In September 2019 we visited Dubrovnik for a weeks holiday, staying in an Air BnB located on a hill behind the Old Town. We transferred from the airport to the hotel by taxi as we had no plans to hire a car.

Although we were only a stones throw from the Old Town, we decided to explore the other, modern, side of Dubrovnik on our first day. This was partly to avoid the crowds as we knew the Old Town gets very busy during the day, especially in the morning. It’s a popular cruise ship destination and it’s also busy with fans of the TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ – more on that later.

Before leaving for our holiday, a work colleague had told me that if we wanted to walk the ramparts of Old Town, (you can walk all the way around looking down on to the town or out to sea), it was best to get their early in the morning before the cruise ship crowds arrived. So we arrived at the ticket office for opening time, 8am, bought our tickets and climbed up to the wall.

It had been really good advice and it was nice and quiet as we made our way around the town on top of the city wall. It took us about two hours to walk the ramparts, including a stop for a coffee, and we descended into the mass of tourists shown in the image below. Lots were queueing for ramparts walk tickets!

As we were in town, we fought our way through the crowds to look around. I was struck by how many tours were operating for ‘Game of Throne’s’ fans. Every time we came to an area used in the series there would be a guide, carrying a photo album, showing the group with them a scene from the show at that location.

For most of the GOT sites you needed a bit of help because most looked different from how they had appeared on screen. Apparently a lot of the well known locations had been green screened and then had computer generated buildings superimposed over them. I recognised the steps from Cersei’s ‘Walk of Shame’ and the old port they used for Kings Landing.

We decided to have a break from walking on our third day and wandered down to the small beach near the old port. It’s the only beach in the old part of town and it’s tiny and very busy. It was completely covered in sunbeds, which you have to hire. The sunbeds are very close together, so close that you’d struggle to get a cigarette paper between them. However, we did hire beds and enjoyed a day on the beach. Beers were delivered to us by waiters wandering the beach and the sea was nice and warm when you needed to cool off. Pretty much perfect really.

The Bay of Abandoned Hotels – Kupari

We hit the beach again the next day but this time with a twist. We decided to get a taxi and travel out to Kupari where The Bay of Abandoned Hotels is located at Župa Bay. Kupari was about 20 minutes along the coast from Dubrovnik. Kupari’s Župa Bay is an old resort of five large hotels that were constructed for the former Yugoslav Peoples Army in the early 1960’s. The hotels were attacked and badly damaged during the Yugoslav Wars in the early 1990’s and then abandoned.

The five hotels are still in situ but derelict. These days they’re mainly used for paint ball fights by the locals. There have been suggestions that the site might be re-developed but when we were there you were able to wander around all the hotels, although they are total wrecks. The beach here is very nice and far less crowded. We didn’t see too many tourists whilst we were there. Lot’s more information here

We spent the rest of the holiday walking the Old Town and wandering back over to the new part of town. We did take the cable car up to the top of Mount Srd, the large hill behind the Old Town. That was really good and we timed it for dusk so we could watch the sunset from the top of the hill. There was quite a crowd there with the same idea which made for a good atmosphere.

The views down onto the Old Town and across Dubrovnik are really good from the top of Mount Srd. You can walk up the hill if you don’t want to take the cable car. We walked back down using the path and it was really easy to navigate.

Before leaving, at the end of our week, we spent our last full day taking a boat trip over to Lokrum, the island closest to The Old Town. It’s a nature reserve and inhabited by tame wild rabbits. Lots of them! it’s also another GOT location and they have a Sword Throne in a visitor centre. It’s a nice way to spend a day, with nice walks around the island.

Overall we had a nice holiday. Dubrovnik is a long way from anywhere else so, even with a hire car, going anywhere would involve lots of driving. The Old Town was extremely busy although they now restrict to number of cruise ships calling there. It’s also quite expensive and we found some really nice restaurants in the other side of town that were very good and a lot more reasonable. I’m not sure if we’ll ever return to Dubrovnik but I’m glad we have been there.

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.