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The Meaning Of This Tempting Croatian Town Is Captured In High Summer, With AN Arts Holiday, Al Fresco Dining And Drinking, And Masses Of Waterside Diversions.
Why go now?
The dramatic location of Dubrovnik between the mountains and the Adriatic is trumped by the excellent Old Town itself, wrapped up in 2km of splendid medieval walls. The Dubrovnik Summer Holiday, until 25 Aug, adds to the cultural offering with film, dance, classical music and art events (dubrovnik-festival.hr). And the city is better to reach than ever this summer, with flights from 9 UK airfields.
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) lately 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.
Attempt to time your flight to arrive in daylight, permitting you to enjoy the impressive half-hour road journey 20km north from Dubrovnik airfield into the city, twisting way up above the Adriatic shore.
Buses depart sporadically, regarding Croatia Airlines arrivals (though any passenger may use them ; forty kuna / £5). They pause at Pile (1), the key gate of the walled old city, and continue to the key bus stop, 3km north-west and well-placed for many hostels. Return buses to the airfield start out from this terminal two hours before Croatia Airlines departures.
A taxi will cost around two hundred and fifty kuna (£31).
Get your bearings
The key approach is across a stone bridge and thru the intricately-constructed Pile gate (1) - outside of which you can find the local bus station and the key tourist office (two) 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 thoroughfare cuts right thru the city, and lanes climb steeply away from it on each side. At the far end, where lots of the key monuments are found, is the small harbor (3), and close by the east gate, Ploce (four).
Check in
Most places of interest are in the old city, but almost all visitors stay outside. The few accommodation options are mainly hostels, for example Fresh Sheets (5) at Svetog Simuna 15 (00 385 91 799 2086 ; freshsheetshostel.com), where the sole double room (called "heaven") costs 66 without breakfast ; single dorm beds are thirty three.
A keenly priced hotel (by Dubrovnik standards) in the walls is the three-star Stari Grad (six) at 4 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 twelve (00 385 20 353 353 ; hotel-excelsior.hr) is elegantly mid-20th century, with an A-list register of celebrity guests and fantastic views out to sea. Doubles begin at 218, including breakfast.
Many visitors stay in hired residences, costing from around fifty per night for two 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 stills and contact details at : tzdubrovnik.hr.
Day one
Take a hike
No other EU city boasts such complete and impressive walls. You can locate one of the entrances to these medieval wonders just within the Pile Gate (1) ; ticket sales (60 kuna / £7.50) take place from 8am-5pm. Hold on to your ticket, because you may be asked for it at several checkpoints on the way.
Climb the first of many stone stairways to reach fortifications reaching back more than a millennium in places, and are defended by Unesco. Besides providing the best introduction to the city and hoisting you way up above the terracotta roofs and even church steeples, the walls themselves are full of interest. They are punctuated by bastions and spiced up by cafs and bars, that may help to draw out your tour to a pleasurable two hours or more.
Lunch on the run
In such a touristy location, finding a cheap lunch is tricky. So you may prefer to assemble a picnic from the produce on sale at the old-town market that fills Gunduliceva Poljana square (8) ; it opens seven days a week for souvenirs, but on any day except Sun. you can also find fresh fruit and vegetables. In the same square are two shops where you can enhance your feast.
For a sit-down break or sandwich, Skola at Antuninska 1 is a safe bet. It's family-run, the ingredients are fresh and the cost of a ham and cheese sandwich, for example, made with home-baked bread is 28 kuna (£3.50).
Window shopping
Given the sheer quantity of shops selling souvenirs, it's tough to sort the wheat from the chaff. Dubrovacka Kuca (10) at Svetog Dominika two (00 385 twenty 322 092) is an Aladdin's Cavern crammed with all kinds of crafts and products, from honey and olive oil to paintings and porcelain.
In the same street, closer to Stradun, Kate Stojanovic, wearing traditional costume, sells her own embroidery from an open-air stall.
