Divided from Cres by a narrow channel (and accessible from Cres via road bridge at Osor), the island of Lošinj has long been celebrated for its health-giving benefits. This is far from just tourist-industry hype: with its mild climate, clean air and herb-rich flora, this is very much an island of rejuvenation.

Mali Lošinj

Main settlement is Mali Lošinj, a nineteenth-century shipbuilding town draped around a long deep bay. With its palm-splashed Riva and picturesque huddle of low-rise houses, it’s as charming a Mediterranean town as they come.

Museum of the Apoxyomenos

Mali Lošinj’s star-turn is the Museum of the Apoxyomenos, a specially-constructed space housed within the shell of a nineteenth-century palace. It was built to show off a 1st-century-BC Greek statue of a naked athlete (the Apoxyomenos of the title), discovered on a nearby sea floor and painstakingly restored. An outstanding example of late Hellenic sculpture, the statue acts as the centrepiece of a fascinating display devoted to marine archeology and the ancient Adriatic.

Lošinj Museum