Dinkwads Abroad

Odds are that if you’re going to Dubrovnik, you already have “walk the city walls” on your itinerary. Especially if, like us, you come from a part of the world that lacks any sort of impressive, dominating architecture, as the man scanning tickets on the city walls aptly pointed out with my now favorite quote from the trip, “There are no walls in Kansas.” But if you’re on the fence (or wall, rather) about doing this iconic activity, let me convince you why it’s a must do, as well as cover what else we did while we were in Dubrovnik, what you should do, what to do if you have the time, and what other options there are that we didn’t get to do!

What To Do In Dubrovnik

Must Do

These are the things we did in Dubrovnik that, in my opinion, are the absolute non-negotiables to get the most out of your time in the city!

City Walls

Look, this one’s a no-brainer. You’re traveling to a city that is literally known for its stone ramparts. When you ask someone what they know about Dubrovnik, their first answer is likely going to be about either the fortified walls or Game of Thrones which, surprise, used the walls for a large chunk of their King’s Landing filming. Sure, you’ll have people saying “Oh, but it’s so touristy. I want to see the REAL Dubrovnik.” My argument to that is always that it’s touristy for a reason. It’s because it’s unique and cool and full of history and absolutely worth seeing.

The other argument for not going to see the wall is that it’s too expensive or that it gets too busy. And yes, at €40 per ticket, it is certainly pricey. However, for only €10 more, you can get the 3 Day Dubrovnik City Pass, which can get you into a multitude of attractions within Dubrovnik that, in my view, make it worth it (read below in the FAQs for more details on the pass). And as far as it being too busy, I admit, I was there in shoulder season, which is significantly less busy than peak season. We also structured our days to avoid the days cruise ships ported into town. But from 8 – 10 AM, it was really NOT busy at all. So my advice is to get there early in the day!

Cost: €40 euro per ticket, or included in the Dubrovnik City Pass. The base ticket also includes access to the Lovrjenac Fortress. You can purchase online ahead of time or purchase there with cash or credit card. If you have the city pass, all you have to do is show that QR code at the entrance.
Time Allotted: 2 hours if you really want to take your time. We stopped and enjoyed the view multiple times along the way, including making a stop for coffee on the walls themselves, and it took two hours total.
Logistics: Apparently more people enter from Pile Gate than Ploce Gate, so that may help avoid some of the crowds if you’re going that route. There are also two bathrooms and two caffes on the wall, one on the southeast corner and the other on the southwest corner. And unfortunately, being ancient structures and all, these are NOT handicap accessible. There are a lot of stairs and no real way to avoid them that I could see.

Sea Kayaking

If you’re up for a little adventure and want to see the city walls from a different perspective, definitely plan to do a little sea kayaking! We opted for the 3 hour tour, which for us, as active as we are, was still physically taxing! So do keep in mind that this will be a workout! But if you’re physically able and have the time for a 3 hour trip out onto the sea, this is 100% worth it. Our tour even came with white wine at the end of it to warm us up after the chilly adventure! Who knows, you may even see a ship sail by in the sunset!

Cost: About $50 per person. We booked this tour and loved it!
Time Allotted: It was pretty much exact at 3 hours from start to finish! You can also book the longer 4 hour tour if you want.
Logistics: Be ready for a workout and wear proper clothing, because you WILL get wet! You paddle to a cove where you can swim, but, as with most of Croatia, it is a rocky beach, so be sure to bring some sort of water shoes. They provide the wet bag and the container for your important items like keys and cell phones. I’d also suggest bringing a waterproof phone case you can wear around your neck, so you can take awesome pictures like Beau did without having to worry about losing or damaging your phone!

Lokrum Island

Whether you’re there to sit on the Iron Throne, float on the Dead Sea, hike up for a viewpoint of Dubrovnik, or just want to see more peacocks than you could have imagined, Lokrum should be on your list of things to do. You have to take a ferry to the island, and as a natural reserve, it does come with a fee to even enter the island. However, if you have a Dubrovnik City Pass, you can get a discount for that fee (10% for a 1 day pass, 20% for a 3 day, 30% for a 7 day). Just note that, to get the discount, you have to buy your tickets at the window near the ferry port on the East side of the city. You cannot buy them online and get the discount.

