The island is only about 400 metres long and 300 metres wide — you could walk its full length in just a few minutes. Every building is made from the same grey stone, giving the whole island a warm, golden look in the afternoon sun. The streets between the houses are so narrow that only one person can walk along them at a time.
Sveti Stefan was originally built in the 15th century as a fortified village — its thick outer walls helped protect the fishing families who lived there from pirates and raiders at sea. The village has been so carefully maintained over the centuries that it looks today almost exactly as it did five hundred years ago.
Looking at Sveti Stefan from the mainland beach is one of those views that almost doesn't look real — like a tiny model village someone built on a rock and placed in a painting. The strip of sand connecting it to the shore is pink, because it is partly made from tiny fragments of shell and coral as well as ordinary sand. Sunsets there turn the whole scene orange and gold.