I’ve been in Croatia before. But up in the north in Zagreb and Zadar and never in Dubrovnik. I chose this because of the easy access to Bosnia and Herzegovina from there.
DAY 1 – TUESDAY
My 9:25 flight to Dubrovnik landed 30 minutes before schedule. I don’t know what their hurry was, I didn’t hurry anywhere. The Dubrovnik airport is really small and it took no time to get through it, buy the shuttle bus ticket from the machine (and ignore the long line) and sit on the bus. It took 30 minutes by bus to get to the Old Town. Only one narrow road connects the airport with the city (and Montenegro, if you go the other way). No need to rent a car to get there, because there is no place to park it. I saw a parking garage prices next to the Hilton Imperial…100 EUR for 24 hours. Unfortunately, the bus didn’t take me close to my Airbnb apartment, so I had to take a Bolt for the rest of the way. The driver recommended a good burger joint (just outside the Hilton) and that’s where my lunch came from. The meat was so good that I used the same place again on the next day.
Check-in was at noon. After a quick rest, I headed towards the town along the scenic road through the Park Gradac. I only lived about a 6-minute walk away from the Old Town. The best way to get the lay of the land is just to wander around aimlessly and see where the roads take you. The Old Town is not that large so it didn’t take me long to go around it from one end to the other. After some hours of aimless walking, I got back to the apartment, picked up my swimwear and headed towards the beach that was supposed to be just around the corner. Actually, it took an endless amount of stairs to get down there. The “beach” was just a rock outcropping with a swimming area marked in the distance with some buoys. You had to slide into the water along the slippery rocks as the waves tried to lose your balance. But the water was nice and warm (and salty) and many people were swimming in the sea. Afterwards, I had to climb the stairs again to get back to the apartment.
My first official tour started at 8 PM and was the “Dubrovnik by night walking tour” (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/911524). There were only 8 of us in the group and fewer people on the streets as well. It was a nice walk from Pile Beach to the Old Town. The guide was doing a really good job of telling her personal stories and what her family had to go through at the beginning of the 90s when the war raged in the area. Actually, in Dubrovnik, the war officially started on the October 1st, 1991. So it was the 33rd anniversary on that day. The people back then were really surprised to see that a UNESCO heritage site was bombed that way and that the UN didn’t do anything in the beginning claiming it to be just a civil war. Later they ended up paying for the restoration works and now you see only some sharpnel marks left on purpose on the buildings. But for most of its history, Dubrovnik (meaning the oak tree), has been an independent republic well-versed in diplomatic relations and trade. No other wars were fought there because they always managed to use diplomacy first. Napoleon was the first one who managed to derail them a bit. During the II World War Croatia sided with Germany and later became one of the Yugoslavian (meaning southern Slavic) countries ruled by communist Tito. Since 2013 Croatia has been a member of the EU. A fun fact…the name Croatia (Hravatska in local language) comes from the word meaning the cravat, which was first used by the army here. When the French arrived with Napoleon, they really liked this accessory and made it famous all around the world.
DAY 2 – WEDNESDAY
After 9 am I headed to the Old Town again. This time with a plan to do the walk around the city walls. I had purchased the Dubrovnik Pass for 35 euros online and this allowed me to go climbing the walls. Actually stairs. About one thousand of them. The Dubrovnik Old Town wall is the most famous activity all people here are doing. It is about 2 kilometres long and goes around the whole town. By the time I got there, the big groups had already arrived. Mostly cruise passengers of all sorts and sizes. It’s agreed that there won’t be more than 3 cruise ships in the port at the same time. Luckily it’s October already, which means it’s the last month of the season. The season in Dubrovnik lasts 7 months. From November to March, everything is deadly quiet and the people working in the tourism sector are hibernating.
There are much fewer people in October here but still it gets crowded sometimes. The walkway along the walls is quite narrow and when somebody is stopping to take photos then everyone else behind them has to stop as well. Luckily there are wider areas as well and it wasn’t too bad to walk there. The weather was nice and sunny and up to 20 degrees. All in all a perfect day for such a trip. According to the guide the night before it could be done in 45 minutes or 2 hours if you take it really slowly. I almost made it in 1 hour but then just before the end, they had a nice bar there with drinks to go. So I decided not to waste a beautiful view and sat there on the wall for a while and had a drink and did some serious people-watching.
After the wall, I decided to try the cable car that would have taken me up the hill to the fort that the French built at the beginning of the 1800s, but the line there was just too damn long. It was a good thing that I hadn’t bought the ticket yet. Instead, I went to Fort Lovrijenac, which is a small castle just outside the Old Town built to protect one another. The entrance was covered by the same Pass. The fort is nowadays used as an event venue and you can rent it if you have 7000 euros to spend. Plus all the other costs from food, decorations etc. Something was happening on the same evening and the preparations were on the way. Maybe a wedding. Maybe a wedding of the same Asian-looking people I saw on the wall and in the old town taking photos in their wedding attire. Weddings are a big business for the region and many companies are working in the destination wedding niche.
After lunch and shower (because of all the stairs) I was scheduled to have another private tour called “Eight beautiful locations just outside of Dubrovnik” (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/1325074). It was hosted by Roberto whose English was not the best but whose tour is a must if you want to see what the countryside around Dubrovnik is all about. We started with Park Orsula, an archaeological site with a panoramic view and the most beautiful summer event stage. The next stop was a most interesting abandoned tourist complex of the Former Military Resort in Kupari. This was the most fancy resort for military personnel during the Tito time. The next stop was in the middle of a small village, which you couldn’t find on your own. The Mitrej small open cave is a historical religious sight from the time of the Roman Empire.
