The expensive yachts are clanging against the palm-tree-dotted marina and groups are gathering in seafront bars, just as they did six years ago, when I visited Croatia with a friend.

I'm here just days before the UK quarantine restrictions are lifted, and it's business as usual.

Inside Split's ancient Diocletian's Palace walls, I spend an afternoon drinking local best wine making kit and eating grilled seabass and creamy burrata salad at an indoor table at Bokeria restaurant.

Despite this appearance of normality, the city is unusually quiet for this time of year.

At Bokeria, you typically have to wait up to a week to reserve a table. Today, you can turn up and almost guarantee there'll be a table waiting for you.

For a time, and during my visit, masks were only mandatory on public transport.

However, since last week, they're now also a requirement for hospitality workers and for customers and employees in shops.

Hotels started swinging open their doors on May 11 to temperatures of 30°C, and are now offering record discounts.
At my hotel, the five-star Vestibul Palace, my room would usually go for around £450 a night. I paid just more than £100.

It appears that the hotels have implemented the most rigorous measures here. At reception I have my temperature taken, before Bruno tells me the good news: 36.1°C and I'm free to commence with check in.

In my room, he points out the masks and latex gloves next to the complimentary snacks.

Just 40 minutes away from Split is Trogir, a preserved ancient town set within medieval walls on a tiny island, which was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997.

It's worth spending a day here, wandering the town's maze-like marble streets before settling in for an evening on the wide seaside promenade, which is lined with bustling bars, restaurants and yachts.

Back in sun-drenched Split, boats thrum from the busy harbour to the nearby islands, as they usually do at this time of year.

However, on my 400-seater catamaran to Hvar Island, there are just 11 passengers on board.

It's the same story in trendy Hvar town, which attracts the rich and famous, who drift in on their superyachts every year. At Pokonji Dol pebbly beach, only a handful of the sun loungers are taken, and I find a large spot to settle down for the day, dipping in and out of the glistening turquoise sea.

You can't come to Hvar without wandering through the island's lavender fields, which turn vivid purple in summer.

Just 50 years ago, this fragrant island accounted for eight per cent of the world's lavender production.

You'll find another UNESCO World Heritage site here, at the island's Stari Grad Plain, where the pattern of olive trees has been perfectly preserved for some two and a half thousand years.

That evening, over a swordfish carpaccio and local wine on the terrace of Grande Luna restaurant, I feel a pang of elation that, yes, our holidays will look different, but they're back, and, after months stuck indoors, the sights, smells and sounds are all the sweeter.

sky high: Diocletian's Palace, top; Hvar town and the cathedral, above; Trogir, left