Welcome to your ultimate Dubrovnik Guide! The little city of Dubrovnik is probably best known to y’all as a Game of Thrones haven due to parts of the series being filmed there.
But I can reveal that Dubrovnik is a brilliant holiday destination for non-GoT fans as well!
Croatia is becoming more and more popular as a tourist attraction because of its climate and breath-taking scenery. You can enjoy stunning views over the Adriatic Sea and the waterfall-filled National Parks inland and on the Croatian islands.
It’s a fairy tale land with a lot to offer for every kind of traveler. I’m going to do a little series of posts about what we got up to on our holiday in Dubrovnik and the surrounding areas. Here you can read what you can get up to there, but let’s start with how to get there.
The Ultimate Dubrovnik Guide – How To Get There And Where To Stay?
Let’s start this ultimate Dubrovnik guide by finding out what transportation modes you can take to get there. Because there are multiple!
Dubrovnik is a small city. But since Game of Thrones it’s become the phenomena that it is, so they’ve had to spruce up their transport services a bit.
So, nowadays they have a well functioning airport and good roads winding their way around the surrounding mountains offering amazing views of the city below and the luxury yachts gliding in the sea.
How to get there?
In Europe traveling is super easy. Just hop in a car and drive from one country to the next! Croatia is a little bit of an oddity, though, because it is not part of the Schengen treaty, which means that you will be stopped at the border for a check-up.
I’ve gotten so used to traveling without a worry about forgetting my passport that it came as a bit of a surprise when we had to queue for a passport check at the airport.
But despite this short extra stop traveling to Croatia is really easy and there are multiple vehicle options. Depending where you’re coming from, of course. The recommended transportation options by this ultimate Dubrovnik guide are:
- you can choose to fly
- drive
- or catch a cruise ship. Dubrovnik receives multiple giant cruise ships per week.
Where to stay
We stayed in one of the more luxurious hotels about 10 minutes’ drive away from the Old Town with a view out to the Adriatic Sea and to the beautiful villas and beaches running along the rocky shore.
The hotel had every possible service available from a private beach, spa, car rentals and boutiques to multiple restaurants. Thus, if we had chosen so, there would’ve been no need to leave the hotel for the whole week. But what would an ultimate Dubrovnik guide be then, eh? Not very informative…
If you’re traveling on a budget, though, no need to worry! Croatians are very accustomed to the 6 months of tourist invasion every year and a lot of them rent out rooms or entire houses for the peak season.So, definitely check out AirBnB.
You don’t necessarily even need to book accommodation in advance, just show up, walk around and you will find every other house branded with the blue signs declaring “Apartments!”
Just like most Eastern Europeans, Croatians are very welcoming and wonderfully laid-back people so there’s no need to hesitate to just knock on one of these doors and ask for a room.
Getting around in the city
Getting around in Dubrovnik is easy because the city isn’t too big. By purchasing a Dubrovnik card you can use the buses for free, or wave down a local taxi (agree on price in advance!) or just order an Uber.
During the peak seasons this ultimate Dubrovnik guide would recommend walking. The roads are very small and completely stuck especially when the cruise ships arrive to the port. They bring in even ten thousand extra people per day into the city. Traffic jams guaranteed!
Even though we knew that by walking we would get wherever we were going faster we usually took a taxi. That way we had nice little chats with the drivers. Croatians are, as I expected, delightful people and very open and talkative. My favourite kind.
What to take into account when in Croatia?
Most tourists roam around their travel destinations without much thought for the local culture and people. But I’ve traveled enough to know that getting to know even a little bit about the country’s lifestyle brings a nice extra flavour to the whole holiday.
In addition the stories that the locals tell you are simply interesting! By chit-chatting with our taxi drivers we learned that most Croatians work 7-day weeks 6 months a year for the peak season.
People move into the tourist destinations like Split and Dubrovnik specifically for that period. And after the season is over they retreat back to Zagreb, the capital, or their home towns for the winter months.
While listening to these life stories a part of me went “That’s a dream!” But all the locals said that they would rather have 8-hour jobs throughout the year than work like slaves through Summer.
Because then they have nothing to do for 6 months. Since they have to live on the money they make in Summer very few of them can afford to travel much during the Winter break.
Makes you realise that the 8-hour days 5 days a week might not be quite as bad as we (Northeners especially) like to think.
Next I will write about our road trip to Montenegro and what to see and do in Dubrovnik, and after that we still have Elafiti Islands and food culture to cover. So, stay tuned for more inside info, tips and stories!
