Dubrovnik – What No One Will Tell You About Visiting!

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Dubrovnik is a hugely popular destination when it comes to places to visit in Croatia. My husband and I visited Dubrovnik when we were travelling Europe for 8 months in our campervan (read all you need to know about travelling Europe in a campervan in our ultimate guide here) and quickly realised it is not so simple (or cheap) to visit.

Finding places to stay or park a camper van for a reasonable price can be near impossible. Some campsites charge upwards of 45 Euros per night.

Where to Stay in Dubrovnik?

Using all our resources and after much research, we decided not to stay in the main town of Dubrovnik and booked a campsite in Kupari. You can also find cheaper accommodation like we did by staying outside of the main city of Dubrovnik. For 15 Euro a night, our campsite was located about 20 minutes down the road. You can access Dubrovnik from here by local bus, but we decided that the more fun way (and also an excuse to make an experience out of it) was to travel by boat!

Kupari is a really interesting place to stay, it is pretty deserted and this is mainly because the beaches have empty hotels that were used as bases for the army. They were destroyed during the Croatian War of Independence and have not since been inhabited. Covered in graffiti and overgrown with weeds it’s like something out of an apocalypse movie. Imagine sunbathing on the beach as you would in a resort, but turn around and the desolate hotels stare back at you. A little eerie but something really amazing to experience.

Unfortunately, the land has been bought by a luxury development company who will be building a Four Seasons hotel in their place, so it won’t be like this for much longer. They won’t be in bad company as the 5* Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel is located just around the bay in Mlini, also a 10-minute walk from the campsite.

Kupari to Dubrovnik by Boat

We decided to use Adriana Cavtat, the boat transfer company that our campsite suggested. If you travel to Dubrovnik and want to take the same boat, I don’t recommend using this company. The transfer itself is lovely but they are never on time and often get full from the previous stops so you can’t get on the boat that you have been waiting 40 minutes for. It isn’t worth the hassle and there are other providers who seemed more reliable. The views on the journey are awesome, arriving into and departing from Dubrovnik this way is just magical so I highly recommend getting on a boat at some point during your stay.

Dubrovnik City

Dubrovnik is by far the most busy city that we have visited in Croatia. It is overwhelming how many people visit, and we didn’t visit in peak season. Also, bear in mind that we visited in the middle of May and it was 38 degrees! Even the gelato shop manager was pointing out how hot it was for us,  but nothing compared to the temperatures they normally experience – over 40 degrees.

The reason it gets busy is because:

1. It is an absolutely gorgeous walled city that is so well preserved you can’t help but fall in love and tell all your friends about it so they want to come and visit. The views from walking along the wall are just insane.
2. Since Game of Thrones came out and everyone realised that Croatia is where it is filmed, and Dubrovnik in particular is Kings Landing then the city has really thrived with this tourism. Tours, merchandise, souvenirs you name it.
3. Cruise Ships – hoards of cruise ship tours come to Dubrovnik to experience this beautiful city so the streets are filled with walking tours.

When To Visit Dubrovnik

To avoid the busy period – come out of season, like really out of season. Find out when the cruise ships are not docked in Dubrovnik so there will be a massive reduction in tourists. This way you stand a chance at experiencing this beautiful place in a little more peace.

Dubrovnik City Walls

The best part of Dubrovnik – walking along the city walls. To be honest, we didn’t do any research on this but knew it was a must-do activity. So we were pretty surprised to find out that the entrance to the walls is 20 Euro per person (Now 35 Euros in peak season and 15 Euros in the off-season), for us on a very tight budget this was a major splurge. But it was 100% worth it. The journey will take you a good 1 – 2 hours, mainly because the views are just to die for and there are so many nooks and crannies to discover. But also because it is so busy and wide enough for just one person you end up queuing in places.

My main tip would be to not walk the walls at midday, there is practically no shade and maybe 1 or 2 places to find refreshments along the way.

Once we walked the walls we headed down into the town to discover what other treasures there were. There are plenty of amazing restaurants, bars and shops interspersed with old churches and museums. Take a walk along the waterfront and admire the views, or even take a boat ride out to sea to visit an island.

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