A beach holiday with culture and cheap food! (Dubrovnik)

Member Name: NCG1

Product:	Dubrovnik
Date:	26/06/02 (2425 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: interesting history, beautiful architecture, cheap food and beer

Disadvantages: beaches are rocky, limited amount of things to do

Have you dreamed of fantastic steak for £6 and beer for £1? Or is pizza for £3.50 more your thing? Either way, a holiday in Dubrovnik allows you to indulge in food and wine without spending much at all. In fact, we found it impossible to spend more than £20 on a three course meal for two, with wine. Just couldn't fit any more in!

Apart from the food (which is mostly Italian style, with lots of seafood), what does Dubrovnik have to offer? Well, lets start with culture, architure and all those things you think you ought to do on holiday. Its got some of all of them.

Dubrovnik is a walled town, rebuilt in the seventeenth century after an earthquake so it has a pleasing homogeneity among its buildings (unlike London!). Its very small and easy to walk around, though there are tons of steps which would make wheelchairs/ pushchairs a nightmare. There is a fair amount to see - monasteries, churches, a sinagogue, an aquarium, the town walls - but probably only enough for two or three days.

So what else is there? Well, you can get a boat from the centre of Dubrovnik old town to an island in the bay. This is a gorgeous place, with a deserted monastery and lots of windy paths. It also has an enclosed dip, which has a pool of seawater that's really shallow and warm, and a little rocky beach. This has to be the best place for little kids EVER. They can't escape (the sides are steep), there's lots of shade, and the water is perfect for learning to swim.

Another favourite spot was the nudist beach at the far end of the island. When I say 'beach', I mean 'rocks', as Croatia has very few sandy beaches. But nice warm rocks, with a ladder down to the sea, are actually better in some ways. No sand in your sandwiches! Croatia is quite big on nudist beaches, though as far as I could tell this one was filled with middle-aged Germans rather than Croatians. I think this is a fantastic idea (who actually w
ants to sit around wearing a soggy swimming costume?) but if you're someone who finds them embarrassing, they'd be easy to avoid.

We stayed in Lapad (more detail in an op on the hotel, which I'm doing next) which is a suburb of Dubrovnik. In fact, we confused the issue by asking for tickets 'to Dubrovnik' on the bus - we were in Dubrovnik, just not the old bit. Lapad is a big, modern port surrounded by pleasant suburbs. But it also has a whole street full of restaurants (Pizza Scala is highly recommended - you can see the locals picking up their takeaway there) and its own beach. We spent a happy couple of days in Lapad, lying in the shade of the trees next to the beach and pottering to different cafes to sit on the swing seats, drink beer and watch the world go by.

Public transport was easy to use, and cheap. You can buy bus tickets from hotel receptions, or kiosks (little white porta-cabin type things scattered everywhere) and the buses are regular and clean. The 15 minute ride from Lapad to Dubrovnik cost about 70p. Buying tickets (and food, and everything else) was made very easy because almost everyone spoke at least some English, and many people were fluent.

We flew on Air Croatia, which was a bit more expensive that your normal package because it was a scheduled flight. However, the aircraft was recently revamped, the leg-room was generous and the food decent (though they couldn't provide a non-dairy meal, but nor can any airline). It certainly didn't feel like a low-budget outfit. Though business-class did consist of two rows of seats and a curtain, with a table fixed on the the middle seat!

I would highly recommend Dubrovnik as a destination for someone wanting a beach holiday with a bit of culture/ sight-seeing nearby. The only disadvantage is that, after a week, we felt we had exhausted the possiblities locally, though there were a few boat trips etc that we could have tried.


The sea was beautifully clean and warm, though the beaches (at least around Dubrovnik) aren't the traditional sandy sort. I invested in sandals (blatant plug for footwear op!) so as to protect my toes against the stones on the beach and the sea urchins on the rocks, and they were really useful.

There aren't many last-minute packages to Dubrovnik, unless you go through Captivating Croatia, which is Air Croatia's official partner, so I would recommend booking early. I wouldn't expect to get a particularly cheap deal (compared to Greek islands, for instance) but I felt that it was well worth the extra £150 or so, for the interesting history and lovely architecture.

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