Why go now?
The dramatic location of Dubrovnik between the mountains and the Adriatic is trumped by the excellent Old Town itself, wrapped in 2km of splendid medieval walls. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival, till twenty-five Aug, adds to the cultural offering with film, dance, classical music and art events (dubrovnik-festival.hr). And the town 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) 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.
Try and time your flight to arrive in light, allowing you to enjoy the spectacular half-hour road journey 20km north from Dubrovnik airport into the city, twisting far above the Adriatic shore.
Buses depart infrequently, in connection with Croatia Airlines arrivals (though any passenger may use them ; 40 kuna / £5). They pause at Pile (one), the primary gate of the walled old city, and continue to the primary bus terminal, 3km north-west and well-placed for many hotels. Return buses to the airport start out from this terminal two hours before Croatia Airlines exits.
A taxi will cost around two hundred and fifty kuna (£31).
Get your bearings
The primary approach is across a stone bridge and thru the intricately-constructed Pile gate (one) – outside of which you’ll find the local bus station and the key traveller office (two) at Brsalje five (00 385 20 312 011 ; tzdubrovnik.hr ; 8am-10pm daily).
Pile gate leads to the broad central boulevard, Stradun, which is lined by attractive 17th-century buildings. This road cuts right thru 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 tiny harbor (three), and close by the east gate, Ploce (4).
Check in
Most places worth visiting are in the old city, but most all visitors stay outside. The few accommodation options are principally hostels, for example Fresh Sheets (five) at Svetog Simuna 15 (00 385 91 799 2086 ; freshsheetshostel.com), where the only double room (called “Heaven”) costs 66 without breakfast ; single dorm beds are thirty three.
A reasonably priced hotel (by Dubrovnik standards) in the walls is the three-star Stari Grad (6) at four Od Sigurate (00 385 98 534 819 ; hotelstarigrad.com). Doubles with breakfast begin at 142.
A nick further up the price range, the Excelsior Hotel & Spa (7) 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 superb perspectives out to sea. Doubles start at 218, including breakfast.
Many visitors stay in hired apartments, costing from around fifty per night for two folk, self-catered. There are plenty found in the district of Lapad, a 20-minute bus ride from Pile Gate.
The Dubrovnik Tourist Board provides photos and contact information at : tzdubrovnik.hr.
Day one
Take a walk
No other Western european town boasts such complete and spectacular walls. You can find one of the entrances to these medieval marvels just within the Pile Gate (1) ; ticket sales (60 kuna / £7.50) take place from 8am-5pm. Hold onto your ticket, because you may be asked for it at a few checkpoints on the way.
Climb the first of many stone stairways to reach fortifications reaching back more than a millennium in places, and are protected by Unesco. Besides providing the perfect introduction to the city and hoisting you far 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, which may help to draw out your tour to a nice two hours or even more.
Lunch on the run
In such a touristy location, finding a reasonably priced lunch is hard. So you might prefer to assemble a picnic from the produce on sale at the old-town market that fills Gunduliceva Poljana square (eight) ; it opens 7 days every week for keepsakes, but on any day except Sunday you may also find fresh fruit and veggies. In the same square are two shops where you can augment your banquet.
For a sit-down break or sandwich, Skola at Antuninska 1 is a solid 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 (10) at Svetog Dominika two (00 385 twenty 322 092) is an Aladdin’s Cave stuffed with all kinds of crafts and products, from honey and olive oil to paintings and porcelain.
In the same street, nearer to Stradun, Kate Stojanovic, dressed in standard costume, sells her very own embroidery from an open-air stall.
The very best of the city’s many jewelry shops are found on Od Puca, parallel to Stradun at the Pile Gate (1) end.
You can buy excellent locally produced wines from the nearby Peljesac Headland at Vina Milicic (eleven) at Od Sigurate two (00 385 twenty 321 777).
Cultural afternoon
The most fascinating of the historical museums is in the striking Dominican Monastery (twelve) close to the Ploce Gate (4) at Svetzog Domenica four (00 385 twenty 322 two hundred ; 9am-6pm daily, twenty 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 studio ( 13 ) at Antuninska 6 (00 385 twenty 322 166 ; warphotoltd.com ; 9am-9pm, thirty kuna / £3.30), has changing exhibitions of pictures by the planet’s top war photographers. By implication, it’s also a sobering reminder of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, which is also recalled in telling detail on public panels in other bits of the city.
An aperitif
Next door to the studio, you can mingle with the arty set at the Talir caf / bar at Antuninska five (00 385 20 323 293l ; 8am-2am), besieged by footage of actors and slurping a tall tumbler of Ozujsko beer (fifteen kuna / £1.65).
Eating 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 eight (00 385 20 323 682) spread across the tasty market square. Easy fare is served at fair prices, including excellent 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 (fifteen) dispenses its vast, captivating creations on the narrow sidestreet Za Rokom 3 (00 385 20 323 430 ; mea-culpa.hr).
Day two
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 eclipses that of the close by cathedral and the classy early 18th-century interior boasts an intricate altarpiece glinting with statuary. Sunday Mass happens at 8am and noon.
Take a ride
Frequent buses (route four and 6) from Pile gate (1) whisk you to the other face of Dubrovnik : the beautiful Lapad promontory. Alight at the post office Posta Lapad to enjoy an amble along Setaliste kralja Zvonimira, a pedestrian-only boulevard lined by trees, villas and lots of cafs serving Italian-grade coffee. The nearby city beach is clean, well equipped and backed by shady gardens where you can escape the attentions of the noon sun.
Out to brunch
Back in the guts of the town, Gradska Kavana (seventeen) at Pred Dvorom 1 (00 385 20 321 202), close to the colonnaded Rector’s Palace, is the place to relax with a helping of the significant torta od makarula (macaroni, walnut and chocolate cake) for twenty-one kuna (£2.60). Open 8am-midnight daily.
If location is more important than wonderful service and flavorful food, try Orhan (eighteen), a partly outside cafe serving meat and salads, overlooking the water outside the Pile gate (1).
Take a view
Dubrovnik’s communist-era wire auto, wrecked during the Yugoslav civil war, was restored to active service last summer, and is once more speeding visitors in 3 minutes from the base station to the top 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 close by country of Montenegro.
Opening hours in the summer are 9am-midnight (00 385 20 325 393 ; dubrovnikcablecar.com) ; 80 kuna (£8) return.
The topping on the cake
The most fashionable way to reach Dubrovnik airport is to bounce on board one of the regular holiday maker boats from the old port (three) to the seaside town of Cavtat (said “Tsavtat”). An one-way trip costs a hundred kuna (£12.50). The 45-minute ride offers fine perspectives, and deposits you at a pretty arc of coast framed by bars and cafes. Have a drink and leave your bags at one of these venues while you explore Cavtat’s rocky hinterland of stylish 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) taxi ride to the airport as reported tagza.com.