Activities
Somewhere between the sunbed and the horizon, the Makarska Riviera turns into a playground for water sports. Parachutes drift 400 metres over the bay, kayaks slip along the Biokovo shoreline, and a diver somewhere off Osejava is following a reef wall that has been drawing people underwater for years. If lying still on a beach towel enjoying some of Europe’s best beaches was never quite your holiday style, this coast has plenty of other ideas.
What water sports can you do on the Makarska Riviera?
From speed and adrenaline to slow, quiet exploration, the Riviera covers, well, most of it: jet skiing, parasailing, banana boats for pure fun; water skiing, wakeboarding and kneeboarding for those chasing a bit more skill; kayaking and paddleboarding for a calmer pace; sailing, windsurfing and kitesurfing for when the wind picks up; and scuba diving and snorkelling for everything happening beneath the surface. Most of it is available in Makarska itself and in the neighbouring towns, including Brela, Baška Voda, Tučepi, and Podgora.
For the adrenaline seekers
Jet skis and parasailing boats are a fixture of the Riviera’s coastline. You will spot them from almost any beach in Makarska and the surrounding towns. Parasailing rides can lift you as high as 400 metres above the sea, tandem or solo, for a bird’s-eye view of the coastline and Biokovo mountain behind it. Pair it with a banana boat ride, or a round of water skiing or wakeboarding, and an afternoon can disappear fast.
For a quieter pace: kayaking and paddleboarding
Not every day on the water needs an engine. Some water sports let you enjoy a slower pace. Kayaks and stand-up paddleboards let you explore the coastline at your own speed, tucking into coves that speedboats pass straight by. Local rental outfits along the Riviera make it easy to pick one up for an hour or a full day, no experience required.
For sailors and the wind-powered crowd
Makarska has its own sailing club, Bura, which keeps the town’s sailing tradition alive with services such as boat lifting and washing for visiting crews. The town is also a regular stop for competitive regattas, including the well-known Croatian Sailors’ Regatta. Conditions along the Riviera are good for other water sports such as windsurfing and kitesurfing too, so if you would rather let the wind do the work, this coast can usually oblige.
For explorers: scuba diving and snorkelling
Underwater, the Riviera has more going on than the view from a boat suggests. Off Makarska, the Osejava reef stretches roughly two kilometres along the coast, with dives typically running 12 to 18 metres deep (occasionally more), and enough anchoring points that local dive centres can run repeat trips there daily.
Divers looking for something different head to Vruja, a spring-fed “blue hole” cave system with a coral wall and cold freshwater currents, where depths range from about 20 to 50 metres depending on the route. Brela rounds out the offer with a full range of diving courses, from two-hour taster dives for complete beginners to advanced specialisations like night and deep diving down to 40 metres, making it a solid base whether you’re trying diving for the first time or working toward a professional qualification.
For beginners and families, the shallow waters off Tučepi, down to around 5 metres, are a common spot for first dives and snorkelling, with several diving schools running introductory sessions along the coast.
And don’t forget the local water sports classic: water polo
No list of water sports on this coast is complete without a nod to water polo, which locals treat less as a sport and more as a birthright. It is such a fixture of Riviera life that it deserves its own story — one we have already told in detail elsewhere on this blog.
Whichever way you like your adrenaline — 400 metres up on a parachute, 40 metres down along a reef wall, or at a paddleboard’s gentle pace — the Makarska Riviera has a way to get you off the towel and onto the water. Pick one, or pick all of them; the sea here is patient enough for both.
