May the 5th, 2026 – The glorious Makarska Riviera is home to Croatia’s longest uninterrupted stretch of beaches and over 2,500 hours of sunshine per year.

As Putni kofer/Yuriy Dzyubenko writes, Istria, the Littoral, Dubrovnik and its surroundings, stunning central Dalmatia, and then there are the islands… It’s very difficult, in fact more or less impossible, to say which part of the Croatian coast is the most beautiful of all. There’s no need to.

Everyone has their favourite bits and everyone is right. However, one part of the coastline still stands out objectively for something. The Makarska Riviera is almost 60 kilometres long: it’s longer than the entire Slovenian coastline, almost three times longer than the coast of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is only slightly shorter than the entire Belgian coast. This Makarska Riviera is naturally adored by many, and it’s home to Croatia’s longest uninterrupted stretch of beaches.

dalmatia’s beach heaven

The gorgeous Makarska Riviera, a term used for the area from Brela to Gradac, has an almost continuous line of pebble beaches that attract people from far and wide each and every year. They’re interrupted in only a few places by breakwaters, rocks and small harbours, and the mighty Biokovo mountain stands watch over the entire stretch. Here, the coastline goes on and on, and the beaches of one single place seamlessly transition into the beaches of another. The question logically arises: where is the longest beach on this part of the coastline?

If you were to only roughly measure the distances on the map and compare them with tourist brochures, things become less and less clear. There are several candidates for the title, but it all comes down to how exactly we define the “longest beach” of all. One thing is a continuous pebble strip intended exclusively for swimming, and quite another is a long, well-maintained coastline where recreation areas are intertwined with various pieces of infrastructure.

Tučepi – a chain of interconnected beaches

The unofficial winner is usually considered to be Tučepi with its four kilometres of beautiful coastline. In practice, this figure combines all the beaches of the town: the long Slatina, the quaint Lučica, the spacious Kamena and the partly naturist Dračevac. Here, a leisurely walk along the coastline will take about an hour, but the pebble sections will be interrupted by a marina and piers. It’s a beautiful stretch of coastal area in the shade of dense Mediterranean pine trees, with plenty of cafes and restaurants dotted along the shore. However, from the perspective of uninterrupted swimming, it’s more like a chain of interconnected beaches. If you stroll along the coastline, the total length actually approaches the figure of four kilometres.

Interestingly enough, Makarska itself is rarely mentioned in discussions about length records, although its beaches are quite spacious. From the Sveti Petar peninsula, the Makarska city beach stretches for about two kilometres and includes parts with the well-known names Donja Luka and Biloševac. However, the coastline does not end there. If you continue northwest, passing the famous Buba Beach and Cvitačka, bypassing nudist coves and ending up at the rugged Ramova pass near Krvavica, you get about 3.8 kilometres of comparable beach space.

gorgeous gradac

Another impressive number belongs to the Gornja Vala beach in beautiful little Gradac. Tourist guides often mention a length of five kilometres. On the map, such a route really exists, but only if we consider the coastline as a single unit with the neighbouring town of Brist. The settlements adjoin each other so closely that the border between them is practically erased, and the record is achieved by connecting the coastline itself. However, if we talk only about the most popular zone of Gornja Vala within the borders of Gradac, its actual length is significantly less than the aforementioned five kilometres.

In the search for the winner, we shouldn’t forget Baška Voda or Brela, connected by an exceptionally beautiful promenade that is about seven kilometres long. Here, you can wander and swim in an hour and a half on several beaches. If you’re on the hunt for an endless route along the sea that convincingly surpasses all competitors in length, the road from Makarska to the northernmost borders of Brela is about sixteen kilometres long, and the sea and beautiful views accompany you the entire way.

second only to the hollywood sign…

The Makarska Riviera might be home to Croatia’s longest uninterrupted stretch of beaches, but that isn’t all it can boast of. This part of the dazzling Croatian coast has its own recognisable symbols, which appear even before the first encounter with the sea. For many travellers, the sun-drenched Makarska Riviera begins right on the road to it. More precisely, at the famous road signs that welcome those arriving from the direction of Brela and Gradac. Only after those signs do the settlements at the foot of Biokovo, long pebble beaches and views that make you stop and stare even if you’re merely passing through.

Few people know the exact date of the installation of these road signs today. According to the memories of the locals, the famous road signs were installed back during the mid-1970s, during a period where there was a strong tourism boom. After the opening of the Adriatic Highway (Jadranska magistrala) in 1965, this part of the coastline gradually formed into a unique tourist entity, and the road signs themselves eventually became its unofficial trademark.

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