Once on the island, you have your pick of things to do! There’s monastery ruins, a small seawater pond which they call the Dead Sea, peacocks galore, a Game of Thrones exhibit, a short 20 minute hike to a hilltop fortress, and more. There are also cafes throughout where you can buy coffee, cocktails, beer, as well as some snacks or a light lunch. While we didn’t get anything from any of these, it was nice to have as an option as you could easily spend all day here!

Cost: It is normally €30 for a ticket, but you can get a discount with the Dubrovnik City Pass. You can pay with cash or credit card at the ticket window or purchase your ticket online ahead of time (but you won’t get your city pass discount) here.
Time Allotted: We spent 4 hours there and saw the Iron Throne, the monastery, the Dead See, and hiked the Path of Paradise to the hilltop fort (which took about 20 minutes). Had it been warmer, we easily could have spent more time there because we would have actually swam in the Dead Sea.
Logistics: The ferry leaves roughly every 30 minutes and takes about 10 minutes to get there. You can buy your tickets ahead of time, but if you have the Dubrovnik City Pass and you want to get your discount, you have to buy them at the window near the port. The ferry sails from Porat Dubrovnik on the East side of town. When facing the port, the window will be in the wall on your right hand side. Look for all the tables selling tours, and it will be near them, but actually built into the facade. There you can get your discounted tickets, and they are good for any ferry departure throughout the day as well as your return ferry. So make sure to keep your ticket with you! I’d also suggest lining up early if there’s a return ferry you know you want to be on, because we got there 15 minutes early and were already pretty far back in the queue.

In the pictures above, the left photos is where you can buy the tickets for Lokrum Island and the ferry. Then the right photos are where it picks up at the port in Dubrovnik and what it looks like.

Walking Tour

You’ll see this as a theme throughout my blog. I HIGHLY recommend doing a free walking tour in whatever cities you can. Not only is this a great way to see some of the highlights and often get a little history and cultural insight, but you also can get recommendations from a true local! So this is a must do for me. And while there are a plethora of walking tours to choose from, here’s the one we ended up doing, and it was a thorough tour that delved into the history of Dubrovnik and Croatia, mixed with current culture and a tour of the highlights!

Cost: Up to you! You tip what you think the tour is worth (and you 100% need to tip, because it costs the tour guide money to host you), but generally the recommendation is 15 – 50 euro per person, according to Guru Walks.
Time Allotted: The whole tour took about 2 hours, and that’s pretty standard for one of these.
Logistics: This is pretty simple! Just book the tour for the day you want it and then your host will contact you the day before and morning of telling you where to meet and at what time and how to find them!

Jesuit Stairs

Ul. Josipa Jurja Strossmayera 2, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Made famous by the “Shame” scene in Game of Thrones, the Jesuit Stairs are a popular stop for photos! And even if you’re not a fan of Game of Thrones, they’re worth a stop for the great view from the top! Built in 1738, the staircase was built to connect the Church of St. Ignatius to the rest of the town, hence the name “Jesuit Stairs”. Now they’re a photogenic backdrop, busy with people taking selfies and trying desperately to get a picture without a crowd! I recommend getting there early in the day if you don’t want to fighth the crowd!

Cost: Free!
Time Allotted: It’s really just see the stairs, snap a picture, and take a look at the view for a few minutes. Maybe 10 – 15 minutes at most!

Aimlessly wander the beautiful streets

This is another general recommendation in any old town. I love just walking without a plan, gazing down an alley and letting my curiosity guide me. One picturesque street leads to another, and eventually you’re seeing a whole new part of the city you haven’t before! I particularly love doing this at night as things are glowing from the warm lamplights, and everything feels so inviting and mystical!

Cost: Free!
Time Allotted: As long as you want! This is about just wandering without a goal, so it’s hard to put a time limit on it.

