When planning our Croatia-Montenegro-Albania-Bosnia road trip, I was lured by photographs of a tiny fortified island surrounded framed by pink sand beaches and crystal clear blue waters. It looked like the perfect place to relax for a few days and so I booked us a room at Villa Levantin just across from the island’s tiny isthmus that connects it to the mainland since the only hotel on the island itself was not dog friendly.
After settling into our huge sea-view suite at Villa Levantin, we wandered down to the beach ready to explore the tiny fortified island. We may as well have been pirates trying to invade the island in the 15th century. But instead of Pastrovics guardsmen protecting the island, Aman Sveti Stefan’s hotel bouncers quickly intercepted us. “For hotel guests only,” an accented voice boomed behind us, halting us in our tracks. “For the entire island?”, Tim inquired. Yep, that’s right! The entire island is reserved exclusively for hotel guests. It’s no wonder I had read the Sveti Stefan had been a playground for the rich and famous such as Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and Claudia Schiffer. A village room at Aman Sveti Stefan would cost you a cool €750 per night.
For the next two days the tiny island taunted me. I plotted how I might sneak a peek. Were the bouncers standing guard at their red velvet ropes all night long? Could I swim over to the island and heave myself up and over the fortified walls? Could Tim distract the bouncers long enough while I made a run for it across the tiny isthmus?
I’ll never know. Instead, we spent our two days in Sveti Stefan relaxing on the pink sand beach and swimming in the crystal clear waters while imagining the cobbled streets contained within the walls of the tiny island.
Jennifer Dombrowski
Jennifer Dombrowski is a location independent globe trotter and bases herself in Prata di Pordenone, Italy. She works as a social media and innovation strategist in higher education and is a regular contributor on johnnyjet.com. Her website, jdombstravels.com, is the 2012 Destinology Travel Bloggy Best Newcomer award winner. Google+
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We’re Jennifer and Tim and we love traveling! We are just one ordinary couple who have found that travel brought us closer together, taught us patience, the art of compromise, and how to truly appreciate the diversity of this extraordinary world. So far, we've visited 37 countries, lived in the United States and Italy, and Tim has lived in Korea. And we do it all while both holding down full time jobs. 
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2 comments
Ali
September 17, 2012 at 1:31 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Grrr… That would’ve annoyed the cr*p out of me! It does look like such a cool place, it’s such a shame they wouldn’t let you in!
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Jennifer Dombrowski Reply:
September 17th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Yes, we were shocked. Tim verified with the “bouncer” three times because he just couldn’t believe it. We just wanted to see the Medieval buildings on the island! And the hotel on the island isn’t dog friendly, so we couldn’t have stayed there since we were traveling with Emma. Oh well, it will remain a mystery for now.
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