The best of the city's many jewelry shops are found on Od Puca, parallel to Stradun at the Pile Gate (1) end.
You can purchase excellent local wines from the close by Peljesac Headland at Vina Milicic (eleven) at Od Sigurate 2 (00 385 twenty 321 777).
Cultural afternoon
The most interesting of the historical museums is in the striking Dominican Priory (twelve) near the Ploce Gate (four) at Svetzog Domenica 4 (00 385 twenty 322 two hundred ; 9am-6pm daily, twenty kuna / £2.50). As well as a attractive 15th-century cloister, you can admire the monks ' collection of medieval and renaissance spiritual paintings which includes Titian's painting of Mary Magdalene and St Blaise, the guardian saint of Dubrovnik.
For a contrasting experience, the War Photo Limited gallery ( thirteen ) at Antuninska six (00 385 twenty 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 is also a sobering reminder of the conflict in the previous Yugoslavia, which is also recalled in telling detail on public panels in other bits of the city.
An aperitif
Adjacent to the gallery, you can mingle with the arty set at the Talir caf / bar at Antuninska 5 (00 385 20 323 293l ; 8am-2am), besieged by photos of actors and sipping a tall tumbler of Ozujsko beer (fifteen kuna / £1.65).
Dining with the neighbors
Al fresco dining is the order of the day and seafood the staple on most menus. The tables at Kamenice (14) at Gunduliceva Polijana 8 (00 385 20 323 682) spread right across the tasty market square. Easy fare is served at fair prices, including fantastic mussels "Buzara" in a wine, garlic and tomato sauce for fifty six kuna (£7). Opening hours are 8am-11pm daily.
If pizza is more your style, Mea Culpa (fifteen) dispenses its gigantic, tempting creations on the narrow sidestreet Za Rokom three (00 385 20 323 430 ; mea-culpa.hr).
Day two
Sun. morning:go to church
St Blaise's church (sixteen), celebrating the guardian saint of Dubrovnik, is a domed baroque building at the eastern end of the Stradun. The decorated faade eclipses that of the close by cathedral and the graceful early 18th-century interior boasts an elaborate altarpiece glinting with statuary. Sun. Mass occurs at 8am and 12 pm.
Take a ride
Frequent buses (route 4 and six) from Pile gate (1) whisk you to the other face of Dubrovnik : the gorgeous Lapad peninsula. Land at the post office Posta Lapad to enjoy a wander along Setaliste kralja Zvonimira, a pedestrian-only boulevard lined by trees, villas and masses 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 noon sun.
Out to brunch
Back in the heart of the city, Gradska Kavana (17) at Pred Dvorom 1 (00 385 20 321 202), near the colonnaded Rector's Palace, is the place to chill with a helping of the significant torta od makarula (macaroni, walnut and chocolate cake) for 21 kuna (£2.60). Open 8am-midnight daily.
If location is more vital than wonderful service and succulent food, try Orhan (18), a partly outside restaurant serving meat and salads, overlooking the water outside the Pile gate (1).
Take a view
Dubrovnik's communist-era cable automobile, wrecked in the Yugoslav civil war, was restored 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 peak takes in the the walled city itself, the scattering of beautiful Elaphiti islands and, on a clear day, the nearby country of Montenegro.
Opening hours in the summer are 9am-midnight (00 385 20 325 393 ; dubrovnikcablecar.com) ; eighty kuna (£8) return.
The icing on the cake
The most classy way to reach Dubrovnik airfield is to bounce aboard one of the regular tourist boats from the old port (3) to the beach city of Cavtat (pronounced "Tsavtat"). An one-way trip costs a hundred kuna (£12.50). The 45-minute ride offers fine views, and deposits you at a pretty arc of shoreline framed by bars and bistros. Have a drink and leave your bags at one of those places while you explore Cavtat's rocky hinterland of elegant villas one of which was the birthplace of the local artist, Vlaho Bukovac, and is now a museum. Then take a fast 80-kuna (£10) cab ride to the airfield as reported tagza.com.
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