Nice To Do

Obviously Dubrovnik has a lot more to offer than just the wall, sea kayaking, and Lokrum Island. If you’re limited on time, those are the ones I would try to focus on, but these are also things I’d tried to do if possible! Thankfully, most of these are things don’t take much time and are mostly in old town, so you’ll walk by these multiple times!

Franciscan Monastery

Poljana Paska Milicevica 4, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

This will be a nice quick stop right off of Stradun near the Pile Gate. It’s a beautiful 14th century monastery with a stunning, serene atrium where you can find peace from the hustle and bustle of the city. They also have some a small collection of relics. The real special part of the monastery though (and one we missed because we didn’t check the hours and they close early on Saturdays) is the pharmacy that’s attached to it, which has been in constant operation since 1317, making it one of the oldest operating pharmacies in the world! So stop by, buy something from the ancient pharmacy, take a breath in the atrium, and enjoy the small exhibit.

Cost: 8 euros per person, or free with the Dubrovnik City Pass! You can also go to the pharmacy without either ticket or pass!
Time Allotted: If you really want to soak in the peace of the atrium, you could spend a full hour here. But for me, 30 minutes was enough! Heads up though, they don’t have any toilets in there. So if you’re planning to be there awhile, make sure you plan for that!

Rector’s Palace

Ul. Pred Dvorom 3, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

The Rector’s Palace is right off of Stradun near the Ploce Gate, and was the seat of government for the Republic of Ragusa (pre-Croatia), but now is a cultural history museum. Not only is it a unique building, built in the 15th century, but modified throughout the years so it features architecture styles from multiple periods of history, but it also houses the cultural history museum with paintings and artifacts from Croatian history!

Cost: 15 euros per person, or free with the Dubrovnik City Pass!
Time Allotted: You could easily see everything in 1 hour, but if you REALLY wanted to read everything in the exhibits, it could take up to 2 hours. They do have toilets available inside!

Lovrjenac Fortress

Ul. od Tabakarije 29, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Built in the 11th century, this fortress settled on a hill looks down over the city of Dubrovnik. Climb the stairs up and wonder at the bright blue sea waves crashing against the cliffs just below the limestone walls! It’s a bit of a walk up with quite a few stairs, but it’s worth it for the views!

Cost: 15 euros per person, or free with the Dubrovnik City Pass OR included in your ticket to the city walls (even if you don’t have the city pass).
Time Allotted: The fortress itself doesn’t have anything in it like an exhibit, but the views of the city and the sea are exceptional. So take your time on the various differnet levels and soak in the views! It also requires quite a few stairs to get there, so allot time for that as well. 45 minutes should be plenty of time to walk up and enjoy the view.

Maritime Museum

Dubrovacke Gradscke Zidine, Ul. kneza Damjana Jude 12, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

We honestly weren’t planning on going here, but it was right along our walk at the end of the City Walls, and included in our city pass, so we figured why not! It has all kinds of artifacts from a merchant shipwreck just off the coast, as well as exhibits that detail maritime life and history in Dubrovnik. It’s certainly worth a quick stop in and, if you’re really into maritime history, you could really spend awhile here!

Cost: 10 euros per person, or free with the Dubrovnik City Pass.
Time Allotted: We didn’t have a ton of time as we had to get to our walking tour, so we only spent 20 minutes, but you could easily spend up to 1 hour if you really want to read everything!

Other Things You Can Do

While we didn’t do these things, I’ve seen these recommended by others as options of things you could do!

Take the cable car up to Dubrovnik Obersavtion Point
Supposedly the views of the city are pretty great from up there, and you can also zipline and take the view with a rush! There’s also a Panorama Restaurant, but from what I understand, it requires a reservation and is pretty pricey. If you don’t want to pay the 30 euros for the cable car to get up, you can hike it as well, but it does take about an hour! I’ve heard mixed reviews on whether or not this is worth it, so we decided to skip it.

Game of Thrones Tour
If you’re a massive Game of Thrones fan and you NEED to hear all about the filming and the locations, then this might be a good option for you! There are plenty to choose from, so just find the one that fits your itinerary and budget. Or, if you’re like me and you prefer to save the money, just find a site that lists out all the filming locations and seek them out yourself. It makes it into a little bit of a DIY scavenger hunt that way!

