and has a total area of 513 km², which is 16 percent of the total area of all the Adriatic islands. The western chain of the Kvarner islands consists of the larger islands of Cres (409 km²) and Lošinj (75 km²) and the smaller islands of Unije (17 km²), Ilovik (6 km²), Susak (4 km²) and Vele Srakane (1 km²), as well as a number of uninhabited islets.

The entire coast of the archipelago is full of attractive larger and smaller bays that invite you to swim and sunbathe. In the distant past, Cres and Lošinj formed a single island. Two islands were only created by the artificial canal near Osor, which was probably dug in Roman times. Today they are connected by a road bridge and form a single unit in terms of traffic geography. The two ports can be reached from the eastern side via a narrow passage (Privlaka Channel, water depth 2.2 meters, dangerous in bora). The bridge over it is opened twice a day for a quarter of an hour (9 am and 6 pm). Otherwise you would have to sail around the entire island to the south to reach the town of Mali Lošinj.