Petrovacsand and fine pebble · 600 m · water ExcellentA 600-metre crescent of reddish sand and fine shingle with a town promenade along its whole length and two chapel-topped islets offshore.Petrovac or Sveti Stefan?
Two beaches 7.0 km apart, measured the same way. Petrovac and Sveti Stefan side by side, on the nine things that decide which one your afternoon should go to.
Petrovacsand and fine pebble · 600 m · water ExcellentA 600-metre crescent of reddish sand and fine shingle with a town promenade along its whole length and two chapel-topped islets offshore.
Sveti Stefansand and fine pebble · 300 m · water ExcellentA 300-metre strand of pink-red pebble on the public side of the Sveti Stefan causeway, with the fortified island filling every frame.The short answer
Choose Petrovac for
- water that stays shallow a long way out
- room — it is half again as long
Choose Sveti Stefan for
- real depth close to shore
Measure by measure
| Measure | Petrovac | Sveti Stefan |
|---|---|---|
| Surface | sand and fine pebble | sand and fine pebble |
| Entry | gentle | moderate |
| Depth | shallow | deepens quickly |
| Shade | umbrellas for hire | umbrellas for hire |
| Character | organised | organised |
| Length | 600 m | 300 m |
| Latest water | Excellent | Excellent |
| Crowd | busy in season | busy in season |
| Getting there | by road | by road |
Bold marks a measure where the two differ.
Each in our own words
Petrovac
Petrovac is the family beach of the southern riviera: the sand really is red from the local rock, the water stays shallow and calm near the shore, and everything — cafés, gelato, restaurants, the bus terminus — sits on the promenade behind it. The Venetian Castello anchors the harbour end and the Katič and Sveta Nedjelja islets, now inside a protected marine area, give the bay its postcard. It is busy in July and August but it is a town, not a resort strip, and the better swimming at Lučice is a fifteen-minute walk over the headland.
The whole town uses this one beach, so it fills by late morning in high season and the promenade is loud until late; the open south-west aspect means a southerly wind brings swell straight in.
Sveti Stefan
The northern beach is the Sveti Stefan most visitors can actually use: pinkish sand and pebble, clear turquoise water and the island walls a hundred metres away. It is a managed beach with loungers and a small bar, priced above the riviera average but nowhere near the Aman tariff on the other side of the causeway, which reopened on 1 July 2026 under a settlement that keeps this side and King’s Beach at Miločer public. Come for the view and the evening light rather than for space — the strand is short and the coaches arrive by ten.
Everything here is reached by a long unshaded staircase from the highway, and the pebble bottom drops away quickly; in July and August the loungers and the free strip are both full by late morning.