I was on holiday in Croatia with two friends from Canada and we had already spent 2 nights in Split, eleven nights on Havr Island and now we were heading to Dubrovnik for the last few nights of our trip. I had visited Dubrovnik before and thought it was a lovely city. My friends had never been to Croatia before so were looking forward to visiting their third destination of our trip. We had got the ferry from Havr Island. It takes 4 hours and is, unfortunately a closed ferry so there is no outside space. (I always prefer to sit outside on a boat rather than in a closed cabin where they usually have the air conditioning too high!).
On arrival at the Ferry Terminal we got a cab to our AIRBNB at 6 Moluntska. I didn’t recognise anything from my visit 9 years ago but we weren’t anywhere near the old town which is where I had stayed before. The area we were in was a more modern area with little character although we had a small balcony with a nice view of the harbour and the many cruise ships moored there. We had an upstairs flat with only one bedroom (we were like the three bears from the Goldilocks story! Three beds all in a row!). We dumped our bags and headed down to the harbour area. Unfortunately there was a lot of building work going on and it was a bit like trekking through a building site! It was especially hot so we found a coffee shop and then a supermarket and headed back to our AIRBNB. We decided to leave the exploring until the next day!
The next day we found a local bus stop and took a bus into the Old Town. This I remembered! The beautiful walled city perched on the edge of the sparkling sea. You have to pay to walk the walls of the City but we found that if we bought a Dubrovnik Pass it covered the cost of ths and also allowed entry to museums and other places of interest. The cost of the pass (about 30 euros) was the same price as entry to the walls so it is definitely worth buying this pass. It was hot again and was quite hard work walking along the wall but the views were fabulous, luckily, because it was hot it wasn’t too crowded and we were able to amble round at our own pace (and to take photos without a million tourists getting in the way!) We went into the museum which is right on the wall and that was a little respite from the heat. We then headed into one of the squares for lunch and then took a 45 minute glass bottomed boat ride. (Not a lot to see in the water but the breeze off the sea was lovely and refreshing). The old town is full of little streets which have lots of restaurants and shops. She spent the afternoon shopping for numerous souvenirs to be taken back to Canada! As it got later we headed to the cable car and the ride to the top of the mountain is spectacular. There is a panoramic restaurant at the top and we managed to get a table there and enjoyed cocktails and a lovely meal whilst watching the sun set over Dubrovnik.
The following day one of my friends went off to do an organised Quad bike ride through the countryside. My other friend and I enjoyed a respite and sunbathed on the balcony all day. After being with my friends for almost 4 weeks, I was ready for a little rest in the sun with a good book!
The next day we had booked a tour with Katarina Cruises. We were going to the Elaphiti islands. We had to get up early and meet our tour bus at the local camping site. The boat only held about 15 of us and we visited Lopud Island, Kolocep Island and Sipan Island. They were all very different and we had time to explore and relax. On one of them the Captain of the boat took us to his house where he had set up a restaurant for us. We had a very nice (if basic) meal before heading off to the next island. We should have also gone to the Blue Cave (another one, not the one we visited from Havr…it seems Croatia has a lot of “Blue Caves”!). We would have been able to snorkel in this one but unfortunately it was too windy and it would have been dangerous to try and swim into it. We did however stop at another snorkelling stop which was full of fish, it was lovely to see them so clearly. On the Island Lopud we were told about a beautiful beach on the other side of the Island which is white and sandy (most beaches in Croatia are pebbly). However my friends weren’t keen to trek over there. (There is a small golf cart type taxi available to take people to it but we weren’t sure if we had enough time so we just stayed on the nice (but pebbly) beach of the side where our boat moored. The boat crew were lovely and friendly and lots of drink was available (had we wanted it) and there was also soft drinks (which were very welcome in the hot sun). This was a lovely day and I would recommend Katarina Cruises without any doubt.
So, the next day we were off to the airport and our Croatian holiday was over! I loved all of the places we visited but I think Dubrovnik might be a bit too busy during the summer (it was already very crowded in June!) But I will be back to Croatia you can be sure of that!