Novalja

Novalja is a town on the island of Pag, in the northern Dalmatian archipelago, and it is the town most associated with Zrće, the long pebble beach just to the north that has become the centre of Croatia’s summer party scene. The town itself is a small harbour of stone houses and cafes, quieter than its reputation suggests, and it serves as the base, the accommodation and the ferry port for the whole Zrće economy.

Novalja sits on a bay on the west of Pag, connected to the mainland by the bridge at Paška vrata and by ferries. Beyond the town stretches the bare karst of the island, and the famous beach of Zrće, with its row of open-air clubs, runs along the coast to the north. The Roman aqueduct of Novalja, an underground channel cut into the rock that can be partly visited, is a quieter sight.

Novalja’s character splits in two: a working island town outside the summer, and the hub of a major nightlife economy from June to early September. Outside those weeks, it is a calmer place to swim and to explore the stark landscape of Pag, the lace, the salt and the cheese.

For photographers, the Zrće beach and clubs at night and the karst landscape of the island are the two sides. If the party is not the draw, the rest of Pag is one of the most unusual landscapes on the coast.

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