Visiting Dubrovnik had been on our list for a long time. Therefore, when we visited Montenegro last summer, it made sense to jump on the bus from Budva and head to Dubrovnik. We allocated ourselves 2 days but in reality and looking back now, it wasn’t long enough. It’ss a beautiful, yet ridiculously busy city. There’s plenty to see and do, especially, but not restricted to, if you’re a Game of Thrones fan. Mr ESLT loves it, Vicky has never seen it – yet we both had a great time in ‘King’s Landing’.
We timed our visit to coincide with Mr ESLT’s brother’s visit too, which added to the experience. By the time we met up with him, he’d already spent 2 days in Dubrovnik. Therefore he had scoped out some great things for us to do.
Visiting in July probably wasn’t the ideal time. It was super-hot and super busy (over-tourism in full swing). Although it was hotter than the sun and we couldn’t get very far quickly because of the crowds of people, we loved our 2 days in Dubrovnik. It certainly lived up to expectations. Two days is not long enough in any city to do everything it has to offer. However, we hit Dubrovnik hard and ticked a lot of the biggies off our list. However, we still have a list as long as our arms of other things we’d like to see and do. As Mr ESLT is a marine pilot, one of the main things we’d like to do is rent a boat in Croatia and sail along the beautiful coastline visiting towns, cities and islands as we go. Hopefully, it won’t be too long until we return.
Here is our full 2 days in Dubrovnik itinerary.
The Narrow Streets and Lots of Stairs
The Old Town of Dubrovnik is beautiful. Having visited Spilt before, we had an idea of what to expect and it did not disappoint. A maze of cobblestone narrow streets just waiting to be explored (and get lost in) can be found in Dubrovnik. We happily wandered, not really knowing (or caring) where we were heading. We were rewarded with beautiful buildings (more about those later), great bars and restaurants and not forgetting getting to say hello to some of the four-legged feline locals. The only thing is, especially when the cruise day trippers are in town in summer, the streets become extremely busy. With numerous walking tours throughout Dubrovnik every day, it is easy to get stuck behind one. Frustrating – yes. But why not earwig while you’re there and pick up a bit of local knowledge?
If you are a Game of Thrones fan then one of the many places you must visit are the Jesuit Stairs. The infamous Season 5 “Walk of Shame” scene (the one where Cersei is stripped and forced to walk naked through ‘King’s Landing’) took place on this staircase. It is therefore always busy with people taking photographs and the echos of ‘shame, shame’ can be heard as people reenact the scene. Including Mr ESLT and his brother (without the nudity, of course). There are also a lot of other flights of stairs throughout the Old Town, which add to the cities charm. However, are quite steep. Therefore if you have any mobility issues, we’d recommend thinking about whether Dubrovnik really is for you. Coming down was fine but walking up some of the steeper ones, especially in the heat, was quite an endurance test.
Ice cream
Is there anything nicer when the sun is shining than ice cream? (Well, apart from maybe an ice-cold beer?) If you love ice cream as much as we do, then you’re in luck as we found some great options. Our favourite (and we’ll admit, we may have had more than one during our two-day stay) was IceCream Dubrovnik. Located on Od Ribarnice, it is part of the Poklisar restaurant, meaning you can either walk with your treat along the nearby waterfront or have a seat if you need to take the weight off your feet for a while. It serves dozens of different flavours and we had fun combining random ones. There really is something for everyone. In fact, it’s possibly the nicest ice cream (sorry gelato) we’ve eaten outside of Italy. We just had to scoff it super quick, as the hot midday sun out in full force.
Cable Car
If you want to see some of the best views over Dubrovnik then you should head to the top of Srd Hill. From the top, you’re rewarded with uninterrupted views of not only the Old Town but also the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic Sea. The easiest and probably most fun way of getting to the top is by taking the cable car. Millions of visitors have used it since it opened in 1969. Now we’ve taken the trip ourselves it’s easy to see why.
We bought our tickets from the cable car terminal for 150kn return each (approximately £17.50). If you like to be organised, you can buy tickets online in advance. However, you don’t get a discount, although with them you can walk straight to the cable car bypassing the queue (which was very long the day we visited) for tickets at the terminal. If you only have 2 days in Dubrovnik like us, saving time where you can is essential.
We took the cable car just before sunset so we could experience twilight from the top of Srd Hill. It was a wonderful experience. As the hot July sun slowly set over the Adriatic, the bright twinkly lights below illuminated the city creating a beautiful view. We spent 40 minutes wandering around, taking photos and admiring the sight below.
There is one restaurant at the top – the Panorama Restaurant & Bar. It was packed. Therefore if you fancy a meal overlooking Dubrovnik, reserve a table in advance. We decided to grab a drink in the bar area. Unfortunately after 25 minutes, it became obvious our waiter had forgotten our order. Therefore we left and headed back down (this took around 30 minutes – it seems everyone had the same idea to visit for sunset) to the Old Town for drinks and dinner.
