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The spirit Of This Enticing Croatian Town Is Caught In High Summer, With A Humanities Festival, Al Fresco Dining And Drinking, And Plenty Of Waterside Diversions.
Why go now?
The dramatic location of Dubrovnik between the mountains and the Adriatic is trumped by the excellent Old City itself, wrapped in 2km of splendid medieval walls. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival, until 25 August, adds to the cultural offering with film, dance, classical music and art events (dubrovnik-festival.hr). And the city is simpler to reach than ever this summer, with flights from 9 UK airports.
Touch down
UK Airways (0844 493 0787 ; ba.com) and easyJet (0843 104 5000 ; easyJet.com) compete from Gatwick, with the latter also flying from Stansted. Wizz Air (0906 959 0002 ; wizzair.com) recently launched flights from Luton. Jet2 flies from Belfast, Edinburgh, Leeds / Bradford and Manchester ; Flybe flies from Birmingham ; and Bmibaby (0871 224 9224) flies from East Midlands.
Try to time your flight to arrive in daylight, permitting you to enjoy the impressive half-hour road journey 20km north from Dubrovnik airport into the city, twisting far above the Adriatic shore.
Buses depart occasionally, regarding Croatia Airlines arrivals (though any passenger may use them ; 40 kuna / £5). They pause at Pile (1), the key gate of the walled old city, and continue to the key bus terminal, 3km north-west and well-placed for many hostels. Return buses to the airport start out from this terminal 2 hours before Croatia Airlines exits.
A taxi will cost around 250 kuna (£31).
Get your bearings
The primary approach is across a stone bridge and through the intricately-constructed Pile gate (1) - outside of which you can find the local bus station and the key holiday maker office (2) at Brsalje 5 (00 385 20 312 011 ; tzdubrovnik.hr ; 8am-10pm daily).
Pile gate leads to the broad central boulevard, Stradun, which is lined by stunning 17th-century buildings. This road cuts right through the city, and lanes climb steeply away from it on each side. At the far end, where the majority of the key monuments are found, is the small harbor (three), and close by the east gate, Ploce (4).
Check in
Most places of interest are within the old city, but almost all visitors stay outside. The few accommodation options are mainly hostels,eg Fresh Sheets (5) at Svetog Simuna fifteen (00 385 91 799 2086 ; freshsheetshostel.com), where the only double room (called "heaven") costs 66 without breakfast ; single dormitory beds are thirty three.
A reasonably priced hotel (by Dubrovnik standards) within the walls is the three-star Stari Grad (6) at four Od Sigurate (00 385 98 534 819 ; hotelstarigrad.com). Doubles with breakfast start at 142.
A nick further up the price range, the Excelsior Hotel & Spa (seven) at Frana Supila 12 (00 385 20 353 353 ; hotel-excelsior.hr) is stylishly mid-20th century, with an A-list register of celebrity guests and fantastic perspectives out to sea. Doubles begin at 218, including breakfast.
Many visitors stay in rented apartments, costing from around fifty per night for 2 people, self-catered. There are plenty located in the district of Lapad, a 20-minute bus ride from Pile Gate.
The Dubrovnik Tourist Board provides photos and contact details at : tzdubrovnik.hr.
Day one
Take a walk
No other Western european city boasts such complete and impressive walls. You can find one of the entrances to these medieval marvels just inside the Pile Gate (one) ; ticket sales (60 kuna / £7.50) occur from 8am-5pm. Hold onto your ticket, because you could be asked for it at a few checkpoints along the way.
Climb the first of many stone stairways to reach fortifications that date back more than a millennium in places, and are defended by Unesco. Besides providing the ideal intro to the city and hoisting you far above the terracotta roofs and even church steeples, the walls themselves are full of interest. They're punctuated by citadels and spiced up by cafs and bars, which may help to draw out your tour to a pleasurable 2 hours or more.
Lunch on the run
In such a touristy location, finding a cost-effective lunch is tough. So you may prefer to assemble a picnic from the produce on sale at the old-town market that fills Gunduliceva Poljana square (eight) ; it opens seven days every week for souvenirs, but on any day except Sunday you may also find fresh fruit and vegetables. In the same square are 2 supermarkets where you can augment your feast.
For a sit-down snack or sandwich, Skola at Antuninska one is a good bet. It's family-run, the ingredients are fresh and the price of a ham and cheese sandwich, as an example, made with home-baked bread is twenty-eight kuna (£3.50).
Window shopping
Given the sheer amount of shops selling keepsakes, it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Dubrovacka Kuca (ten) at Svetog Dominika 2 (00 385 20 322 092) is an Aladdin's Cave crammed with all types of crafts and products, from honey and olive oil to paintings and porcelain.