In Ljuta we stopped at a popular restaurant with Old stone mills, waterfalls and beautiful promenades through the dense shade of the forest. Before returning to Dubrovnik we had a homemade sandwich with a sage drink in the shade of a large oak tree next to the Pridvorje-Franciscan monastery. On the way, we stopped also at a traditional agricultural cottage which is a good example of traditional construction in drywall technique and visited the Gray Falcon viewpoint. We were back in Dubrovnik for another beautiful sunset at the seaside.
DAY 3-4 – THURSDAY and FRIDAY
Click here to read all about the adventures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
DAY 5 – SATURDAY
After returning from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the morning I had a day off. Until at 6 PM I had booked a food tour „Marvelous tastes of Dubrovnik“ hosted by Marina (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4033434). There was another couple from the US as well, so just a small group. We met outside the Pile gate and went in for a tour of history and food. Our first stop was at a local seafood/street food restaurant called Barba, where we had a selection of seafood, with a glass of local wine. I would need to go back for their black octopus burger. We made a second stop at another local restaurant called Pupo Tavern where we were offered black risotto with some more seafood, followed by another glass of wine. Our next stop was at Enoteca wine shop where we tasted a local red and white wine. The final stop of our food tour was at a local coffee and patisseries bar Gianni. The strawberry homemade cake was to die for.
By 9 PM we were full of good food and enjoyable conversations and the tour was over. Just 5 minutes later a huge thunderstorm hit Dubrovnik. I spent the following hour on the central square in a bar drinking non-alcoholic beer Pan and watching lightning and wet people running around. All in all a fun evening.
DAY 6 – SUNDAY
It was raining in the morning. The different weather forecasts couldn’t decide when it’s gonna stop. I made my way through the Old Town when it was still dribbling little and made it to the 11 o’clock ferry to Lokrum Island. I bought the ticket online on the same day and therefore didn’t need to stay in line in the Old Port. They go every half hour and it’s only 10 minutes ride to the island. The island is a nature reserve and no people can stay there overnight. The weather had cleared, the sun was up and I made my way to the top of the island. There are some fort ruins there. Altogether something like 17 different spots are marked on the map and the trail goes through them all. It wasn’t too many people on the island so I only met some others occasionally. From the fort, I continued to the seaside location called Skalica Cove, where the claim that even Richard the Lionheart moored his ship while looking for refuge from the raging sea on the way back from the Crusades. Next to it is a Lazaretto, originally meant as a quarantine site against the Black Death as Dubrovnik was the first town to introduce this 40-day-long quarantine for all the people to fight the plague. The one on the island was never finished because locals figured out that this kind of fortification near the town would be an ideal location for the enemy to set up shop.
Archduke Maximilian Ferdinand of Habsburg had a mansion built on the island in 1859 with a magnificent garden laid out, criss-crossed with pathways, full of amazing plants and botanical wonders. The island was originally purchased by Maximilian’s wife Charlotte of Mexico, with part of her marriage dowry, and she retained ownership of the island even after she and her husband became Emperor and Empress of Mexico. After the Emperor Maximilian’s execution, the island was surrendered to the Habsburg Family. In 1959 a Botanical Garden was founded on Lokrum which contains native and imported, tropical and subtropical plants, and other vegetation originating in Australia and South America. The island is also inhabited by families of peacocks brought over by Maximilian from the Canary Islands.
The Benedictine Monastery is perhaps the most predominant of all Points of Interest on Lokrum. The Monastery was first historically referenced in 1023 and existed until some point in the 15th century at which point the Benedictine Monks were forced to leave the island. Popular legend states that, upon their eviction from the Island, the monks of Lokrum passed a curse on any who possessed the island. A portion of the Monastery has been converted into a restaurant and another segment has been converted into a museum. In the museum, I stumbled on the replica of The Iron Throne from the HBO series The Game of Thrones. I had successfully managed to avoid everything connected to the series, but no more. The throne was quite comfortable to sit in. I took the 4 PM ferry back to town and spent a nice day in nature.
In the evening, I returned to the Old Town and went through some of the places recommended by the guide the night before. I went back to Barba seafood place to have the octopus burger and then through the hole in the wall (Mala buža) to have a drink on the outside of the city walls in a bar on the cliffs.
DAY 7 – MONDAY
It was a beautiful sunny day, which was perfect for the speedboat cruise I had booked. It was hosted by Damir (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4768984) and during the 5 hours he took us to the most gorgeous islands in the Dubrovnik area – the Elafiti Islands. They are decorated with evergreen Mediterranean vegetation surrounded by a crystal clear sea, blue and green caves, sandy beaches, medieval ports, and villages. Twice we had a chance to go swimming into the caves and use the snorkeling equipment to see the fish and different colours in the sea. After swimming we drove another 20 minutes to the other side of Lopud island. There we found a nice small marina with a kilometer-long promenade along the seaside dotted with restaurants and souvenir shops owned by locals. The stop was a little over an hour which was enough to see the cathedral and walk along the promenade from one end to the other. We were back in Dubrovnik by 3 PM.
After watching the last sunset I headed back to town to have dinner in one of the restaurants recommended by the captain today. The Bistro Tavulin turned out to be the perfect last meal of the trip. Today was the first day of the Dubrovnik Good Food Festival. In the restaurant, they had a special 3-course menu prepared for the occasion, which cost only 30 EUR. For any other day, you could only get one course in the place. And it was delicious.
Dubrovnik left me with good memories and emotions and I would recommend it for a visit. Just not during the summer. The shoulder months of April/May and October are better.
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