Rab

Rab is a small island in the Kvarner gulf, and its town has one of the most distinctive silhouettes on the Adriatic: **four bell towers** in a line along a narrow peninsula, recognisable from a distance without a sign. The towers are of different periods between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, the tallest belonging to the Romanesque church of **St Mary the Great**. The island is divided by a sharp line: its north-eastern side is **bare rock** scoured by the bora, where nothing grows, and its south-western side is **thick pine and oak forest** — one stretch of it the protected **Dundo** wood. The difference is visible from the air. Rab also has **real sand**: the **Lopar** peninsula in the north holds twenty-two sandy beaches, the best known being **Rajska plaža**, with shallow water running out for hundreds of metres — among the best beaches in Croatia for children. Note: the ferry from Stinica on the mainland takes about 15 minutes, or from Lopar to the island of Krk.