Discovering Dubrovnik: Croatia’s Fairytale City

We had wanted to visit the magical city of Dubrovnik for lots of years, ever since we saw photos of red-tiled roofs surrounded by a towering stone wall, with the Adriatic Sea crashing against the cliff side below. Every photo we saw was simply stunning.

Oh ya, this was absolutely a dream destination for us!

Don’t miss Our guide to Dubrovnik.

The harbour at Dubrovnik
After spending 2 weeks in Split, we rented a car and drove south to Dubrovnik, which was a stunning journey. In fact, we had already experienced this route during the bus ride from Sarajevo to Split – a bit of backtracking, but the scenery was incredible, so we didn’t mind.

We were greeted by Pave from Celenga Apartments at a parking lot just a few minutes outside of the old town. The cost of parking in Dubrovnik is not only expensive, but hard to find availability. thankfully for us, the apartment or condo we were staying at had complimentary parking available for the five nights we were there!

Our room & lobby at Celenga Apartments, complete with a welcome bottle of white wine – it’s like she knew us!
To enter into the old town, which is where we would be staying, we literally had to walk over a drawbridge! The fairytale picture that we had in our minds was pertaining to fruition as we made our way into the walled city.

Dubrovnik is like something out of a movie, and in fact, it’s because of this aesthetic appeal that the popular HBO T.V. series, game Of Thrones, filmed many scenes here. and actually, while we were in the city, star Wars was gearing up for filming as well.

The city is literally a motion picture set.

Running through the main part of the walled town is the large Stradun Road. This boulevard starts at the west gate, and ends at the east gate. To the north and south of this street are small lanes with lots of stone steps climbing up a hill.

The streets of Dubrovnik – the Stradun is running parallel.
On the first few flights of stairs, we came across hotels, restaurants and shops. The higher up we got, the quieter the streets became and the a lot more residential it felt. women dried their laundry on lines hung-up outside of their windows, men serviced repairing buildings, and children played on the school grounds during their break.

For the most part though, the streets were empty.

We loved walking through the quiet, empty lanes
We encountered some rain during our stay in Dubrovnik, which hindered some of our exploration, but we still tried to get out as much as possible, and regardless of the weather, we were in awe of this vacationer hot-spot.

We wandered down practically every lane within the well-intact walls, entered into the lots of beautiful churches and monasteries, and drank coffee in the squares as the locals do.

A storm brewing over the sea!
When the rain let up, it was time to do what we had been waiting for considering that day one. We walked on top of the fort walls! The walls run for 2 kilometers, are 4-6 meters large in some parts, and they’re up to 25 meters high. (Note: It costs $17.50 to walk the walls)

The views from the top were spectacular!

From atop the wall, we had the best 360 degree vantage point. To the south were views of the Adriatic Sea and the nearby Lokrum Island. To the west was the lush Gradac Park and the St. Lawrence Fort (also known as Croatia’s Gibraltar).

The views from atop the fort walls
To the north were towering mountains with a cord car climbing to the summit, and to the east was the harbour, the Adriatic and the highway running to the countries of Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro.

We took pleasure in all of those views while looking external from the walls, but when we looked inward, we were also given amazing views…the red-tiled roofs that we had wanted to see for lots of years!

The red-tiled roofs in Dubrovnik!

Needless to say, we were very delighted that day.

Walking the perimeter of the fortress walls is the main attraction of Dubrovnik, but considering that we had five nights in the city, we had a lot more time to explore and “get lost”, which we always love doing.

We wandered outside of the walls and somehow made our way to the nearby Gradac Park. having a green space so close to the old town was fantastic.

There was a great walking path meandering through want trees, and due to the rains, the air was fresh and crisp. We followed the pathways until we became tired, and made our way down towards sea level. here we found huge boulders lining the water and a fishermen intending to catch some dinner.

A day at the park in Dubrovnik
We scrambled up the jagged rocks to the top of a hill, and found ourselves enjoying awesome views of the St. Lawrence Fortress. The loop we had created for ourselves [turned out to be] pretty scenic.

On our last morning in the city, the sun came out and the sky was pure blue…typical!

A stunning day in Dubrovnik!

So, we made a decision that before we taken a look at of our apartment or condo and drove our rental car south to Montenegro, we would go on the game Of Thrones walking tour. We’re huge fans of the show, and by this point, we were in the middle of enjoying the series for a second time.

Tom was the nicest guy…and a huge got fan too ?

We met up with Tom from Tours By Locals, who would be our private guide for the day. He was actually the original designer of the tour, which is a genius idea. We spent about three hours with Tom who brought lots of of the popular scenes to life for us.

Together with some CGI effects, Dubrovnik was transformed into King’s Landing. The St. Lawrence Fortress was the location for lots of of the popular scenes, as was the area inside of the western gate – which is the set of one of our much-loved scenes: when King Joffrey has horse manure thrown at him!

One of the filming locations for the game Of Thrones

The excursion was an exceptional way to end off our stay in the fairytale city of Dubrovnik. Off to our next country…Montenegro!

Read Next: magical Montenegro – Experiencing The Bay Of Kotor

Note: 

We were checking out at the end of February, which indicated it was the off-season. because Dubrovnik is generally just a vacationer town, lots of of the restaurants and shops were closed, as there were hardly any people around to cater to.

Luckily, we had an apartment or condo for our stay, which indicated that we could pop into the grocery store and get some food to make at home – not to mention, this helped out our budget as well!

Just a FYI, you may choose to visit after March 15th, when a lot of of the services are back in action.

Check out our video of Dubrovnik! 

Have you been to Dubrovnik before? What did you think of the city? share with us below!

A big thank you to Celenga Apartments for hosting us during our stay – and for supplying us with umbrellas! another thanks to ToursByLocals for bringing the Game Of Thrones series to life for us ? As always, all thoughts, opinions and reviews remain our own, despite any complimentary services received. 

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