Decided to head to Dubrovnik on Saturday for about a week.

It’s been squeezed in between busy periods at work, and as a result I’ve not actually planned anything other than flights/hotel/transportation.

Any must-do things I should stick on my list?

so far all we have is:

1. teach mrs peterfile to swim
2. eat and drink

Walk round the wall. Should not take that long, but it’s a good way to see the whole of the old town. There’s also a nice restaurant about halfway round that has outside comfy sofas and is pretty “cool”.

There is meant to be some fantastic sea kayaking in the area.

from past experience, i think we’ll need to have nailed the “learn to swim” bit before any more kayaking adventures 🙂

Aren’t they currently filming “Game of Thrones” there? Enlist as an extra 🙂

– Walk up the mountain or get the chairlift, and visit the fort on top, including the exhibition on the siege.
– Head down the coast to one of the smaller fishing towns such as Cavtat. Cheap as chips on the local bus.
– Boat trip to Lokrum island, have an aimless wander around getting lost.
– Do a coach trip to Mostar.
– Eat cheap squid at Kamenice in the little square near the port, with the locals and the cats.
– Go to the Buza Bar, perched on the walls overhanging the sea. Get beer, watch sunset.

If we’d had more time we might have done a trip to Montenegro somewhere too.

Go to the Buza Bar, perched on the walls overhanging the sea. Get beer, watch sunset.

This. This. This.

mrs deadly and I visited (twice) on a learn-to-sail thing on our honeymoon.

It’s a stunning city – possibly the most beautiful I’ve visited. Maybe visit Korcula on the old pre-revolution catamaran thing if it still runs. I think you’ll struggle to keep yourself occupied for a week in Dubrovnik alone, especially if the weather’s not so hot. So, a visit to some of the islands is worth a go.

I wouldn’t expect to be doing much shopping there, it was eye-wateringly expensive when we visited.

Thanks guys, this was exactly what I was hoping for 🙂

We’re planning on doing a bit of island hopping (we’ll have a car) and taking climbing gear, so should find enough to fill the time.

ormondroyd, did you happen to do any sea swimming on lokrum? if so, do the cliffs look climbable? 🙂

I didn’t, it wasn’t really the time of year when we were there (early spring). Not sure about climbing on Lokrum – it has some protected status – but I’m not the man to ask, really.

I think you’ll struggle to keep yourself occupied for a week in Dubrovnik alone, especially if the weather’s not so hot.

I agree with this. It’s a beautiful place to wander around but it’s not huge. I’d plan to do a few things. The more distant islands sounded pretty nice, forgot about those. But the trip to Mostar was pretty incredible and powerful too, don’t rule that one out.

EDIT: The inland Croatian/Bosnian borders are a pain in the arse. The one on the coast for the tiny strip of Bosnian seaside, less so on the day we went through. If you have a car, allow some time. Took our coach 30 minutes to get cleared through to Bosnia.

Cavtat is nice and there’s a water taxi that will take you there for not very much. Go there and ogle at the very expensive boats moored up, then find a nice place to eat and enjoy the stunning sunsets.

Buza(2 – there are 2 of them and they are both worth looking up), the wall walk and swimmming in the sea are a must. Avoiding it when the cruise ships get to town is a good idea too – it gets pretty busy 🙂

I stayed in Lopud for a week and dropped over to Dubrovnik for a couple of lovely days, not much climbing on Lopud though, although the bay was good to swim in 🙂

Enjoy it.

Avoiding it when the cruise ships get to town is a good idea too – it gets pretty busy

Thank toby, my mum did mention that the Old Town was crazy busy last time she visited.

I’ve just printed off a table with all of the arrival/departure times (and number of passengers) of the ships due in while we’re there….the port authority has a nice table…pretty handy for working out when to book restaurant tables and go for walks around town 🙂

A few hours can be the difference between bumping into an extra 5,000 people or not!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mljet
Miljet is a nice quiet island, use the jardolina line passenger ferry. its convenient and much cheaper than the tourist ferries. the office is in the big harbour the other side of Lapad, itself a nice beach and worth a visit. there isnt much there but its a nice walk, there is a supermarket near the ticket office for a picnic stop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lopud
Lopud is another nice island, the ferry drops you off on one side, but walk to the other side following the path signposted to the beach, if you are brave, you can swim in the sea but it might be chilly….

when we were there, kayak tours were the big thing so there might be some still running despite teh tourist season finishing. we never did it but the walk to the top of the big hill is a good trek and offers great views.

you can spend a day just exploring the old town and drinking coffee. just avoid the cruise liner parties, they descend on the place form about 1030 to 1630 and there are groups of 50-100 just wandering around the town. its hellish but given the time of year there may be a reduced number. we went in september and there were always tenders coming and going.

cant remember the name of the island just off the coast, its quite small and favoured by german nudists and home to some truly evil peacocks…

there is a great little pizza place called barracuda in the old town too, its worth a visit and dead cheap. other than that, its fish for supper….

