2 Best Sights in Murter and The Kornati Islands, Northern Dalmatia

The largest archipelago in the Adriatic, Kornati National Park comprises more than 100 privately owned islands, primarily by residents of Murter, who purchased them more than a century ago from Zadar aristocrats. The new owners burned the forests to make room for sheep, which ate much of the remaining vegetation. Although anything but lush today, the islands' almost mythical beauty is ironically synonymous with their barrenness: their bone-white-to-ochre colors are a striking contrast to the azure sea.

However, owners do tend vineyards and orchards on some, and there are quite a few small buildings scattered about, mostly stone cottages—many of them on Kornat, which is by far the largest island, at 35 km (22 miles) long and less than a tenth as wide.

In 1980 the archipelago became a national park. It was reportedly during a visit to Kornati in 1936 that King Edward VIII of England decided between love for his throne and love for Wallis Simpson, the married woman who was to become his wife a year later. No public transport currently goes to Kornati, so visiting is only possible as part of an excursion or with a private boat, and tickets must be purchased beforehand. Pick up tickets from the official website or through the various tour groups in Zadar or Murter. The entrance ticket is included in the price of excursions departing from Zadar.

However you go to Murter, you'll pass through Biograd-Na-Moru, a relatively big, bustling—but thoroughly tourist-trampled—town, where the resorts have long come to dominate what was once a charming place; Biograd-Na-Moru also serves as another access point for ferries to the Kornati Islands.

Murter, a town of 2,000 on the island of the same name that lies just off the mainland, is accessible by road from the main coastal route that runs south from Zadar toward Split. As important as tourism is to its present-day economy, boatbuilding has, not surprisingly, long been vital to Murter as well. This is not to mention its olive oil, which was once so famous that it made its way to the imperial table in Vienna.