A city you can walk in an hour. A coast that takes a week.
Which Elaphiti cruise stops long enough to swim. What the Blue Cave boat costs once the drinks are in. Whether Mostar or Kotor is the better day out of the gate. Reviews of every tour bookable in Dubrovnik.
The boat, the islands, the walls, and the border you can cross by lunch.
Four bookings a first Dubrovnik week is built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The blue oneBlue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from DubrovnikA small boat to the cave off Koločep, with a mask and an hour in water that turns lit-from-below blue.
02The long day outFull-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksThree islands, lunch on board and the swim stops between them. The day that turns a city break into a coast one.
03The one with dragonsEpic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver OptionKing’s Landing on foot, filming spot by filming spot, then the boat over to Lokrum for the Iron Throne.
04Across the borderMostar and Kravica Waterfall Day TripOver the Neretva into Herzegovina for the old bridge at Mostar and a swim under the Kravica falls.
Dubrovnik’s good day usually starts at the old harbour, not the Pile Gate.
The city is a morning. The coast is the rest of it. Four kinds of day on the Adriatic, what it costs to get on board each one, and the shape of the day it buys.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinks
The three-island dayKoločep, Lopud and Šipan, lunch on deck, a swim at each.
The cave runSmall boats, snorkels, and water lit from underneath.
The evening sailOut past Lokrum as the walls go orange, drink in hand.
Under the wallsA paddle round the ramparts and into St Jacob’s cove.
All 198 days on the Adriatic →
Two countries are closer to Dubrovnik than Split is.
The bus reaches Herzegovina in two hours and the Bay of Kotor in two and a half. Both are full days, both leave before eight, and both need a passport on the seat beside you.
The old town is small, walled and busy by ten. Time it, then take it slowly.
Everything inside the walls →
Two kilometres of rampart, one marble street, and a warren of stairs either side of it. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city, and all three are better before the first ship docks.
The walls, and when to walk them
Two kilometres of rampart, one way round, no way off it once you are up. Take the first entry of the morning or the last hour before closing; the middle of a July day up there is punishing.
King’s Landing, corner by corner
The Jesuit stairs, Lovrijenac, the little harbour at Pile. A guide gets you to each one in an order that works, and most tours hand you the boat option out to Lokrum for the Iron Throne.
Srđ by cable car, at the right hour
Four minutes up the mountain the whole peninsula lays itself out below, walls, roofs, Lokrum and the islands behind it. Late afternoon light is the reason to wait rather than go straight after breakfast.
Dubrovnik’s most popular days out.
Every Dubrovnik tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else on this coast, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from Dubrovnik
Swim into Dubrovnik’s Blue Cave, explore Koločep’s three caves, and relax at Sunj Beach on a small-group boat tour for up to 12.
From · $84
Read our review →
2
Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinks
from $78
3
Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option
from $25
4
Elaphiti Islands Full-Day Cruise with Lunch
from $78
5
Old Town Walking Tour
from $23
6
The Original Game of Thrones Tour & Lokrum Option
from $26
7
Montenegro Day Trip
from $70
8
Mostar and Kravica Waterfall Day Trip
from $34
What a day out of Dubrovnik actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Croatia is not the cheap corner of the Adriatic any more, but the walk that explains the whole city still costs less than lunch on the Stradun.
Old-town walks, the walls, museum entry, the cable car and the short harbour cruises.
The full days: island cruises with lunch, the cave boats, Mostar and the Bay of Kotor.
Private skippers, chartered speedboats and the guides who take one group a day.
Three things that only happen in Dubrovnik.
Walled old towns exist all round the Mediterranean. A rampart walk hanging directly over open sea, a fictional capital filmed street by street, and a mountain the city was shelled from do not.
The City Walls
The rampart runs unbroken round the old town, twenty-five metres up on the seaward side with nothing between the parapet and the water. It was finished in the sixteenth century and never breached. One direction only, one ticket, and no way down until the next tower, which is worth knowing before you start it at two in the afternoon in August.
- 1City Walls Early Morning or Sunset Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,523 reviews
- 2Ancient City Walls & Wars Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,270 reviews
- 3Dubrovnik Combo: Old Town & Ancient City Walls★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,019 reviews
King’s Landing
Eight seasons filmed a fictional capital into a real one, and the city has never quite handed it back. The Jesuit stairs are the walk of shame, Lovrijenac is the Red Keep, and the little cove at Pile is Blackwater Bay. Guides carry stills to hold up against the stone, and the Iron Throne sits on Lokrum, ten minutes across the water.
- 1Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 5,995 reviews
- 2The Original Game of Thrones Tour & Lokrum Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,064 reviews
- 3Dubrovnik Game of Thrones Tour & Optional Lokrum Island Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,702 reviews
Srđ
Four hundred metres straight up behind the old town, with a cable car that takes four minutes and a road that takes forty. The view is the postcard. The fort at the top is not: it held out through the 1991 siege and now keeps a museum about it, which makes the trip up a good deal less decorative than the queue suggests.
- 1Dubrovnik Cable Car Ride, Old Town Walking Tour plus City Walls★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 685 reviews
- 2Cable Car, Walking Tour and City Walls Combo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 322 reviews
- 3Explore Dubrovnik by Cable Car (ticket included)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 109 reviews
Four Dubrovnik bookings that will not wait.
Most of this coast can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on boat timetables, small-group caps and a cruise-ship calendar that has no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from DubrovnikThe cave boats are small by design and the good ones take a dozen people. Summer mornings fill a week or more ahead.
- 02Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksOne sailing a day, one boat, lunch counted per head. Once the seats are gone the next slot is tomorrow.
- 03Mostar and Kravica Waterfall Day TripA border crossing and a four-hundred-kilometre round trip on one bus. It leaves at half seven and it does not wait.
- 04Epic Game of Thrones Tour + Lokrum & Saver OptionGuides cap these at small groups so the stairs stay walkable, and the late-afternoon departures are the first to go.
Between eleven and four the old town belongs to somebody else.
On a heavy day four cruise ships tie up at Gruž and eight thousand people walk through one gate. The Stradun jams, the walls have no shade, and the queue for the cable car doubles. The answer is the same every time: be inside the gates at eight, and be on a boat, in a cellar or up a mountain by midday.
The good eating is an hour up the coast, on a peninsula of vines and oyster beds.
Ston has the salt pans and the wall; Mali Ston has the oyster rafts in the channel below it. Behind them the Pelješac vineyards grow the Plavac Mali that becomes Dingač and Postup. Most of it is a day trip, and most of it ends with a long lunch.
By place — the city, the islands, the border
By kind of day — deck, rampart, cellar or road
How most first weeks here actually fall out.
The newest Dubrovnik tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Walls of Liberty: A Self-Guided Audio Tour of Dubrovnik
Read our review →
Korcula, Ston, Wine Tasting and Lunch – Tour from Dubrovnik
Read our review →
Dubrovnik History, Sweets & Liquors in a Private Palace
Read our review →
Private day Trip From Dubrovnik With Local Food at Family Home
Read our review →
Wine Quest – A Journey Through Dubrovnik’s Vinous Heritage
Read our review →
Ston Oyster & Wine Tasting Private Tour From Dubrovnik
Read our review →
