12 unusual places in Dalmatia most tourists miss

Beyond the palaces and the famous beaches, Dalmatia hides a stranger landscape — turquoise springs, collapsed lakes, sea caves and an island that was once a prison. Some of these draw travellers from the other side of the world. Here are twelve of the most extraordinary, spread across the region.

• The Eye of the Earth — source of the Cetina. Near Vrlika, the Cetina river surfaces in a perfect, impossibly blue circular spring over 100 m deep. From above it looks like an eye staring back at the sky — the single most photographed natural spring in Croatia, and worth the inland drive on its own.
• Vranjača Cave. Half an hour from Split, beneath the slopes of Mosor at Kotlenice, this stalactite cave opens into illuminated chambers of dripstone — the most accessible show cave near the city.
• Dragon's Eye (Zmajevo oko), Rogoznica. Between Šibenik and Trogir, a near-circular karst lake sits ringed by cliffs, connected to the sea underground. Its layered, sometimes sulphurous water can change colour — eerie and unique.
• Dragon's Cave (Zmajeva špilja), Brač. Above Murvica on Brač, a hermit cave carved with mysterious reliefs of dragons and figures, reached only on a guided hike — one of the strangest sights on any island.
• The Blue and Green Caves of Vis. Off Vis, the Blue Cave on Biševo glows electric blue at midday, while the Green Cave nearby lets light fall through a hole in its roof — both reached by small boat.
• Stiniva cove, Vis. A near-enclosed bay hidden behind a narrow gap in the cliffs, reachable by boat or a steep scramble down — regularly voted one of Europe's most beautiful beaches, and almost invisible until you're inside it.
• The Red and Blue Lakes, Imotski. Inland from Makarska, two giant karst sinkholes — one a sheer-walled pit nearly 300 m deep, the other a lake that empties and fills with the seasons. See our lakes guide.
• Telašćica & Lake Mir, Dugi Otok. Sheer 160 m cliffs plunge into the sea at the end of Dugi Otok, beside a warm, salty lake said to heal — a nature park most coastal visitors never reach.
• Sakarun beach, Dugi Otok. A long crescent of near-white pebble over a shallow, Caribbean-turquoise bay — proof the Adriatic can do tropical.
• Odysseus's Cave, Mljet. On Mljet, a collapsed sea cave you can swim into through an underwater arch — by legend the place Calypso held the hero captive.
• The Cetina canyon & Gubavica falls, near Omiš. Behind the pirate town of Omiš, the Cetina carves a dramatic gorge — rafting, zip-lines and, upstream, the tall Gubavica waterfall.
• Goli Otok. A bare island off Rab that was Yugoslavia's most notorious political prison until 1988. Its abandoned cell blocks now make for sombre, fascinating dark-tourism by boat.

Base yourself on the coast and pick these off one at a time — browse our boutique stays across Croatia, or the rivers of Dalmatia guide for more on the Cetina and its source.