Amicor Green Resort, Hvar
If you’re looking for a dream family resort that has villas instead of rooms, childcare and halfboard included, a beautiful old town within walking distance and that’s actually good value even in the school holidays then look no further! We discovered such a gem with the Valamar Amicor Green resort on Hvar island in Croatia. Let me tell you all about our stay from May half term….
If you are interested in booking a Valamar resort, I have a 100 euro off voucher family and friends can use - click here! ad affiliate voucher.
Getting there;
First up, Hvar is a separate island to the mainland of Croatia so you do need to get a ferry across. If you’re going straight there, the easiest way is to fly into Split airport then take a taxi or hire a car and take the ferry from Split to Hvar.
You can either get the ferry to Stari Grad {the car ferry port which is just 10 minutes away from the resort} that takes around 2 hours or if you’re getting the faster foot ferry Catamaran it will take you to Hvar Old Town and then you’d need to arrange a transfer from there to the resort. It sounds like a lot of hassle to get your head around but I promise it was worth it!
We actually visited after a stay in Dubrovnik {so we flew into Split, picked up a car, drove to Dubrovnik then got the ferry to Hvar from Drevnik which is half way in between Split and Dubrovnik. It was a gorgeous beach to get the ferry from, it’s unreserved timings so you park your car in the queue then you can get out to wait. It was a shorter crossing but then about an hour long drive across Hvar}. On the way back we took the car ferry from Stari Grad to Split {see note at the end about booking a night near Split to save the ferry/flight stress}.
You don’t necessarily need a car to visit, it’s worth weighing up the costs and if you want to explore Hvar by car or if you could use taxis/public transport. If you do hire a car then make sure it includes taking it off the mainland - we found a v cheap car hire deal but then ended up paying that bit extra for the ferry charges!
Anyway, all the journey stress aside, once you arrive at Amicor your shoulders will instantly drop. The resort is just stunning, green by name and nature, set on a peninsula. You’ll get whisked to your villa by golf cart {which our kids obviously adored} and issued a bracelet to use as your room key/payment for any extras.
The Rooms -
One of the things we loved most about Amicor was the fact it’s an all villa resort. You can either choose a villa or a suite - see this page for all of the room configurations. Before we booked I was torn over a suite or villa but in the end felt like the villas looked a lot brighter/lighter and I was so glad when we arrived that we had gone for this. The suites had the same amount of space but were all covered & enclosed. We loved the large terrace with the loungers on for some outdoor space.
We had a villa for 2 + 3 which had a separate kids room with twin beds and sweet toys in the drawers underneath. I liked that it had a mini fridge and microwave - so handy for little ones. I think the only slight complaint was the design of the curtains with the interconnecting room not being fully blacked out - they’d tried with some velcro but there were still some gaps of light. Luckily ok now for our kids being that bit older but I imagine for some you might want to take some kind of blackout or foil for any light sensitive sleepers.
If budget is no problem then look at the private pool villas, they were another level up and all had the best views across to Stari Grad.
The Resort -
The resort feels like a posher, Mediterranean Centre Parcs type village filled with giant olive trees, scented jasmine and pretty planting everywhere. There are lots of different ‘roads’ with all of the villas and suites on and then a central hub with reception, the main restaurant, water park/pools and kids club. There are mini playgrounds and beautiful planting the whole way around, it’s a really aesthetically pleasing design and definitely completely family focused. We lost count of the amount of mini playgrounds scattered around but there were at least 10 - super fun for the children on the way to/from breakfast or dinner. Plus a great zip line opposite the main restaurant so lots of children would congregate around it in the mornings or evenings. There were lots of kids scooters and trikes in the main courtyard and table tennis tables/nice seating for easy sociable fun if you fancied too.
The whole resort is focused on sustainability and it really shows. It’s a carbon neutral resort fuelled with 100% green energy. There’s a kitchen garden and the majority of food in the restaurant is sourced as locally as possible.
Pool wise there’s a main pool, impressive full sized water slides at the Aqua Mar water park - exclusive for guests of the resort, a children’s sized mini water park with slides and then a shallow infant pool with some mini slides in. The infant pool was heated so our children spent most of the time in there - we went in May where it wasn’t quite hot enough to swim in the main pool unless you were feeling brave - plenty of people did! You could order drinks or lunch to your loungers and prices were pretty reasonable as hotels go.
There were plenty of sunloungers and cabanas around with a strict no reserving rule, the lifeguard team were hot on removing any property left.
Next to the pool complexes you’ll find the sports courts, there’s an activities team who have different fitness events on, you can hire bikes or go on a guided bike or kayak tour {again at a reasonable price, some things were included fully}. There’s no indoor gym at the resort but some weights on an outdoor section and football/volleyball/tennis courts.
The food
Food wise all room packages include half board as standard which is a breakfast buffet and a dinner buffet. Breakfast is served from 7.30-11am and dinner is from 6.30pm.
