48 hours in Dubrovnik city, Croatia

It’s not every day that we have a good idea, but when we were booking out tickets to Hideout festival we decided that it would be worth us stopping off in Dubrovnik on the way back for a few days...great idea as we loved it there!

the entrance to Dubrovnik, through the walls 

view from the walls

Dubrovnik is in the very southernmost tip of Croatia, a good 5-6 hours drive from where we were in Pag for the festival so arriving in the pretty city was a warm welcome. Plus the drive along the coast from Pag, through Split and Bosnia (it is no longer a war-torn country as we all worried) is stunning. A back drop of mountains and lush blue sea below. Gorgeous. 

view from the car window of the drive 

our coastal drive

We stayed in the hotel Kompas, not in the city centre but on the beach in the hillside. This offered a great view of the beach and was only a short 5 minute taxi ride to the city centre (about £8 per taxi). I got to admit, it doesn’t look too impressive from the outside as the building was a little worn and the pictures on the websites having clearly used a nice instagram filter,  but once inside it is cool, clean and catered our needs fine! The beds were the kind of mattress you sink into, perfect for us after arriving from our all day drive. The pool was ok too and the attached restaurant served pretty tasty meals too!

Croatians love the potato croquettes...so do we!

Unfortunately we only had 48 hours in Dubrovnik so only saw a snippet of what the city has to offer and our first night we didn’t venture more than 100m from the hotel as we were still recuperating from Hideout (those of you who have been will know what I mean). 

clear blue sea

The beach by our hotel was pretty relaxed and although not sand, was pleasant, although small. However, don’t go into the sea barefoot, or you’ll do a “Katy” and step on a sea urchin and have to pick all the spines out. Painful but luckily not poisonous!

cheers! It's cocktail time on the beach! 

the girls taking a dip

a small but neat beach 

Dubrovnik is renowned for being a walled city (the walls range back to the 7^th century!) meaning that it is immersed in history and looks a picture-perfect quaint! Walking a long the wall is a must as you'll get great panoramic view of Dubrovnik.It is quite expensive, I think, to walk around the wall (about a tenner) but it is worth it as you get a brilliant view of the city and landscape. It is open until about 7pm. 

the uniform of white building and terracotta roofs

the city is a maze of little side streets

Take it slow around the wall – don’t rush it – it is slippery, has steps and it’ll be hot! I loved looking down into the gardens and alleys that are scattered in the city. It kind of reminded me of Santorini (read my blog post here) with it cobbled streets and hidden paths. 

the city looked gorgeous in the late afternoon light

Dubrovnik has a real relaxed feel to it, meaning that we happily went from bar to cafe taking in the sights and ambience. If you are after an evening that isn't as quiet however, there seemed to be plenty of bars and a few clubs to cater! 

Some of the cafes and bars are built into the rocks and hillside along the coast, which was so cute. One down side though this means that it can be hard to find the one you want, although we impressively managed to navigate our way back to a bar we had seen when looking down from the wall! It also means there is no plumbing...the toilets are “improvised”, as one bar staff explained. Long drops are not for me.

Dubrovnik's great architecture 

dramatic coastline at Dubrovnik 

the alleys are filled with cute, small eateries 

The bars and restaurants are equally nice on the harbour and all seem reasonably priced. It isn’t cheap (like Thailand) but very fairly priced if you are used to England prices, especially London.

On our last night, we ate in the Terrace Restaurant, which was situated to your left before you entered the old town through the walls. This was a great find – great view, good food and delicious cocktails and the service was the best we had so far. Skip dessert and head to one of the thousands of ice cream stands in the streets with their impressive array of flavours (kinder, apple pie  and cherry yoghurt anyone?!) which is only about a pound a scoop!

serious selection of ice cream flavours! 

top marks for their steak and fries 

view from the restaurant 

We went in the summer (July) and the weather was perfect in Dubrovnik, although we did have a few showers in Pag, with temperature reaching 30*.

If you are feeling adventurous, we saw a few boast trips leave the harbour plus a few sporty types sea kayaking which looked like a great way to get an alternative view of Dubrovnik. If you have time too, take the cable car up to the mountains for a birds eye view of the city.

Please share any tips you have! 

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Food – plenty of food places and most are reasonably priced. Service can be a bit slow in the restaurants so go in holiday mode so you don’t get irritated.

Drink – alcohol seemed really reasonable with delicious cocktails about a fiver. Their local house wne is pretty tasty too!

Hire car – a good way to get around the island as petrol is cheap, although the drivers are nutty. They are nuttier than a extra nutty snickers bar topped with more nuts. One point we had bit of a hairy moment when we nearly had a head on thanks to the knob jockey who tried to do a triple overtake and only narrowly missed us!

Taxi – I didn’t think that these were too cheap but ok when a few of you are sharing. Plenty of taxis though and no where to park if you did drive, so it is best. 

Flying - we flew with Norwegian and Monarch from Gatwick at a cost of about £140 return