Dubrovnik, jewel of Dalmatia and one hell of a drive down the coast. Dubrovnik sits about 230km south of Split, normally an easy drive, except the only way to drive to Dubrovnik is down a very narrow and winding coast road including a side trip into Bosnia (our car didn’t have insurance in Bosnia so we made sure we drove very carefully). The drive took us about 5 hours while negotiating endless tour buses traveling North to Spilt. It was a fun drive to do, but I’d still recommend flying or catching the ferry down. We also found the hotels are double the price of further up the coast, so I would also recommend trying to book a package before arriving to save some pennies, all that said and done it’s a nice place to visit.

The old city or “Grad” as locals call it is located in the South of the New City, neither area is very large but parking is a nightmare as its not really designed for cars. We stayed in a very nice hotel in the North Coast in a area called Lapad, about 15 minutes by bus from the Old City.

So what do you do in Dubrovnik, beside many day trips around the islands, excursions into Bosnia, or diving and sailing, you come to see the Old City.
The best way to see the city is to walk around the medieval walls that completely encircle it, as it provides a great view of the city and the surrounding countryside.
Lisa did a great job of carrying Isabella in the heat of the day around the city walls and was very happy to stop for lunch in the shade beside the harbour.
For even without a car we recommend you go south along the coast where the road rises above Dubrovnik. First thing in the morning it provides a great view of the city, also where most of the travel brochure photos are taken from.

Now we can mark Dubrovnik as the first place Isabella tried ice-cream, we thought it would be Italy but as our ice cream was so huge we thought it would be mean if we didn’t share J After a tentative taste she loved it, we only gave her a tiny bit but you should have seen the performance she put on when we wouldn’t give her anymore, her best yet, and she wasn’t happy with dad for about 5 minutes.

Dubrovnik is a nice little city and well worth the visit, preferably without having to drive yourself there. So back to Italy we go on the overnight ferry.