Adventures in Southern California: croatia

Dubrovnik Croatia

Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful cities I've visited in Europe. The entire Old Town is surrounded by massive medieval stone walls overlooking the Adriatic Sea, with narrow streets, cliffs, restaurants, bars and amazing views around every corner. It's also one of the primary filming locations for Game of Thrones, so you'll recognize quite a few places from the show. I would recommend visiting in September or October, when the weather is still fantastic but the crowds are smaller than in the summer. Weekdays also tend to be less crowded, especially when there aren't several cruise ships in port. One thing to consider when booking an Airbnb is the location. Dubrovnik is built into a steep hillside, and some of the apartments above the Old Town require climbing hundreds of stairs. You really don't want to walk up and down those stairs five times a day unless you're looking for a workout.

One of the best things to do in the city is walk the entire Dubrovnik City Wall, which offers incredible views of the rooftops, harbor and surrounding coastline. Tickets are expensive at around 40 euros for adults and 15 euros for children and teenagers, but I think it's worth it. You'll also want to explore Fort Lovrijenac overlooking the sea. The main photo on this post was taken from the Dubrovnik city wall.

The food in Dubrovnik is fantastic. My favorite breakfast spot was Pekarnica Pile, a little bakery near the Pile Gate that makes amazing homemade doughnuts. We ate these practically every morning. I bought an extra one every morning to take with me on a hike. I was burning a lot of calories walking up and down the stairs all day. For lunch, check out Barba, a small seafood restaurant in the Old Town. The fried oysters are amazing, and it's a great place to grab something without having to sit through a long restaurant meal. I also had some of the best pizza I've ever eaten in Europe at Pizzeria Papillon. But my favorite restaurant in Dubrovnik was Konoba Dubrava, located in the hills above the city. Take an Uber up there for dinner and order the octopus cooked under the bell, a traditional Croatian cooking method where the food is slowly roasted beneath a metal dome covered in hot embers. Dubrovnik also has some great places to drink. Stop at Dubrovnik Beer Company (DBC) to try some local craft beer, or visit Cave Bar More (Špilja Bar More), which is built right into a natural cave beneath a beautiful waterfront hotel. You can sit inside the cave drinking a beer or head outside to the waterfront terrace and swimming platform, where you can jump right into the Adriatic.

There are swimming spots all along the rocky coastline in the city, and the water is incredibly clear. One of the coolest places is Bard (Mala Buža), a little cliffside bar built into the rocks outside the Old Town walls. You can sit on the cliffs drinking a cold beer while watching people jump into the water below. I would also highly recommend renting a sea kayak and paddling along the coastline beneath Dubrovnik's massive city walls. You can paddle over to Betina Cave Beach (Plaža Betina Špilja), a secluded beach inside a large rocky cave that's primarily reached from the sea. It's a beautiful place to stop for a swim. If you're looking for an even bigger adventure, take a boat or guided kayaking trip toward Koločep Island, where you'll find some amazing sea caves, including the famous Blue Cave. It's several miles of open water from Dubrovnik, so I wouldn't recommend trying to kayak all the way there on your own unless you're an experienced sea kayaker.

Another place you absolutely shouldn't miss is Lokrum Island, a beautiful nature reserve just offshore from Dubrovnik. You can catch the Lokrum ferry from the Old Town harbor, and the 30-euro round-trip ticket includes admission to the island. There are miles of wooded walking trails, beautiful rocky swimming areas, botanical gardens, the ruins of an old Benedictine monastery and a hilltop fortress with amazing views. Several scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed here, and there's even a replica Iron Throne where you can take photos. One of the coolest places around the island is Golub Špilja, an incredible sea cave and narrow rocky cove where people swim and cliff jump.

Another activity worth doing is taking the Dubrovnik Cable Car to the top of Mount Srđ, which overlooks the entire city and coastline. You'll get some of the best panoramic views of Dubrovnik from up there. Instead of taking the cable car back down, you can hike the rocky switchback trail down the mountain. It's a great hike with incredible views the entire way, although you'll want decent shoes because the trail is loose and rocky in places.

Dubrovnik is also a great city to explore without any real plans. You can spend hours wandering through the narrow stone streets, checking out little shops, finding hidden restaurants and discovering stairways that lead to incredible views of the sea. If you like basketball, there's even an amazing Dubrovnik Old Town Basketball Court tucked in between castle walls. You can pick up a basketball at Intersport in town and shoot some hoops surrounded by centuries-old stone buildings.

In the evenings, I would recommend heading back toward the waterfront, grabbing a beer and enjoying the atmosphere once some of the daytime cruise ship crowds have left. Dubrovnik isn't the cheapest city in Croatia, especially when it comes to restaurants, tours and attractions, but there are so many things to do that I think it's worth spending at least three or four nights here. Between the food, medieval architecture, hiking trails, sea kayaking, cliff jumping, island excursions and beautiful water, Dubrovnik is easily one of my favorite destinations in Europe. It's the kind of place where you can spend the morning exploring a 700-year-old fortress, the afternoon jumping off cliffs into the Adriatic and the evening eating some of the best seafood you've ever had.