The walls take one morning. The rest of this coast takes a week.
Which Elaphiti boat stops long enough to actually swim. What the Blue Cave run costs in July. Whether Mostar or the Bay of Kotor is the better border day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Dubrovnik.
The islands, the cave, the ramparts and the road into Bosnia.
Four bookings a first week in Dubrovnik hangs off. What each costs, how long it takes, and what you actually get for the day.
01The island dayFull-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksKoločep, Lopud and Šipan in one run, lunch on board and a long stop at Šunj, the only sand beach out there.
02The cave runBlue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from DubrovnikA small boat to the Blue Cave and back, with time in the water inside while the light is still coming through it.
03The rampart morningAncient City Walls & Wars Walking TourThe full circuit above the roofs with a guide who explains the sieges. There is no shade up there, so go at opening.
04Over the borderMostar and Kravice Waterfalls Tour from Dubrovnik (Semi-Private)Kravice waterfalls and the rebuilt bridge at Mostar, into Bosnia and back inside a day. Bring the passport.
Every good Dubrovnik day begins on a jetty at Gruž.
The old town is two hours of walking. The rest is water, and it starts fifteen minutes from the city gate. Three kinds of boat day, what it costs to get on each one, and which stretch of coast it buys you.
Three countries are a day out from Dubrovnik, and two of them are cheaper.
Bosnia is two hours inland over the Neum corridor, Montenegro ninety minutes down the coast, and the Dalmatian islands run north from the same bus station. Nothing here needs a second hotel, and everything here needs a passport.
- 1Mostar and Kravice Waterfalls Tour from Dubrovnik (Semi-Private)from $134
- 2Montenegro Full-Day Trip from Dubrovnik with Optional Boat Tripfrom $72
- 3Kravice Waterfalls, Mostar and Pocitelj Day Tour from Dubrovnikfrom $56
Six hundred metres of polished limestone, and a rampart above all of it.
That is the whole old town: Pile gate to the harbour, one marble street and the lanes climbing off it. Do the ramparts before the heat, find the Jesuit stairs the show made famous, and take the cable car up Srđ when the light goes gold.
What a day out of Dubrovnik actually costs.
The whole catalogue in three price bands. The cheap end is where the ramparts, the walking circuits and the short harbour cruises live, and none of them is the weak option.
Old-town walks, the rampart circuit, the King’s Landing routes and the 45-minute panoramic cruises.
The full days: island cruises with lunch on board, the Blue Cave boats, Mostar, Kotor and the Pelješac cellars.
Private skippers, chartered speedboats and the small-group days that keep the party down to six.
When four ships are in, be anywhere but the old town.
Dubrovnik takes over a million cruise passengers a year and almost all of them are ashore between nine and one. Put thirty-five degrees on unshaded limestone underneath that and the ramparts become the worst place in the city. Both problems have the same answer: be on the water, or be up the valley.
Three things that happen in Dubrovnik and nowhere else on this coast.
Walled towns and clear water run the length of Dalmatia. A two-kilometre rampart walk over the roofs, three car-free islands an hour offshore, and a fictional capital filmed in the real streets do not.
The Rampart Circuit
Nearly two kilometres of unbroken wall ring the old town, up to twenty-five metres high and six thick on the landward side, built and rebuilt between the thirteenth century and the seventeenth. You walk it as a loop, roofs on one side and open sea on the other, and there is almost no shade on the whole thing. The Ottoman army never took it; the July sun regularly takes the people walking it.
- 1City Walls Early Morning or Sunset Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,523 reviews
- 2Ancient City Walls & Wars Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,270 reviews
- 3Dubrovnik Combo: Old Town & Ancient City Walls★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,019 reviews
The Elaphiti Islands
Koločep, Lopud and Šipan lie an hour north-west of the harbour, and the first two have no cars on them at all. Boats do all three in a day: a swim off Koločep, the long crescent of Šunj on Lopud, which is the one true sand beach in a region of pebble, then lunch at a konoba on Šipan. Deer gave the islands their name and nobody has seen one in a very long time.
- 1Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8,823 reviews
- 2Elaphiti Islands Full-Day Cruise with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,938 reviews
- 3Elaphite Island Cruise w/ Drinks & Optional Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,517 reviews
King’s Landing
The show shot its capital in these streets, and the locations are all walkable: the Jesuit stairs off Gundulić square for the walk of shame, Fort Lovrijenac on its rock for the Red Keep, the old harbour for the fleet, Trsteno’s arboretum up the coast for the gardens. Guides carry photographs to hold up against the buildings, which is the only way to be sure what you are looking at.
- 1Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 5,995 reviews
- 2The Original Game of Thrones Tour & Lokrum Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,064 reviews
- 3Dubrovnik Game of Thrones Tour & Optional Lokrum Island Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,702 reviews
Four Dubrovnik bookings that will not wait until the night before.
Most of this coast can be arranged over a glass of Pošip the evening before. These four run on opening times, wind, a border queue and a ferry timetable, none of which care what your plans were.
- 01City Walls Early Morning or Sunset Walking TourThe circuit runs one way and has almost no shade on it. The first hour after opening is the only comfortable one, and it is also the emptiest one.
- 02Dubrovnik Cable Car Ride, Old Town Walking Tour plus City WallsThe cable car stops running whenever the bura blows hard. On a gusty day the summit is a taxi up the back road instead, if you can get one.
- 03Montenegro Full-Day Trip from Dubrovnik with Optional Boat TripThe Montenegro border is a passport queue that lengthens all morning. Departures leave early for that reason, not for the view.
- 04Boat Tour to Mljet National Park & 3 IslandsMljet is reached by a boat that runs to a timetable, and the last sailing back to Dubrovnik is not negotiable.
By where the boat or the bus goes
By kind of day — deck, rampart, cellar or cliff
Ramparts, islands, Bosnia, Kotor: how a first week in Dubrovnik usually runs.
The Old Town
The Walls
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