Don’t worry too much about the cruise ships. Just get off the beaten track, either up the hill a bit or the streets by the sea, or take a stroll round the coast at Lapad. The cruise tourists funnel neatly into the obvious tourist trap streets and restaurants. They don’t find the Buza bars.

Yes do the walls, takes around 1hr to get round, some nice views too. We got on before they closed the gates for the night so just around sunset, so it was very nice.

Plenty of sea swimming areas, all cordoned off and have ladders into the sea. We got some of those booties from Decathlon as there’s not many beach areas and you swim off the rocks in a lot of places. Miljet is beautiful and once you get there you can walk up the hill and there’s a lovely lake for more swimming / paddling.

Back in Dubrovnik there’s plenty to do , things to see and go, just have a wonder through the streets. I can recommend a restaurant called Pizza Mia Culpa. It serves Pizza / Italian but so cheap and a pizza as big as the moon ( I exaggerate…slightly) for about 8 euros!

Public Transport is very good there too and handy for getting about. If you have time i’d also suggest a boat ride to Hvar. Thats lovely too. I like Croatia and Dubrovnik a lot, been there twice. Have fun.

Ace place…went their a few years back.the island off the city walls it where all the locals go to swim…it’s nice and quiet.we found the islands further north really quiet.ended up on vis which was great,very Italian and relaxing…have a great trip.the boat trips are very good too…..take loadsa pics

Leave immediately and go to Montenegro.

Go to a town called Perast and have a look, its stunning. Then go a further 15km or so and visit Kotor, medevil walled city with no cars, world heritidge site. Like Durovnik only nicer IMHO. If you do get to Kotor you can see the mountain I rode up shortly before knocking my front teeth out on the ridge at the top lol or indeed ride up it yourself!

If you do neither of the things above please do this…Go into a bar and say “Dva Veliki tocino pivot molim” and enjoy the result 🙂

phonetic spelling would be “ve-lik-ee t-o-chino pea-voh mo-limb”

I promise you i doesn’t mean your mother is a donkey and i slept with your sister.

PSA…. If you do go to Mostar and see the Stari Bridge, Stari just means old.

Mostar is a must mate. One of my favourite places in the world.

If you have time you can catch a train from Mostar to Sarajevo for about £3.00 and its got to be one of the most amazing journeys you can take.

Dubrovnik is stunning but can be packed with cruise ship folk being walked round. My advice would be to spend a day or two there then hit the road!

We were back there last week and couldnt believe how insanely busy and packed the town was during the day! Even without a cruise. But the evenings are lovely!

Anyway – as most of the above – its a great base to get further afield. I’d agree with BristolPablo – Mljet is lovely. Smallish – easily tourable on a bike, I dont know if I’d bring a car TBH. Lopud is cool too.

But this time we went south to Montenegro for the first week then north (4.5 hours by road) to Vis for the second week. If hiring a car I’d thoroughly recommend you double check hire car insurance will cover you for crossing borders – some folks were getting pretty hassled by the border staff (car reg docs, insurance type of bureaucracy).

For things to do – we were walking in Montenegro 5-7 hours most days. Some proper big hills (for us!): 1800m starting from sea level. The Croatian islands are all quiet really and you’ll probably have to do some swimming, chilling etc.

As an aside the kayaking from Dubrovnik now looks really “touristy” – I can only comment from the sales tactics of the guys at every bus stop. If you’re going to do that then I’d guess book with a proper company in advance (obvious stuff really).

Money wise – if that bothers you – we found it ok apart from eating fish: which was REALLY expensive. And generally done on a BBQ which wasnt our thing after the first few times.

Overall – I’d guess you could spin the bottle as for where exactly you go once you land and still have a great time. Enjoy!

Some other things my good lady reminded me of:

White wine – well its not exactly world famous. Liponavich from Vis isnt cheap but she says is actually pretty good (around £4 for 200ml). The beers are good.

The city walls now cost around £7 each. When we first went it was £1. Still nice though I guess.

Dont just wander into a restuarant in the old town and assume high prices mean good food. Do your research and get the hotel to book the one you want.

Lastly – the mozzies are “nastier” (?)

Would she go back tomorrow – oh yes!

Swim in the sea lots.

Swim in the lakes on Mljet.

Hire some kayaks and have fun and take a picnic.

Most of all though, eat some good food, ignore anyone speaking English or shouting at you.

Take it easy.