Planning A City break to Dubrovnik - Croatia - Itinerary for Dubrovnik in 3 Days
A 3 day itinerary city break to Dubrovnik old town in April / May.
3 day break spent pottering around the beautiful city walls of the Old Town in Dubrovnik.
So far, after extensive research, I'm planning an itinerary for the Dubrovnik visit in Spring. This consists of 3 days in Dubrovnik with my 3 days in dubrovnik itinerary as follows:
Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik
The best beaches in Dubrovnik
The islands of Lopud in Dubrovnik
A day trip to Lokrum Dubrovnik
Good food and restaurants in Dubrovnik
Best places to drink in Dubrovnik
The best places to eat in the Old Town, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
I only have 3 days in Dubrovnik & I want to get as much planned in the 3 day itinerary, in the limited time I have there to get a feel for this beautiful city. Here's what i'm planning & what I recommend when you only have a weekend or 3 days to work with.
The weather in April & May is actually perfect timing for a visit to Dubrovnik, so I know what to pack & what to plan in my itinerary.
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Breathtaking - The walls of the city - Dubrovnik - How amazing does this look?
Now this is a city break to Dubrovnik that has been a long time coming. I was originally supposed to go on this city trip in April 2021. I am talking my bestie Matt for his 40th Birthday. His Birthday is on New Years Day and so, to celebrate all of our friends had booked a few days away at a country cottage, in Wales. With hot tub, the works.
We had a party planned and I was going to reveal the details of his Birthday treat then…. But Covid had other ideas. Boris told us we only had Christmas day, as a lockdown free day, a short chance to meet up with friends and family (We since found out he didn’t even follow his own bloody rules did he, but that’s a different story). So this meant the weekend to Wales and subsequent trip reveal was cancelled. If we couldn't even go to Wales, the chance of international travel was not looking good.
Having already booked this weekend away, I waited, hoping that we could travel, but then the news broke that this wasn’t going to happen. Borders stayed closed, flights were cancelled and that was the end of that.
Finally the rules chilled out and the trip was rebooked, I still didn’t want to get too excited, just in case rules changed again so I only told Matt on his most recent Birthday. A year late, but hey, happy 41st. Now it’s only weeks away, so plans are being made and I couldn’t be more excited. Matt and I have been on city breaks and trips away together previously, we have been best friends for ages and we always have a good time together. There's lots of chat, sometimes deep and meaningful, sometimes daft, but always fun. We visited Iceland for a whistle stop tour for my Birthday.
Check out the Iceland weekend away here. We have also been to Ibiza together…. But in all honesty the antics of that trip are strictly redacted.
Where Dubrovnik? So for this city break away, we are heading out to Dubrovnik, The capital city of Croatia. Set on the Dalmation coast and looking out over the sea, it is known as The Pearl of the Adriatic. It has a distinctive historic old town, encircled with dramatic stone walls, paved with limestone that you can walk around and with a whole host of well preserved old buildings it is a beautiful sight. It is also famous as a filming location for Game of Thrones. We loved the programme and so this seemed like a good excuse to go, although (spoiler alert) after the crap ending, I was tempted to go somewhere else. Well that would be a silly as frankly it looks amazing. I do love a city break and I do love a beach… So a city break with a beach, Dubrovnik is a double win.... pow pow !
There’s a number of different locations where the Game of Thrones (GOT) was filmed, so this is going to be a big feature in the plans. The old town and harbour is where the Red Keep and Blackwater bay scenes were filmed, with several other locations around these areas. The nearby Island of Lokrum was used for filming the garden scenes in the city of Qarth. Rather than wander aimlessly it makes sense to do a guided tour, we might as well get a bit of expert, local knowledge. There’s a whole host of tours, some also include the trip to Lokrum, but I don’t like too much guidance so I’m going for a 2 hour walking tour based solely in Dubrovnik Old Town. I think this should cover everywhere and then leave us with some free time. We land at 11am, the shuttle bus looks to take half an hour into the old town. This should be good timing to grab a spot of lunch, then take in a tour. Leaving us time to freshen up and then head out for the evening.
