Probably the most popular tourist destination in Croatia is the city of Dubrovnik, situated in the south of the country that stretches along the Adriatic Sea. This played host to the final location of my two weeks in Croatia and certainly, a great location for me to finish up at. World renowned for its Old Town, giving you a labyrinth of narrow streets for you to wander around and playing host to a variety of shops, restaurants and cafes to explore and enjoy. All of this situated right on the coast line too!
This was another great city for me to enjoy and for me, it completely rounded off my time in Croatia. There were a variety of things that made this place the great experience it was; from nights in amazing nightclubs to facing wild dogs during an early sunrises, and from learning about the history of everything contained in the Old Town walls to jumping from the cliffs outside of them. But of course, to truly find out what went on here, you’ll have to read the blog down below.
Why I Headed To Dubrovnik
When you look at places to heard to in Croatia, Dubrovnik is one of the first locations that’s recommended for you. From what Google informed me and others had told me, this was a great place for the history behind the city and the partying soon that’s on offer, mainly focussed in the Old Town. From this, it seemed to be a no brainer for me to check out this awesome city!
Add into the mix the big airport nearby, it was a very convenient thing to have just outside the city and made sense that this should be the last place on my two week trip, fitting perfectly around my Busabout boat tour.
What I Thought of Dubrovnik
I really enjoyed my time in Dubrovnik and was the perfect thing that I need after my time on the boat and being ill. It’s a place that you can either take slowly or quickly and both would seem completely right!
If you wanted to take things slowly, there’s the history of the Old Town, everything this fortress has been through across the years and how it payed its part in the wars that plagued this region for several years. This is also another destination that would be on any good Game of Thrones tour, as Dubrovnik was another commonly used location to film this world renowned TV series. On the back of this, there’s a plethora of cafes and restaurants for you to tour inside the walls of the fortress for you to dig into.
Want something a little more uptempo to occupy your time? One thing I loved about the city and wish I did more of was explore the outdoor scene. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely loved the adrenaline junkie side of things by doing some cliff jumping (be sure to check out the videos of this later!) but there’s also separate islands for you to explore and the coastline via sea kayaking that I missed out on.
Finally, there’s the party scene! There are plenty of bars on offer and a nightclub that’s ranked in the world’s top 100. What more do you want? Some of the nights I had here were absolutely fantastic and would be definitely suggested!
Should You Cover It?
Dubrovnik is a thoroughly interesting place that not only has a deep history but is a great place for exploring, adventures and of course, terrific nightlife. Sprinkle in the setting of the Old Town featuring in popular culture, by hosting scenes of Game of Thrones and you’ve got you’ve got yourself an all round great travel destination. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I think you would too. Yes, get yourself to Dubrovnik and you’ll certainly enjoy yourself!
Day 14 – Saturday, 19 Aug
After the all documented food poisoning that I suffered over the last couple of days of the Busabout tour that I did (see Busabout Tour Part Two for this; or read the whole story from Part One), I was finally feeling somewhat human again, ready to move off the boat and head to my final hostel of this trip. I said my farewells to the great people that I met during this trip, made sure to swap details with them for social media and that to stay in touch before you all went our separate ways.
Unfortunately for me, the check out time meant that I was heading to the hostel way before I could check in so it meant leaving my bags there and going on a little bit of an exploration of the Old Town. This lead me to to just wander around the the maze of streets, taking it all in whilst enjoying the fresh air after being stuck in bed the last couple of days and the sun on my skin.
One of the attractions of the place is to check out the city walls, which not only giving you plenty of picturesque views of the landscape around you and the uniformity of the city below you with it’s white stone walls and orange roofs, you have the addition of the cliff jumping entertainment down below you. To be able to do this on your own in the peak season, it’s 200kn (roughly £24, €26.50, $32), or you can get a tour guide to take you up for a higher price, which tends to usually point out various things about the city and where Game of Thrones was recorded here.
