Jordan Joyce

Aug 29, 20228 min read

Highlights of Dubrovnik, Croatia’s Walled City

If you’ve heard of Croatia, you’ve likely heard of it because of either Game of Thrones or Yacht Week. And if it’s the former, then you’re likely familiar with Croatia’s famous Southern walled city, Dubrovnik, where much of the famous show was filmed. But this city has so much more to offer than just GOT’s tours and Iron Throne replicas, although many tourists don’t seem to know that. Our Airbnb host, Daniela, told us that she literally has guests ask when they built the sets around the old town for Game of Thrones…wow. Regardless, it is the most popular tourist destination in Croatia largely due to the fact that it has a convenient airport only 20 minutes from the city center, a large number of hotels, Airbnb’s, and delicious restaurants. And of course, because it’s absolutely beautiful.

We spent just about a week here at the beginning of August, along with our friend from Mexico, Hideki, and although it was extremely crowded (high season is June - September) and extremely hot, the city and surrounding areas still stole my heart. Tim is 50% Croatian from his mom’s side of the family, so Croatia is like coming home for him and he’s been visiting since he was a young kid. This was my second time coming to Croatia and I keep telling Tim that I think it’s my favorite place in the world (although I know I have much more to see!). But I do have good reason to love it here.

Croatia’s coastline to the Adriatic Sea is 1,104 miles long spanning the entirety of the country and it includes 1,246 islands, which means there’s a plethora of incredible places to enjoy dips in the sea. The beaches are for the most part rocky and it’s not uncommon to hike down in an obscure area to the water and claim your own rock with no one in sight to enjoy the day, my favorite pastime. Outside of that, Croatia still doesn’t feel as Westernized as other parts of Europe, my guess is that it's to the fact that they only regained their independence from Socialist rule 30 years ago. The way of life here is generally very laid back, the Croatians appreciate savoring a cup of coffee versus getting takeaway, and you can still find a delicious authentic meal for a fair price, even in the tourist-y areas. The Croatian people are also really proud of their heritage and love to talk about their families and ancestors, which I find endearing. Within minutes of meeting Daniela, our Airbnb host in Dubrovnik, I knew that she was born and raised in that particular house, her parents were from Dubrovnik but her grandparents were from Vis, she’s fighting with her cousins over her Grandpas military uniform and Grandmas earrings and she actually had family in Danville, CA (where I’m from - small world!). In America, these aren’t conversations that we typically strike up immediately, we’re more concerned with where we’re going than where we came from.

On the Old Town walls - Photo by ButtonUp

Dubrovnik is famous for its Old Town (AKA Stari Grad) which is still protected by walls that were built in the 7th Century…which is an entire 8 Centuries before Columbus discovered America. Mind blowing. The internal city is filled with winding alleys made from marble stone walkways and today has tons of modern shops and restaurants. During the 1991 war the city was shelled and many buildings were damaged, but everything has been beautifully restored, and it’s cool to see the contrast between the old roofs and the new. Outside of Stari Grad, Dubrovnik has a ton to offer from incredible beaches to island visits.

If you make your way to Dubrovnik, here were our favorite things to do:

Walk the Walls of Old Town - The walls built around the city in defense can be walked around the entire city. At their height they reach 82 feet, so expect a lot of stairs, but also expect incredible views of the city and the Sea. They are open from 8 am - 7pm(ish) depending on the time of year. I'd recommend going up about an hour before closing time. For us, they closed at 7:30 so we went around 6/6:15 meant that we were up there when the sun was setting (so pretty) and it was way less hot and crowded than the middle of the day.

Visit Lokrum Island - Lokrum island is a short 15-minute ferry ride from Dubrovnik’s Old Town. It is a relatively small island but includes ruins from the 1800s, botanical gardens and amazing swim spots. You buy tickets right at the Old Town Port. Make sure to go to the booth in the middle, the ones on the outside are trying to upsell you to private boat tours, etc. It's a great island to explore and find little private swimming coves. Our favorite was right before the nudist beach here (or do the nudist beach if you're more adventurous than us!). Just hike down and grab a rock, there are a few ladders in and out of the water. We also hiked down to here and it was another really nice swimming place. It is cool to go into the old Monastery which is where the “real” Iron Throne from GOT filming is. They also filmed a lot of the show here, so you might recognize some areas from famous scenes. Right at the Monastery there are two restaurants to grab some lunch. We ate at Lacroma and although it was a little pricey, the food was actually really good (grilled squids and falafel salad mmmm). If you can, I'd recommend buying some beers at the Studenac market in Dubrovnik and then bringing them with you, we wish that we had! Also, make sure to buy or bring water shoes to protect against the rocks and sea urchins. If you don't have them you can buy them at a lot of stores within the Old Town walled city.

