Dubrovnik Destination Guide

Walk The Walls Before The City Wakes

Dubrovnik is a small limestone city inside a complete ring of medieval walls on a rock above the Adriatic, and there is nothing else quite like it in Europe. It is also, and this needs saying first because it determines everything about how you plan, one of the most heavily visited small places on the continent. On a day when several cruise ships are in port, tens of thousands of people funnel through two gates into streets built for a few thousand. The city is still magnificent. But the difference between a wonderful Dubrovnik trip and a miserable one is almost entirely a matter of timing, and that is a planning problem rather than a matter of luck.

The planning decision: how you avoid the crush

Three moves solve most of it. First, walk the walls at opening, which is early, or in the last hour before closing, and never at midday in July. Second, do not sleep inside the walls unless you want to be in the old town at night, which is genuinely lovely once the day visitors have gone but comes with noise, stairs and no vehicle access. Third, check the cruise schedule for your dates, because the port publishes arrivals and the difference between a two ship day and a no ship day is the difference between two cities. Build the old town into early mornings and evenings, and give the middle of the day to the water.

A short intense season

The season runs May through September and it is compressed. July and August are hot, expensive and at their most crowded, and the sea is at its warmest. May, June and September are the correct answer for most travelers: comfortable temperatures, swimmable water from June onward, and noticeably fewer people. Early October still works. From November through March much of the coastal infrastructure closes, ferries reduce to skeleton schedules and many island properties shut entirely, so a winter visit means a city break rather than a coastal holiday. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival in July and August fills the town further and is worth knowing about either as a draw or as a date to avoid.

Where to base, and how you arrive

Lapad and Babin Kuk, on the peninsula west of the old town, are where most of the good hotels sit, with beaches, sea access and a bus or boat into the old town in fifteen or twenty minutes. Ploče, immediately east of the walls, holds the grandest addresses and the best views back at the city. Inside the walls itself is for small guesthouses and apartments. The stronger idea for a longer stay is to leave the mainland altogether: the Elafiti islands, Šipan, Lopud and Koločep, are under an hour by boat, have almost no cars and turn the trip into something entirely different. Dubrovnik Airport is about forty minutes from the city by road along the coast, and that transfer runs longer in high season traffic.

Stay strategy on a crowded coast

Villa Dubrovnik sits on the cliffs at Ploče with the best view of the walls from the water side. Hotel Excelsior and the Villa Orsula occupy the same stretch. The Rixos and the Dubrovnik Palace anchor the Lapad end with proper sea access. Inside the walls, the Pucić Palace is the one traditional hotel of note. On the islands, Lopud has a small and characterful stock of rooms. Villas on the Konavle side, south toward Montenegro, are the answer for families and groups who want space and a pool, and they are also where the value sits in a market that has become expensive.

When to begin

Six months for the summer, and longer for July and August, when the good sea facing rooms and the island properties are limited and go early. Villas for August are typically taken by the previous winter. Ferries to the islands and to Hvar and Korčula run on seasonal schedules that publish a few months out and sell for peak sailings, and those should be settled once the rooms are held. If a boat is part of the plan, whether a day charter or a week's sailing, that is the first thing to secure rather than the last.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• The city walls at opening, taken slowly and anticlockwise, with a guide who can explain the republic that built them.
• A private boat day through the Elafiti islands, swimming off the back and having lunch on Šipan or Lopud.
• The Pelješac peninsula for the red wines of Dingač and Postup, and the oysters at Ston on the way.
• A day across the border into Montenegro for the Bay of Kotor, which is a straightforward drive and a genuine change of scene.

Who this trip suits

Dubrovnik suits couples and honeymooners, particularly in the shoulder months. It suits sailors and anyone chartering along the Dalmatian coast, for which it is the natural southern base. It suits history travelers, given the maritime republic and the fortifications. It suits families who base on the islands or in a villa with a pool. And it suits anyone combining it with Hvar and the northern Dalmatian islands into a longer coastal week.

When another plan may fit better

If you want a quiet Adriatic holiday, this is not the address and the islands north of here, or Croatia's Istrian coast, will serve you better. If you cannot travel outside July and August and dislike crowds, be honest about that now. And if the Mediterranean island holiday is what you are really after, the Greek Islands offer more variety across a longer season.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us your month, whether you want the mainland or the islands and whether a boat is part of it, and we will check the cruise calendar against your dates before anything is held. Our luxury leisure travel planning builds the whole Dalmatian sequence rather than the walled city alone.