One good way of seeing the sights you want for a discounted price, as well as being able to travel around the city with ease, is to invest in a Dubrovnik card. Coming in 1-, 3- and 7-day variants, one of these gives you entrance to some of the biggest attractions in the city, the Walls being one of them, as well as plenty of discounts and free transport around the city on the buses. Even if it’s the one day pass, the price is only 25kn more than the price of checking the city walls. Definitely worth it in my eyes to help you make the most of the city.
Once a disco nap was out of the way (a nap prior to going out to make sure you’ve got the energy for it), in the evening it was time to make up for the missed night out on the boat tour. This was by heading out on a bar crawl in Dubrovnik, that finishes up the much discussed Revelin ranked 75th in the world by DJ Mag in 2020! I’ll be honest, for the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the bar crawl I went on but I know that the method used would have been to find the top rated one on Google. In this instance, it brings up Ziggy Star bar crawl which looks like it could have been the one…
Having not experienced a truly high end club like this, I could see now the difference between your standard nightclub and one of this calibre. Situated in a old fortress, it turns out this makes for a great location for a nightclub. Why was this one so special? The combination of the brilliant light shows, the amazing acoustics with the sound system, the choice of high class music and finally, the outstanding stage shows, perfectly timed to the music and lights. Due to the price of the club being included in the bar crawl ticket, I wouldn’t be able to tell you but the typical drinks prices were relatively high. The overall experience though here was fantastic and you HAVE to come if and when you’re in the city. It would be very silly for you not to if you enjoy your nights out.
Day 15 – Sunday, 20 Aug
After the late night of partying away in Revelin, this was a very chilled out day for me as things were catching up with me and it was time to sit back, relax and enjoy the comfort of my bed. Knowing that I had another day ahead and had been busy the day before, I thought it was time to actually make some time to myself, rest and recuperate. This meant plenty of sleeping, plenty of eating and just taking the time to catch up with family and friends again, as well as sharing the pictures and videos we’d taken during our time on the boat tour. I’ll admit, the only time that I left the hostel was to go and get myself food before getting back into bed. Don’t judge me.
After spending plenty of time here during the day, it was a perfect opportunity for me to review this hostel, Villa Divine, which is situated a 45 minute walk away, a 15 minute drive or you can take the bus as it is only up the road from the bus stop, dropping you right outside the Pile Gate leading into the Old Town of Dubrovnik.
The setting of the hostel on the side of the hill gives some great scenery from the windows and the balcony out back of the port down, the impressive bridge and the bridge stretching out across the other side. This balcony is great place for you to either sit back with your breakfast, to relax with a coffee and a book or in the evenings with a drink and your newly acquired travel buddies.
Moving to the rooms themselves come in the following set ups are available for you to book, depending on what you require:
- 4 bed, mixed dorms with either ensuite or shared bathroom
- 6 bed, mixed dorms with either ensuite or shared bathroom
- Twin private bedroom with shared bathroom
These rooms have everything you need in them. Comfy beds for you to easily spend a whole day in (may be speaking from experience), space for you to store you bags under you bunk beds or your valuables in the lockers in the rooms, and not too hot at all even though Dubrovnik can get pretty hot in the summer.
Additionally, the hostel offers breakfast in the morning, which was your standard hostel breakfast, mostly offering a continental breakfast in the morning. The facilities around give you clean and functioning bathrooms, though sometimes there can be a wait if you’re sharing with other rooms, and the kitchen provides everything you need to store and prepare your meals, with a supermarket just around the corner that does reasonably priced food.
For the price of 980 kn (roughly £117, €130, $156.80) for 3 nights in my opinion was a bit steep but when looking, the options were very limited. I feel that the value for money, if this was maybe at least £10 cheaper. There are different options in the city but when booking it, there weren’t there so I’d make sure to book well ahead!
It was on the balcony that I situated myself in the evening to meet and greet some of the other travellers staying here, overlooking the river at night. It was pleasant evening, lining up some friends to do things with on my final full day before I was heading home.
