Dubrovnik, Croatia

Me and Jake finally managed to get to Dubrovnik, after initially booking our trip back in 2020! I have to say, it was definitely worth the wait!

We stayed for 10 days in a lovely hotel called ‘Grand Hotel Park’, which was situated around a 30-minute walk away from The Old Town (or a 10-minute bus ride!) The hotel was in a beautiful area, with a supermarket at the top of the road and ‘The Promenade’ right next door!

The promenade was a long path filled with bars, restaurants and small shops which lead all the way down to ‘Sunset Beach’, a pebble beach with beautiful views! If you continue on the path, it takes you around the sea edge and you will find stunning little coves that you can sit at and steps allowing you easy access to get into the water if you fancy a swim! It was really calming, relaxing and a little bit romantic too!

The weather was mostly very hot any sunny, ranging from 25-30 degrees during our stay. Although we did have a couple days of rain when we first arrived. So on our first day, we sat at the indoor pool on a huge double sun lounger, with snacks and music. We also checked out their spa and gym facilities which were really good!

On the Friday night, we took part in a Ghost Tour! This was a 2-3 hour tour around Dubrovnik, during which we were told about some of the stories, myths and legends of the area, as well as learning about The Curse of Lokrum Island! This was a really enjoyable tour, our tour guide, Marija, was really nice and made everyone feel welcome and the stories that she shared with us and the places that she took us too, were all very interesting and eerie! We booked this tour from home via TripAdvisor, however you can also book directly from The Haunted Dubrovnik website! The one we did was the ‘Ghost and Mysteries Walking Tour‘ but Marija also does ‘Dark Tales of The Old Town’ and ‘Crime and Punishment’ tours!

On Saturday, we decided to walk around The Old Town Walls! We had to pay to enter, but it was definitely worth it! This took us around 2-3 hours with regular stops for drinks, pictures and reapplying suncream, there were also some little museums and art galleries along the way!

The views from The Walls were incredible. Dubrovnik really is a beautiful city. The Old Town itself was an amazing place, with lots of restaurants, shops, bars and more, surrounded by stunning scenery, chapels, fountains, and live music, we spent most of our days around this area.

We booked multiple day trips and activities during our stay. The first one that we did was a boat trip which took us to the Elafiti Islands! This was such an amazing day out. We were picked up from our hotel and driven to the local harbour of Lopad, where we boarded the boat and made our way to the first of three islands. We spent around 3 hours on this island, it was the largest of the three. With a lovely beach, botanical gardens and a beautiful church next to a little cove by the sea. The second island had a small sandy beach and was great for snorkelling! Our tour guide handed out snorkelling equipment to those who wanted to have a look. The last Island was the smallest of the three, here we did some wine tasting of some local, homemade wines, which were all delicious! So delicious that we just had to buy a bottle to take home with us!

Then, on the Tuesday evening we did a 2-hour kayaking tour! This was super tiring for two people who have never kayaked before, but it was an amazing experience. We set off into the sea with a group of approximately 15 people, our tour guide led the way and would stop every now and again for us to group together so that he could tell us some of the history of Dubrovnik, The Old Town and the Island of Lokrum. After stopping at a cave for some rest, food and swimming, we made our way back to shore as the sun began to set. It was so beautiful, that thinking back to it does not feel real!

We were also lucky enough to experience a second country during our trip! Bosnia! We booked this all-day trip in advance and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a visit to Dubrovnik. We were picked up from the local bus stop by our tour guide at 7 in the morning and began our 2.5 hour journey along the coastline of the Adriatic Sea, into Bosnia. Our first stop was at Kravica Waterfalls! This was like something out of a movie scene. Beautiful sites, lots of fish and wildlife and the chance to swim in the stunning, clear blue (and very cold!) water.

After an hour here, we continued our journey into the city of Mostar! Mostar had lots of local market stalls and souvenir stands, amazing restaurants and incredible views. Sadly, Bosnia are still recovering from the 1996 war, which destroyed a lot of the beautiful buildings, homes and monasteries. They are doing very well in rebuilding, but this is taking time.
Whilst we were there, we had food in one of their recommended restaurants… we received a huge amount of delicious food for a very cheap price! It was the best meal we had during our stay.

After hearing the story of The Cursed Island of Lokrum from multiple tour guides, we decided that we wanted to visit the island before heading home! You could get a 10-minute boat from The Old Town to Lokrum for approximately £2.50 per person. The Island was clearly signposted to say that it was ‘forbidden to stay on the island after 8pm’, and it is safe to say that we were not at all tempted to take anything from the island! Lokrum was absolutely breathtaking.

We spent at least 4-hours exploring the island, swimming in the beautiful ‘Dead Sea’ cove, and climbing to the highest point of the island, which was home to ruins of Napoleons Fort from the 1800s! This is another trip that I would highly recommend. The island is also home to The Iron Throne, from the very popular Game of Thrones series.
– If you would like to read more about The Curse of Lokrum, I will be uploading a separate post all about it next week!

As you can see, we crammed an awful lot into our 10-day trip! On top of all of this, we had coffee at Soul Caffe, had drinks in the Irish Bar, enjoyed an endless amount of cocktails on The Promenade by our hotel, swam in the sea, found hidden coves where we sat and watched the sunset and made friends with a lovely Irish couple too!

Overall, this was the perfect holiday to kickstart our post-pandemic adventures! I cannot wait to see what our future travelling plans bring our way.