Dubrovnik, Croatia – Sept 2025

After a week in Zadar we took a bus and a ferry southeast along the Dalmatian coast to Dubrovnik, Croatia, where we stayed for a week. Dubrovnik’s nickname is “The Pearl of the Adriatic”, and it is an absolutely gorgeous city of about 40k people. There is a “Stari Grad” (Old Town) that is completely encircled by enormous medieval walls. We walked the entire circumference of the old city on top of its walls, visited some of its museums, dined and drank in its restaurants, strolled around its little harbor, and took a guided walking tour throughout the inside of it. Outside of the old town, in the greater Dubrovnik area, we walked most of the perimeter of the whole western Penninsula on the Šetnica Walking Trail and the entire perimeter of Gruz Harbor (where the cruise ships dock), took a cable car up to Mt Srd for some spectacular views and lunch, and simply enjoyed the beautiful views of Gruz Harbor and northwestern Dubrovnik from the living room of our Air BnB.

By the time we left Dubrovnik, we had been in four locations in Croatia for a total of almost five weeks. We are very impressed by this small but mighty country of 3.8 million people – who handle 21 million tourists a year and have an outsized number of world class athletes and Olympic medals. The tour guides that we encountered were highly organized, quite funny, and very importantly really forthright in describing Croatian history. We left Croatia on Oct 1rst and will miss this proud culture.

We left Zadar early in the morning on a bus back to Split that took 2.5 hours, being chased by a rain storm. In Split we had just enough time to grab some food to go and jump on the ferry before the rain caught up. 5.5 hours later we arrived in Dubrovnik. This was the TP Line Ferry we thought it was just as comfortable at the Krilo Line Ferry had been when we went to Hvar a couple weeks earlier. It was 100% full, even in late September. We made it to Dubrovnik and to our Air BnB before the rain caught up with us again. Overall a pretty good (but long) travel day.
Our Air BnB was a spacious 2 BD, 1.5 BA and had a great view of the commercial port (Gruz Harbor) in northwestern Dubrovnik. Old town “Stari Grad” Dubrovnik was located about two miles southeast of us. We were in between several bus lines so it was very easy to get everywhere and no transfers were needed. We had a bus pass and thus did not need to use any Uber rides all week.
The view from the Air BnB was of Gruz Harbor, which is the main commercial port of Dubrovnik. This is where the Cruise ships dock and the myriad of inter-island ferries depart and arrive. Gruz Harbor is quite large and is not to be confused with the tiny quaint harbor just outside the southeast side of the old city walls.
We took the cable car up to the Mount Srd, from where you can clearly see the boundaries (walls) of the old city below – and its small quaint harbor on the left (southeast) side. This view, however, does not adequately capture the vertical slope of the old city. Less than a 1000 people live inside the old city but it gets millions of visitors per year.
This is Pile Gate, the western of the two entrances into the old city. You walk across a waterless moat to enter. The walls are very imposing, its hard to believe they are still standing and completely encircle the “Stari Grad” (old town).
This is the view from the top of the “Jesuit Stairs”, which is where a memorable scene called “the walk of shame” was filmed in the TV Series “Game of Thrones”
One of the most popular activities in the old city is to walk the top of the entire circumference of the city walls – it is about 2 km (about 1.25 miles). The views are amazing and you will get a great stairs workout.
The walk around the old city on top of its walls includes passing through some cafes, since I guess what else do you do with a medieval turret?
Another view of, and from, on top of the city walls.
This is a view of the inside courtyard of Rector’s Palace, which is the historical building where the Parish of Dubrovnik was governed for many centuries. Today it contains museum displays of the functions it performed (minted coins, had a courtroom, had a jail, received tax payments) and of key periods in the city’s history, including the Balkan war in the early 1990’s. There were some augmented reality displays you could obtain with your phone in some of the rooms.
A very unusual handrail in Rector’s Palace. The current building was significantly rebuilt in the 17th century after a massive earthquake severly damaged it and all of Dubrovnik.
“Stradun” is the historic esplanade down the middle of the center of the old city of Dubrovnik. Geographically speaking, old city Dubrovnik sits in a half pipe, and the Stradun is the bottom length of it. At night it is magical. The clock tower in the background sits above the southeastern gate. There are only two gates through the massive walls.
Inside the old city of Dubrovnik there is (surprise surprise) an Irish Pub. So we tipped a glass of Guiness and a cider. They were out of Kilkenny 🙁
We had a delicious breakfast in a restaurant located in the old city harbor. This was the view to the south from our table and we were right under the south wall of the Old City. Dubrovnik is expensive relative to the rest of Croatia, but this meal stood out for being tasty, fulfilling, great view, and economical.
About 2 miles northwest of the old city is Gruz Harbor, where the Cruise ships dock. The harbor is rimmed by nice cafes, stores and the University of Dubrovnik. This is a door to their Economics Department.
The Šetnica Walking Trail circumnavigates most of the northwestern peninsula of Dubrovnik, about two miles northwest of the old city. We are not sure how long it was but it made for a beautiful half day stroll. This is the view looking west.
Here we are still on the Šetnica walking trail, this time on the east side of the Babin Kuk peninsula. The cruise ship in the background is moored at the end of Gruz Harbor. The bridge in the background is the Dr Franjo Tudman Bridge and crosses a large inlet at the west end of Gruz Harbor. This was our last day in Dubrovnik, the next blog post will be for Montenegro.

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10 Comments

  4. Great to catch up with you on the walk up to the castle at Kotor. We are the NZ couple, did you end up going through the window of the castle? Look forward to keeping an eye on your next travels. All the best!
    Martin

    • Hello Martin! Very nice to hear from you and yes we did go through the “secret” window. Hope you had a great rest of your hike and your return travels go smooth – lets stay in touch!

  5. As I read your posts I reminisced about my visit to Dubrovnik in 2013, while on a motorcycle tour. I caught myself smiling as I looked at your pictures, it is such a charming little city by the Adriatic Sea.

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