We landed in Dubrovnik airport in the evening and took a taxi to our Airbnb in Cavtat. Cavtat is about 20 minutes by car to Dubrovnik. It’s a smaller place with a smaller pricetag. Our Airbnb was great with an amazing view out over the water. We enjoyed spotting the huge yachts anchored in the harbor – one of which was a 1.5B ‘Mega’ yacht owned by a Russian billionaire (it was so impressive we had to Google it) – the second largest yacht in the world!
The apartment was about a 15 minute walk into the center of Cavtat where there is some shopping and restaurants.
We got a boat from Cavtat to Dubrovnik’s old town. It was a really nice boat ride, about 45 minutes and $40 for a family of 5 to get return tickets. The boat ride in itself was beautiful and well worth the $40. The scenery was beautiful but contrasted somewhat with some of the holiday resorts along the coast that sit in ruin since being destroyed during the Yugoslav war in the early 90’s.
The boat let us off right in the heart of the old town. The walls are impressive and well-maintained but it wasn’t long before we started to realize that Dubrovnik was not quite our speed. Even though the high season had just ended, the streets were still packed with tourists. Dubrovnik is a popular stop for cruise ships so, as we learned, it is not worth going into town until late in the day when all the cruise ship passengers get back on the ships.
Since we are not interested in shopping (how would we pack any more than we already have?), and we are not interested in nice restaurants or quaint bars (at least not with kids in tow), there wasn’t really much there for us except to explore the historical attractions. But we couldn’t do much of that either since everything was so expensive. Walking the city walls was going to cost us about $100 which hardly seemed like it would be money well spent especially since it was a very hot day and the kids would make us hate life if we told them they’d be walking it the sunshine for the next couple of hours.
There was something else that didn’t quite seem right to us about Dubrovnik. It felt a bit like we were wandering around a movie set or a Disney park. Somewhere set up for tourists but not a real living city with people getting on with their own business while tourists wander amongst them. The real Dubrovnik lies outside the old town walls – a completely separate and more modern town. This was very different to Spain, the UK, and Ireland where the old parts of towns are incorporated as vibrant parts of the modern-day towns.
We were so disappointed we didn’t even take the camera out much while there. After a few hours of exploring, we happily got back on our boat and back to our small village. Possibly Dubrovnik would be more attractive to us if money were not an issue and if we weren’t traveling with 3 kids. Venturing out in the evening after the cruise ship tourists are gone with just the two of us would have been nice. The city is beautiful and the history is very interesting. I can imagine strolling down the narrow lanes and finding a perfect place to eat, have a few drinks and people watch. I suspect (and hope) we will find smaller and more authentic Croatian towns as we travel farther afield onto the islands over the next couple of weeks.
Onward to Brna!