Villa Nai 3.3 – carved into Dugi Otok, Croatia's only Three Keys

On the southern tip of Dugi Otok, a slender and sparsely populated island reached by boat from Zadar, Villa Nai 3.3 sits inside a 500-year-old olive grove that opened in the summer of 2021 above the Kornati channel on Dugi Otok, inside olive groves the Morović family has worked since at least 1607. Owner Goran Morović and his wife Neves have poured their passion and expertise in to creating an extraordinary rural paradise within ancient olive groves overlooking the sea, hiring architect Nikola Bašić to dig eight rooms and suites into the hillside so that each of the eight guest accommodations are arrayed in a semi-circle, with privacy provided by curved stone walls and centuries-old olive groves. It is now Croatia's only three-MICHELIN-Key property, a rare distinction for a hotel this small — the Guide's mark for its very best stays. Behind the restraint lies real substance: two restaurants, a working olive mill producing one of Croatia's most-awarded oils, and a hushed, adults-only pace that makes Villa Nai 3.3 feel closer to a private estate than a hotel.

01The house

Villa Nai 3.3 began, by the owner's own account, as a house built for the olive mill, with guest rooms added only later. Working with Nikola Bašić, the architect behind Zadar's Sea Organ, Morović ensured the stone used excavating the hill recycled into the hotel's interior and exterior walls, so almost nothing from the dig left the site. The roof is sown with the same Mediterranean planting as the grove around it, and the eight units sit low enough that, from the water, the hotel barely interrupts the hillside at all.

It is a small operation inside a very large one: Villa Nai 3.3 is the second smallest hotel in this organization, and the only one hosting a production facility, referring to its membership of The Leading Hotels of the World and the working olive mill built into the same estate.

02Rooms and suites

The eight accommodations split into five rooms and three suites, each with their own unique character, every one opening onto a secluded stone patio that overlooks the sea, pool or olive groves. The rooms boast limestone-tiled floors and trendy furnishings by Giorgetti in calming creams, beiges, greens and blues, with beds dressed in Frette linen and bathrooms stocked with Diptyque. The suites go further, adding four-poster beds, working fireplaces and bathrooms lit from a rooflight above a separate tub.

Insider tip

Reached from Zadar by boat (about 90 minutes) or helicopter; adults-only, book individually or as a full estate buyout.

Villa Nai 3.3 takes adults only, with individual bookings open to guests twelve and over; reserve the whole estate as a buyout and children of any age are welcome, with capacity for up to sixteen guests across all eight rooms and suites.

03Where to eat

Both restaurants answer to one kitchen: dining at Villa Nai 3.3 is overseen by Head Chef Santosh Yadav, who has experience working at Michelin-starred restaurants. Grotta 11000 takes its name from Šime, the oldest known Dalmatian, whose 11,000-year-old remains were found in the island's Vlakno Cave, and cooks Adriatic fish and seafood over charcoal grills and a hearth oven, served at stone tables open to the sky.

3.3, the fine-dining room, looks over the grove and the sea; it is the à la carte option, with contemporary Dalmatian dishes crafted with the estate's own olive oil and all-organic seasonal produce, alongside a tasting menu of seven courses, each paired with a Croatian wine. Breakfast draws on the same larder — local goat milk, cheese and yoghurt, garden-fresh fruit and veg, breads and pastries — and for a supplement guests can take a guided tour of the mill where the oil itself is pressed.

04The bar

The Lobby Bar serves organic coffee, cocktails and a cellar weighted toward Croatian and Old World wine through the day. Next to it, the Cigar Room keeps its humidors in a secluded stone garden set apart from the pool terrace, for guests who want to linger after dinner.

05Spa and pool

Wellness here runs on two pools: a 23-metre saltwater infinity pool outdoors, framed by the olive grove and the sea beyond, and an indoor pool that works like a grotto, lit by a single skylight. Treatments draw on the estate's own olive paste alongside Balinese and Thai massage and cold-plasma techniques, with a Finnish sauna, a small outdoor gym and a private tennis court for anyone who would rather move than float.

06The neighbourhood

Žman sits on the quieter, southern half of Dugi Otok, close to the cliffs of Telašćica Nature Park and the scattered islets of Kornati National Park. The island itself is known for its natural landscapes rather than tourism infrastructure, with no large resorts, cruise terminals, or major commercial developments.

Reaching it takes a little planning: guests travel first to Zadar, then on by boat — this quiet, rural location is served by boats from Zadar on the mainland that take approximately 90 minutes — or by helicopter to the hotel's own helipad. The island sits roughly equidistant between Venice and Dubrovnik, which is as good an explanation as any for why so few visitors simply happen upon it.

07Making the most of a stay

The hotel's name carries a small piece of local memory: nai is the old Dalmatian word for snow, and Dugi Otok once received, on average, 3.3 days of snowfall annually, which was the perfect amount to produce a bountiful olive harvest — the same rarity the Morović family gave first to their oil, then to the hotel built around it.

Groups can take the whole estate — all eight rooms, the pool, the jetty and the grove — with no other guests present, a configuration the hotel markets as an exclusive buyout. Check-in runs from 3pm and check-out to noon, with dinner served at both restaurants from 5 to 11pm.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.