I’ve booked an evening meal at the rather fabulous looking Bura Bistro, see their insta here. We had a little shout out on the gram for some recommendations and the rather excellent @vibecroatia recommended this place on their insta. In their own words “Cocktails, wine & oh the food….” That’s all the recommendation I need. I really can’t wait to try their self titled “local ingredients made funky” and one or two… maybe more cocktails.
Bura Bistro. Good food, coffee and a terrace. This is so me
I don’t want to have my time filled with too much structure and excursions so the plans are pretty loose. I really enjoy just walking around a city and soaking up the vibe. It’s nice to have no plans and just see where you end up. Take a left, take a right, stop for a coffee, stop for a beer. See what you see, see who you meet. It’s my go to tip for exploring and it’s served me well so far. I’ve certainly met the most interesting people and seen the best sights doing this, so this is how the rest of the evening will flow
It’s looking like a bit of an early start on Saturday as I really want to take the ferry over to the Island of Lopud, it’s part of a group of islands known as the Elafiti trio and over the far side, it has a sandy beach, there’s not may of them in this area so that’s swayed me. The island has no cars and a walk across the island, through the forest takes you from the port in Lopud over to the sunny beach of Sunj. The guide says a 20 minute walk. I'll aim for ten. I know it's sad, but i do like a challenge. The sea here is crystal clear and shallow, which means that it is warm, which could come in handy as it is still April. This looks a perfect way to spend a day. We can then be free to come back when we want. Early or late, whatevs.
Up to now the evening is kept free, so I’m on the lookout for restaurants and bar recommendations for Dubrovnik, if you have any great recommendations for food, coffee and cocktails for a city break in Dubrovnik - let me know in the comments.
No words needed for that blue sea
We have pretty much a full day there on Saturday, which is our last day as we don’t fly back until 21:45, which is great, so I plan on making the most of it, with another island trip.
The Island of Lokrum looks stunning. It is just off the coast of Dubrovnik and around 15mins by water taxi. Covered with olive, cypres and pine trees. It is also home to the botanical gardens so it looks pretty lush and green. The island also has some Benedictine ruins and is home to the famous Iron Throne, so I’ll defo be getting a cheesy photo on that. It has a number of beaches and so swimming and sunbathing are highly recommended. I take that recommendation and I will certainly indulge. I’m a bit cautious about how warm the sea will be at the end of April, but I’ll find out. I hear rumours of nudist beaches on the island too. Not sure if I’ll be getting it all out, especially if the water is still cold, because well, you know what happens in the cold.
I’m thinking this looks just right for our last day, if we get back with any time to spare, I think we’ll take some time to chill on the main beach in Dubrovnik, Uvala Lapad
Really looking forward to waking up here - The roof tops of Dubrovnik
Based on everything it made sense to book our accommodation in the old town. It looks so picturesque and cool, that there’s no point in looking elsewhere. There’s a few larger, resort style hotels out of the old town on the seafront, with pools etc, but there’s just something that looks so nice about waking up, throwing open the shuttered windows and looking out over all of the terracotta roofs. There’s a whole wealth of options for accommodation. I found a really nice looking cottage, that has been renovated and is very nice inside, right in the heart of the old town. Booking.com now has a really handy filter where you can search for Entire homes/apartments, as opposed to hotels, so this is a really great way to find your bed for your time in Dubrovnik. Prices are reasonable slightly out of season and do look to jump up from mid May onwards. So bear this in mind if you're planning a trip.
We do personally prefer using Air bnb, but we know some people prefer the ease and security of using booking . com so book your hotels in Dubrovnik with them here.
Stay tuned for a full post about my 3 day dubrovnik itinerary .... coming soon.
Vibes - Tiny streets in Dubrovnik old town
our air b&b is just up these steps. How charming.
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