Pag island guide: cheese, salt & moonscapes

Pag looks like nowhere else in Croatia — a bare, wind-scoured moonscape of pale stone and salt. It's famous for three very different things: extraordinary cheese, delicate lace, and one of Europe's wildest beach parties.

The landscape

Battered by the bura wind and grazed by sheep, much of Pag is treeless rock and scrub — strangely beautiful, especially in low light. The old salt pans have shaped the island's economy for centuries.

Cheese, lace & salt

Paški sir, the hard sheep's cheese flavoured by the salt and herbs the sheep graze on, is one of Croatia's finest foods. Pag Town is also known for intricate lace, protected by UNESCO, and for its salt.

Two sides: Pag Town & Novalja

Pag Town is the quiet, traditional side — salt, lace and stone. Novalja, and especially Zrće beach, is the opposite: open-air clubs and a summer party scene that draws crowds from across Europe. Pick your side accordingly.

Getting there

Pag is reached by a bridge from the south (near Zadar) and a short car ferry from the north, making it an easy add-on to a northern Dalmatian trip.