I would say though that dinner was such a crazy scrum because obviously everyone has children and all children are hungry at 6.30 so it got so busy! The layout for the buffet is really illogical too and pretty narrow. Once you managed to get some plates of food it was a nice setting to eat, all tables are outside - some covered, some not. In May it did get a little chilly in the evening so bare that in mind.The food was great, it's not fine dining standard though, it’s all buffets so if you’re not a buffet fan then you may find it slightly canteeny. It was all high quality though, Mediterranean and was varied enough, it changed each evening {although they always had a salad bar, bread bakery and pizza section - the pizza was really great}, lots of meat, fish, pasta, an olive bar - Croatia’s olives are really well regarded! Desserts were the only thing not labelled each evening and looked a bit better than they tasted but we preferred to go outside to the excellent gelato bar {which was chargeable during the day but included in the evening buffet. It was such good ice cream and we are ice cream snobs haha}. Drinks aren't included other than the drinks machine which has some fizzy juices.
It was really casual in the evenings, you don't really need to dress up at all unless you wanted to - Good and bad with kids I guess, sometimes it's nice to not need to but equally on holiday it is really nice to have something to get a bit dressed up for at times.
Breakfast had a wide selection including some great healthy options - nuts, seeds, kefir, fruit, little chia pots. Then freshly baked croissants, lots of cooked savoury options, pancakes, a large tea station, a huge bakery section filled with freshly made bread.
You can order lunch a la carte as an extra if you fancy. We saw an outdoor grill restaurant, the photo below of the gorgeous lights hanging from the trees but it wasn’t in operation during our stay so I’m not sure how or when it works!
There were plenty of high chairs and baby bibs ready for little ones.
Children’s activities
Amicor is part of the Valamar group who are famous for their excellent children's offerings as part of Maro World. Maro is their friendly hermit crab mascot. Here at Amicor there's a smaller version of Maro World called Maro Club. It was such a haven and highlight for our children, You can either go in with your children to play or if they're over 3 you can fill out a passport and leave them with the staff. There are different options depending on their age as to what wristband they’ll be issued and how comfortable you feel with them going in different rooms - I appreciated the fact you could leave them but say no to them going in the gaming rooms for example or leaving by themselves
The staff in there were really lovely. We only left our children with them once to do an activity because they wanted to be with us or have us stay the rest of the time but I saw how sweet they were to the children. Play wise there's a large ‘Smart Play’ construction room full of Rigmajig cogs and various different pieces of wood and rope to let children {and adults!} build some epic creations, then there's a trampoline/mini soft play room with a ball pit, a really stunning main playroom with some wonderful children's toys. Not just the standard offerings but huge piles of foam bricks to build with, large globe balls, world map wall hangings to add things to, dolls houses, books in a mix of languages. Then for older children, gaming rooms to escape the midday sun and an interactive games style room with a big screen for kicking balls into etc.
Everyday there was a changing activitity schedule, you can see it in advance on the app. They had some lovely workshops, making a bug hotel, going out to garden in the garden, making dream catchers, a volcano experiment, face painting as well as a nightly mini disco and a weekly circus show by the pool. I’d say that some of the activities were a little over promised and sounded a little better than in reality but our kids still had a lovely time. They often had movie showings too.
They don't provide any food for children so it's not the kind of childcare where you'd drop them off for long periods but nice to have the option for activities to give everyone a bit of a break and it's all included
The local area
One of the things we loved most was the fact you had such stunning views of Stari Grad, a picture perfect town, the oldest on Hvar island. It was just across the water and a very easy, short walk from the resort with boats to look at the whole way around the little marina. There are a couple of beaches just a few minutes walk away from the resort but they're not anything to write home about. Definitely something to note if you're looking at this resort, it's not a beach resort. You will find stunning beaches on Hvar but not on this part of the island, Croatia isn't really known for it's beaches, more swimming spots. Our children didn't miss the beach, they were far too occupied with the pools and kids activities and we took a day trip to some very impressive beaches across the island.
You can walk to the local supermarket, Tommy, in about 15 minutes if you need anything. We would often pick up a few snacks to tide us over between breakfast and dinner although the buffets were so extensive we didn't need much
Stari Grad is well worth a wander. They were hosting the European open water swimming championships when we visited which was impressive to watch!
I adored all of the crumbly old stone and the rustic yet charming streets, the children loved the cats around every corner, watching the geckos on the walls and paddling in the water by the little church.
I’ll share more about our daytrip to Hvar and the Pakleni islands in a separate post - click here to read - but you HAVE to visit. It’s around a 30 minute drive to Hvar Old Town from Stari Grad or I think there are private water taxis you could take right from the harbour or resort.
On the way back we actually booked a cheap night near Split airport because our flight was the next morning so we couldn’t have got a ferry to get us there in time. It ended up being such an unexpected bonus part of the trip, the coastline by Split airport is stunning! We had such a gorgeous walk from our apartment along to Kaštel Štafilić. ate the best gelato at https://maps.app.goo.gl/LXCNikbcqbovdPvo8 then enjoyed watching the planes coming into land!
Things to know/pack
Children’s water shoes. Raffy and a few other children got cut feet/knees from floating around on the bottom of the children’s pool.
A light jacket for the evenings
We’d definitely go back, I can’t think of anywhere else that’s half board with really decent food, includes childcare and has a villa for accommodation that would work out better value! I think May half term is a lot cheaper than the summer. We booked direct and then you save by becoming a free Valamar member too and start collecting points that you can use as credit. We had 4 nights because it was a two centre trip which was just about long enough but if I was going again we’d definitely do a week solid there next time to make the ferry crossing worth it and to really relax into it properly. As ever. let me know if you have any questions - I know exactly what it’s like to try to plan trips with children and having really specific questions you can only ask somebody who has been themselves!
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