Cliff jumping & swimming
It wasn’t warm enough for us to do this, but there are plenty of places you can get into the water from the walls! Porporela, Bard Sunset Bar, and Buza bar all have options for getting into the water!

FAQs & General Tips for Dubrovnik

How long do I need in Dubrovnik?
We were there for two full days and one evening, and felt like that was roughly the right amount of time. Maybe had it been warmer and we could have swam, we would have needed more time. However, we found we got to do most everything we really wanted to do. It’s a city built around tourism, which I do find I often don’t need a ton of time there as I start to get burnt out from the commercialism of it all.

How do I get to the city from the airport?
This was very easy! While Ubers are readily available, the Platanus Bus is the easiest way to get to the city. It coordinates its departures with flight arrivals, so there should always be one there ready to go, and you can buy your 10 euro ticket there at the airport. You can either pay at a kiosk inside, right in front of the doors to the pickup location, or at a kiosk outside right in front of the bus stop. Both of those take credit card. Or you can pay the driver directly, but cash only.

How do I get to/from the main port and the city?
If you’re headed to one of the islands like Korcula or Hvar, you’ll likely depart from this port on a ferry. It’s about a 50 minute walk from Old Town, but obviously with bags, that was less than ideal. And I could not find a bus route that goes there, so we ended up just Ubering. While Ubers can’t pick up in Old Town, it was easy enough to call one from Pile Gate, and then it was only a 10 minute drive.

Should I get the Dubrovnik City Pass?
If you plan on doing pretty much anything beyond the City Wall, I would say yes! It includes so many museums, as well as free city transport on the buses if you end up using them. You can get a single day, 3 day, or 7 day pass, so depending on how long you’re staying and how you’re structuring your days would determine which one is best for you. You can buy it ahead of time here and it will activate the time period the first time you scan it for an activity or a bus.

You can also check on the site to see what the pass covers!

How to check for cruise ship days?
Dubrovnik is a very popular city to visit, so it’s busy on its own without cruise ships coming in. Throw in 3000 – 6000 day trippers and the main streets of Old Town can be practically impassible and just miserable to navigate. So I recommend when planning your trip, check out this site to see when cruise ships are coming in and how many people are expected to arrive. If you can’t avoid being in Dubrovnik during a port day, I would recommend planning around the cruise ship arrivals. For example, we made sure we did the Old Town sights (City Walls, museums, etc) on the day there wasn’t a cruise ship and then went to Lokrum Island to escape the crowds the day they came in. Ultimately we didn’t have to contend with the crowds too terribly much by doing it that way, but I’m so glad I checked the cruise schedule ahead of time, so I HIGHLY recommend doing so!

Will I be able to get around easily speaking English?
I can’t express how easy it is to get around with English. Almost everyone spoke it pretty much fluently. Even the people who spoke the least amount of English still spoke enough to get by. So you’ll have no issue with English!

Will I need a lot of cash?
Croatia in general was a lot more credit card friendly than other countries I’ve visited in Europe! Even as little as a 2 euro charge, most places didn’t seem to have any issue with credit card regardless of amount. There are exceptions, of course, such as the cliffside bars in Dubrovnik, but in general, you can charge almost anything on a credit card. I did make note of what was cash only in my Where We Ate and Drank post, so feel free to read through that if you’re unsure!

My Final Thoughts on Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is the most visited city in Croatia, and for good reason. From the walls to the cliffside views, it truly is a stunning city. However, it is a city fully built around tourism and it has that feel. Many cities that fully depend on tourism tend to lose their authenticity and true character. And while I loved Dubrovnik, I was left with this feeling a little bit at the end of my time there. I loved my 2+ days there, but I find myself drawn to go back to other parts of Croatia rather than revisit Dubrovnik. I think everyone should go and walk the walls and spend a few days lost in those stone walls, but a few days is all you need before finding all of the other charm that Croatia has to offer.

Check out my other posts to see where else we went in Croatia, and where we stayed, ate, and drank while in Dubrovnik!