Day 16 – Monday, 21 Aug
Wanting to seek an adventure and get a run in whilst here, I decide that it was time for another sunrise adventure, picking out the Srd hill that overlooked Dubrovnik as my vantage point. Now, in the day time you can head up here in the cable car but I felt that was overrated and decided to take the route on foot via trail that zigzags its way up the hillside, running most of the route there. Climbing up to a height of 400m at the top of the hill, this was a perfect place to see the city stretch out in front of me whilst out to the east, as the sun was rising over the landscape, the greenery of the countryside going out to the ridge line on the horizon, with the sun poking up behind it.
It turns out that I wasn’t the only one up here and it wasn’t in human form either. Apart from the cable car hub, the observation point and restaurant at the top of the hill, there’s a fort that hosts a war museum, bringing the history of the Croatian War of Independence. This did also home a wild dog which decided he wanted to join me on my morning adventure. If I’m honest, when this came running out, heading directly for me, I was worried that I was about to get hurt! I felt the only way to deal with this situation was to stand my ground and assert myself in whatever way I could but made sure to not touch it in anyway. Whether this was the right thing to do or not, it worked for me and the dog backed off from being aggressive. From here, it decided that it wanted to be a new travel companion for me, following me around as I went about my business, wary of what it was doing, with random spurts of aggression through barking and standing in a threatening manner.
As I headed back down the route that I took up to the top, this dog for some reason wouldn’t leave me alone and started following me back down, though I was giving no reason for it to! Thankfully for me, and very harshly for them, but I bumped into someone on the way and explained the situation when he asked about the dog following me. For some reason, he decided to give it attention and unfairly, it was at this point that I made my escape and ran off, leaving him with this burden!
Back to the hostel, breakfast eaten and it was time to go and explore some more of the Dubrovnik but this time, back for a free walking tours! The walking tour was a good one, brinign context to the Old Town’s structure, the history behind some of the buildings, how this was a stronghold during the war and as you can probably guess, some background of the Game of Thrones filming that went on here. I found it interesting to learn that little bit more and have things that you walked past everyday pointed out, such as bullet holes or shrapnel damage to the buildings. I did my tour through Free Tour (https://www.freetour.com/dubrovnik), which also offer some paid tours for you to enjoy.
After the walking tour, I grabbed myself some lunch before heading out of the Old Town to see it from a different angle and to check out Fort Lovrijenac, which is a fortress just outside. This is a 16th century building that not only allows tourists to walk around it, giving some great views to take in but also hosts theatre performances in the summer, in particular during the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. Cost to enter this is free if you keep your ticket from the city walls. Whilst at Fort Lovrijenac, I bumped into one of the Germans from the hostel who I decided to continue on with, who’d come out with some Americans and we all came together as a collective to carry on our journey around the city’s sights.
As a collective, we decided to head out to a bar we’d all heard of called Buza Bar, which requires you to find the hole in the south side of the city walls to pop out to and is a popular tourist destination. The main reasons behind this are because it offers well priced drinks on a terrace perched on top of the rocks, overlooking the coastal views, and the cliff jumping that’s available here, drawing plenty of thrill seekers from around. You have the offer of a lower one around 5-6m and a taller one, in the region of 14-16m at an estimate. (I can’t find the exact height I’m afraid! A little calculation though says that the time it took from jump to hitting the water works out around that.)
The German that we were with decided to make some bold statements about jumping from that height before with ease and so when I said let’s do it, he agreed! So when I came back after my one jump warm up at the lower rock of about 5-6m, the shock on his face was pretty funny and suddenly he didn’t seem to confident! Whilst standing on the higher rock, it definitely becomes pretty unnerving, especially with about a metre of rock sticking out below you, making you have to jump out. Add in the pressure of everyone at the bar and on the city walls being able to see you, cheering you on, you can’t really back out at that point.
With the camerawomen set up, ready to go, I was first to jump. Definitely feeling nervous, I requested a countdown as I can’t back down from a countdown. Well, the rest I’ll let the video tell the story…
To give you an insight into how I felt, this is what went through my mind at each stage:
On the edge of the rock, peering over: Seems higher than I thought!
5 – You’ve got this! But it is quite high…
4 – Actually, this is pretty high. Why are you doing this?
3 – It is really high, what if it goes wrong?! Are you sure you’re able to do this?!