In the same street, closer to Stradun, Kate Stojanovic, dressed in normal costume, sells her very own embroidery from an open-air stall.
The very best of the city's many jewellery shops are found on Od Puca, level with Stradun at the Pile Gate (one) end.
You can buy wonderful local wines from the close by Peljesac Cape at Vina Milicic (11) at Od Sigurate two (00 385 20 321 777).
Cultural afternoon
The most interesting of the historical museums is in the striking Dominican Monastery (12) near the Ploce Gate (4) at Svetzog Domenica four (00 385 20 322 two hundred ; 9am-6pm daily, 20 kuna / £2.50). As well as a gorgeous 15th-century cloister, you can admire the monks ' collection of medieval and renaissance religious paintings which includes Titian's painting of Mary Magdalene and St Blaise, the guardian saint of Dubrovnik.
For a contrasting experience, the War Photograph Limited gallery ( 13 ) at Antuninska 6 (00 385 20 322 166 ; warphotoltd.com ; 9am-9pm, thirty kuna / £3.30), has changing exhibitions of images by the world's top war photographers. By implication, it's also a sobering reminder of the strife in the previous Yugoslavia, which is also recalled in telling detail on public panels in other parts of the city.
An aperitif
Adjacent to the gallery, you can mingle with the artistic set at the Talir caf / bar at Antuninska 5 (00 385 20 323 293l ; 8am-2am), encircled by pictures of actors and slurping a tall cup of Ozujsko lager (15 kuna / £1.65).
Eating with the locals
Al fresco dining is the order of the day and seafood the staple on most menus. The tables at Kamenice (fourteen) at Gunduliceva Polijana eight (00 385 20 323 682) spread right across the enticing market square. Straightforward fare is served at fair prices, including fantastic mussels "Buzara" in a wine, garlic and tomato ketchup for fifty six kuna (£7). Opening hours are 8am-11pm daily.
If pizza is more your style, Mea Culpa (15) dispenses its vast, tantalizing creations on the narrow sidestreet Za Rokom three (00 385 20 323 430 ; mea-culpa.hr).
Day 2
Sunday morning:go to church
St Blaise's church (sixteen), celebrating the patron saint of Dubrovnik, is a domed baroque building at the eastern end of the Stradun. The decorated faade outshines that of the close by cathedral and the graceful early 18th-century interior boasts an intricate altarpiece glinting with statuary. Sunday Mass happens at 8am and 12 p.m..
Take a ride
Frequent buses (route four and 6) from Pile gate (one) whisk you to the other face of Dubrovnik : the lovely Lapad spur. Alight at the post office Posta Lapad to enjoy a wander along Setaliste kralja Zvonimira, a pedestrian-only boulevard lined by trees, villas and lots of cafs serving Italian-grade coffee. The close by city beach is clean, well provisioned and backed by shady gardens where you can escape the attentions of the mid-day sun.
Out to brunch
Back in the heart of the city, Gradska Kavana (17) at Pred Dvorom one (00 385 20 321 202), near the colonnaded Rector's Palace, is the place to relax with a helping of the serious torta od makarula (macaroni, walnut and chocolate cake) for 21 kuna (£2.60). Open 8am-midnight daily.
If location is more critical than wonderful service and tasty food, try Orhan (eighteen), a part outdoor eatery serving meat and salads, overlooking the water outside of the Pile gate (one).
Take a view
Dubrovnik's communist-era cable auto, wrecked in the Yugoslav civil war, was revived to active service last summer, and is once again speeding visitors in three minutes from the base station to the pinnacle of Srdj the bare hill that towers over the city.
The view from the 400m-high summit takes in the the walled city itself, the scattering of pretty Elaphiti islands and, on a clear day, the neighbouring country of Montenegro.
Opening hours in the summer are 9am-midnight (00 385 20 325 393 ; dubrovnikcablecar.com) ; 80 kuna (£8) return.
The icing on the cake
The most classy way to reach Dubrovnik airport is to hop on board one of the regular tourist boats from the old port (three) to the seaside city of Cavtat (narrated "Tsavtat"). An one-way trip costs 100 kuna (£12.50). The 45-minute ride offers fine perspectives, and deposits you at a pretty arc of shoreline framed by bars and restaurants. Have a drink and leave your bags at one of these locations while you explore Cavtat's hilly hinterland of chic villas one of which was the birthplace of the local artist, Vlaho Bukovac, and is now a museum. Then take a quick 80-kuna (£10) cab ride to the airport as reported tagza.com.
Summer Haul pt 1 online shopping
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