Visit Lopud Island - One of the Elaphiti Islands right off the coast of Dubrovnik, this island is a great place to spend a day. You'll have to take a ferry from the main harbor so you'll get a taxi or Uber (we found Uber to be cheaper) over there from the main area in Dubrovnik. The ferry company that services it is Jadrolinija and you can just buy your tickets right at the port or online beforehand. We bought ours at the port in high season and were fine. It's particularly famous because it has a big sandy beach (a rarity in Croatia) called Beach Sunj. When you get off the ferry you can either walk / hike to the other side where the beach is or you can take a golf cart taxi (there are no cars on the island). I'd really recommend walking and hiking up to this old fortress where you have incredible views of the island. I will say, it's a moderately tough hike (it took us about 45 minutes and about 800 steps) so just make sure to bring water but we did it in flip flops and we were fine. It's really worth it. Then you can continue the walk over to the sandy beach. For lunch you have to go to Konoba Bindo up the hill from the beach. This is the best meal I've had in Croatia so far. Get the cevapčići for sure with extra ajvar and a side of grilled veggies. You'll have earned some vino and pivos (beer). Then you can just take a golf cart taxi back to the main port!

Pelješac Peninsula - An hour drive from Dubrovnik along beautiful coastline, this peninsula is known for fresh oysters and wine! Two of my favorite things. If you can rent a car for the day (we rented from MACK) it’s totally worth a day trip or a stop along the way heading up to the islands. The region is best known for a red varietal named Plavac mali, which is the “parent” of the Zinfandel grape and a white wine called Postup. Our favorite varietal is a red called Dingač made from the best Plavac Mali grapes that hug the hills of the seaside in the Dingač region. It's bold like a California Cab but more vanilla / carmel-y. It's SO GOOD. There are hundreds of wineries and the wine tasting is really authentic - think going into a families home who have been making wine for hundreds of years and getting tastings from the winemakers (aka the dad or son) themselves. We really loved Matkovic and Matusko for Dingac and Grgurević for Plavac. The winemaker at Grgich in California is from Croatia and he has a Croatian winery, Grgic, here as well. For fresh seafood stop at Sutvid Mussels & Oyster Buffet, but make a reservation for 3+ more people in high season or just be ready for a wait!

Eating / Drinking in Dubrovnik - While there are a ton of restaurants, my only real restaurant recommendation is Konoba Dubrava. It's at the top of the hill up from Old Town with awesome views. Make a reservation and pre-order a Peka (which is a way of slow-cooking meat under a "bell"). We loved the mixed meats and the octopus, but you have to order this ahead of time. Really nice authentic experience and great food. Oh! And Holy Burek. This place actually made delicious burek (cheese or meat filled pastry). Also, check out D'Vino wine bar in the Old Town. It's run by Tim's cousin's friend (his name is Sasha) and they have a lot of wines from the Pelješac if you aren't able to actually make it.

Beaches - There are tons of places to jump into the water, but sometimes you want a proper beach.

Plaža Sveti Jakov: Great views back to Dubrovnik Old Town. You'll likely need to take an Uber here. If you don't want to rent a sunbed, just walk to the left when you walk down the steps and there are rocks and a dock you can hang out on for free. They also have a bar and restaurant

Beach Šulić: This is a "local" beach that has really cool views up to the fortress. There are two bars / restaurants for pivos and sandwiches at lunch. There’s no sun bed rentals, just lay your towel on the rocks. You can definitely tell more locals hang out here which is fun.

Blaze beach: You'll access this through the walled city. You'll find a door that just takes you to the other side of the wall and walk down. There's fun rocks to dive from here (and scary rocks...be careful!). There's not a lot of space to hang out so it's more of a take a dip and keep going kind of beach.

Beach Sunj: The sandy beach on Lopud with a ton of restaurants to rent sunbeds and umbrellas from. It’s a great beach for picigin, a Croatian game played with a small rubber ball, because it’s quite shallow

Grab beers from the Studenac and sit on the Baroque stairs where Circe did her walk of shame in GoT - This is a great place to people watch and be in the center of everything, without paying for expensive drinks! Just don’t do what some tourists did and make your partner get naked and throw things at them as if they were actually doing the walk of shame…yes this actually happened.