Beautiful Buildings
As mentioned before there are lots of beautiful buildings in Dubrovnik. This is great if you’re travelling on a budget as the streets themselves are a beautiful museum full of history and charm. Dubrovnik is expensive (compared to neighbouring towns and cities). Therefore, we’d recommend prioritising what you’d like to do in advance as the £20 here for the cable car and the £20 there to walk the city walls (more about that soon) all adds up. A number of buildings are free to visit, especially the churches. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll know we’re big fans of religious buildings. Therefore visiting as many as we can is always high on our agenda. One of, if not the most popular church to visit in Dubrovnik is the Baroque St Blaise’s church. It dates back to 1715 and stands proudly in the centre of the Old Town.
Other churches include the Church of Saint Saviour and Dubrovnik Cathedral. The city is also home to a number of palaces, monasteries and monuments, many of which are worth hunting down and seeing for yourself including the Orlando Column, Franciscan Monastery and Sponza Palace. There is also a number of Game of Thrones filming locations that we ‘had to’ visit while in Dubrovnik. Again, Vicky is not a GoT fan, however, still appreciated the beautiful settings. These include the Ethnographic Museum which was the setting for Littlefinger’s brothel. The Dominican Monastery’s steps where the speech against the Lannisters was delivered from in season 2. And not forgetting Ploče Gate, which is the east entrance to the Old Town of Dubrovnik and featured in both season 2 and season 5 of the show.
Walking the City Walls
As with the views from Srd Hill, you will not be disappointed with the views from Dubrovnik’s City Walls. Our one top tip is to get there early. They open at 8.00 am during the summer months (April – October) and 10.00 am during the winter months (November – March). This is because they are the number one attraction in Dubrovnik and people flock to them daily. The narrow staircases and passageways become blocked easily. Therefore by getting there early, you give yourself the best chance of getting around without getting stuck in a bottleneck of people. Also, especially if visiting in summer, the earlier (or later) you visit, the cooler it is. With temperatures during July and August often reaching the mid-30s the midday sun (together with the hordes of people) can be too much and make the experience quite unenjoyable.
Tickets cost 200kn each (approximately £23) and can be bought at the entrance to the walls. However, if you like to be prepared you can also pre-book your tickets in advance or even take a guided walking tour. We opted to take an independent tour, in order to walk at our own pace. It gave us the opportunity to stop to admire the red roofs below and take photographs as and when we wanted. You can feel the history in the Baroque walls as soon as you step on them. It’s easy to see why they’ve been used as a Game of Thrones and many other films and shows backdrop. As they are 1940 meters long, we’d recommend giving yourselves at least two hours to get all the way around comfortably. If you do get too tired/hot/bored there are a number of exits that you can leave the walls from.
Panoramic Boat Tour
We had a couple of hours to kill during our 2 days in Dubrovnik before hopping back on our bus to Budva. Therefore, we decided to check out one of the many panoramic boat tours on offer in Dubrovnik. We headed to the Old Town Harbour to be greeted by at least a dozen stalls all touting their tour. All stating that theirs was the best on offer. To be honest they all looked to be offering pretty much the same and they were all roughly the same price. We paid 100kn each for a 45-minute tour along the coastline and around Lokrum Island. Because there are so many boat trips on offer there was only us and one other family of four on our boat, meaning we could move around freely, didn’t have to fight for shade and had uninterrupted views.
Taking a boat trip through the beautiful Adriatic was an extremely pleasant way to spend the best part of an hour and something that we’re glad we were able to squeeze into our 2 days in Dubrovnik. It was great to see Dubrovnik from another viewpoint. Although (and this is us being picky) we would have liked some commentary explaining what we were looking at and what we were passing. Also, the option to buy a drink would have been great, as it was hot on the boat. Maybe other tours offer more and maybe we should have shopped around a bit more? We also saw private speed boat and small cruiser owners taking people out for private trips. We imagine this option costs more but would be nice if you fancy a more personalised experience. Especially if like Vicky you like asking questions.
Are Two Days Enough?
There’s no doubt that we could have happily spent a lot longer than 2 days in Dubrovnik. Our trip seemed to be over in a heartbeat. As we hit the ground running from the second we stepped off the bus I think we covered a lot of ground and saw the majority of the best bits the city has to offer. Although I think when we return (it’s already on the list) we’ll visit in spring/autumn in the hope that the crowds and heat won’t be as intense.
We’d also like to visit some of the islands close by. Mr ELST’s brother jumped on the ferry to Lokrum (the big island that you can see from the City Walls/Srd Hill) and spent the day wandering around. Luckily he’d taken refreshments with him as there’s was nowhere to get lunch from. Lokrum is also home to a nudist beach if that’s your thing.
Until next time King’s Landing! Vicky may have finally got round to watching Game of Thrones by then.
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