2 – Oh sugar! It’s nearly 1 and time to go! You best jump, everyone is watching you now!
1 – Here’s your moment, best jump or you’ll look an idiot!
Flying through the air for at least a good second was so exhilarating and I can see why people do this as a hobby and sport! The rush that you feel, the adrenaline rush, the feeling of being alive… I’ve found nothing that compares! Thankfully, the landing was a good one if you take out the still sore bruise on my leg and the amount of water going up my nose!
And the German, did he jump? He did… eventually! When he was stalling, I started a countdown which he decided to stop and retie his long hair before then having a second countdown. As we got to one, he stalled again, gave himself another few seconds before deciding to go for it, not regretting the decision at all!
Thrill seeking out of the way, it was time to sit back and enjoy the sunsetting behind the Old Town walls whilst we enjoy a few drinks in each other’s company. This makes Buza Bar, whether it the bigger or smaller one, a good way to enjoy your day. You have the options of savouring a drink with good company with great scenery, some thrill seeking with the cliff jumping or make your way into the sea in a less dramatic fashion to cool off.
Joining the Americans that I met during the day out at the bar, I sat at the hostel with them and enjoyed a few drinks, further getting to know them as a collective and share a story or two. With it being my last night and them undecided on where to head, we decided to move our social engagement into the Old Town and to try out one or two of the bars, before deciding that there was only one place to finish up… Revelin! This is where the rest of the evening was spent until the early hours of the morning, making sure that everyone got home OK as some of them had had a few too many to drink.
Day 17 – Tuesday, 22 Aug
That was it! Today was the day I called an end to my trip and headed to back to the UK, much to my disappointment. So as I packed up, checked out and head to the airport, the last thing to talk about will be just that: how to get to and from Dubrovnik airport, that sits a little outside of the city. The first option is to get the dedicated airport bus, which takes around 30 minutes at regular intervals. This costs 55 kunas for a single or 80 kunas for a return (single £6.50, €7.25, $8.70, return £9.50, €10.60, $12.65).
A cheaper option you can take with the bus is one of the local routes however these don’t as frequently but do only cost 18 kunas (£2.15, €2.40, $2.85). Your final choice is going to be a pricey one with getting a taxi, costing in the region of 250-300 kunas (£29.75-35.70, €33.10-39.70, $39.60-47.50).
Things That I Missed
It was a pretty busy time in Dubrovnik but I still didn’t get to enjoy everything here. Looking back on my time and again with some research into what you can do here, here’s my list of a few things that I missed out on due to time or money:
- Sea kayaking – There are plenty of companies that offer you the opportunity to kayak around the coastal areas of the city, giving you a very different perspective. There are plenty of companies that offer the chance to do this for prices in the region of 200-350 kuna (around £25-40, €27.50-44, $33.25-53.20), depending on how much you want to be included and if you do a half or full-day.
- Lokrum – Sitting just off the coast is an island called Lokrum, which you can get the ferry to, running every half hour and cost just 40 kuna! This is essentially a national park that has beaches to relax on, forests to wander through or historic buildings to discover. I really don’t know why I didn’t check it out looking back but I really wish I had so make sure you don’t make the same mistake as me!
- Beach time! – One of the things that I didn’t do but what you want to know the most about is, what about the beaches? I’m sorry I let you down on this one and didn’t check out the beaches in the area, whether this be in the city or on Lokrum island. Don’t worry though, I did see a few whilst there and they were pretty good however, that’s as much as I can say on that one!
Usually, this will be where I end a blog however, there is one final thing I want to tell you about with this trip or more, what happened when I got home. If you’re like to live your life in the fast lane like I do, you’ve got to make sure you have the time to actually recover from the holiday too. This was proven by my “nap” that I had when I was home. It was 1630 when I returned home and decided to go for one as I was flagging a little bit. What was planned on being just a 25 minute nap and three alarms were set just in case, the next time I opened my eyes and it was daylight outside but I was a little confused why I wasn’t waking up to an alarm. It was when I checked my phone that it was 0900. The next day! I’d slept for 16 and a half hours completely by accident. Clearly I needed it!
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