Kornati National Park

Easy to reach from all of Dalmatia, the Kornati National Park lies at a central point off the Croatian coast. While the locals like to claim that the Kornati have "as many islands as the year has days", geography speaks rather of "about 140". Some of them are at sea level; with other uninhabited ones there is argument about whether they have to be counted as part of the protected area - and so the number fluctuates according to the source. What is certain: Kornat, the largest among them, is the heart of the Kornati National Park and gives it its name. It alone takes up 3,252 hectares, or 32.5 km², of the island group's total land area of 69 square kilometres. Including the surrounding water surface, the size of the Kornati is given as 300 km², and with an average of 24 degrees in summer - in the water and on land! - the Kornati are a popular excursion destination for locals and visitors alike. The national park itself - and it is this we mean in what follows when we speak of the "Kornati" - in turn comprises the area of the "lower Kornati", Donji Kornat, and thus 91 islands and a land area of 52 square kilometres as well as an additional 182 of sea area. The aim of the Kornati national park administration is accordingly not only to preserve the landscape and to maintain a healthy habitat for animal and human, but also the protection of the coastal and marine spaces.

Although over a hundred small and larger islands belong to the Kornati National Park, the guided day excursions are mostly limited to Kornat, the largest island. In almost every larger town between Zadar and Sibenik, boats pass by the national park daily in the main season, putting in either in the north in the Vela and Mala Proversa straits or in the south between Opat and the island of Smokvica. From there one explores the island, which stands, in terms of landscape and culture, as a representative of all its little sisters. Anyone arriving with their own boat can anchor in the national park if they reserve in good time! By way of the waterway in the north-east one reaches the "inner sea" of Kornat - a particularly quiet and idyllic spot whose sight by night is one not only romantics should let pass them by. Somewhat further off, by the islands of Piskera and Panitula, there is also a marina, as there is on the island of Zut, which lies on the mainland side of the park. Wherever one spends the night - by day one should follow the recommendations of the locals: the winds bora and jugo can surprise even experienced sailors again and again, and the partly shallow, rocky coasts have already caused many a boat to run aground unintentionally. Quite apart from that, a panoramic view of the coasts of the Kornati is in any case more beautiful than tacking just off the beaches!