Dubrovnik and Montenegro

DUBROVNIK

Sights from the bus on the way from the airport

The Main Street

Walking the city walls

Montenegro

WHAT TO DO IN DUBROVNIK?....Nothing very much actually

I'm sure the Dubrovnik scenery shots speak for themselves. Dubrovnik was as picturesque as the photos showed. But there wasn't too much activity to do in the Old Town. We spent a nice afternoon strolling along the city walls....ok perhaps strolling sounds alot easier than it was. Its not a flat walk - some slow climbs, but its worth the effort. The city walls gave you the best views of the Old Town.

What i didn't appreciate about DuBrovnik was how tourist overrun it was. Cruise ships docked on both Saturday and Sunday and hoards of tourists would pour out into the Old Town (and it wasn't that big to cope with that kind of crowds). Everywhere you went, there would be a tour guide with a flag that said 77, or 78, or 79 from the cruise. It wasn't really the weekend I envisaged so I was happy to chill by the beach and read a book just a few hundred metres from the Old Town. I can't imagine how crowded it gets in summer!!

In the evenings and lunches, we focused on finding yummy seafood.

There is the option of island hopping but it was slightly rainy when we were there and I get seasick too easily so we decided not to.

I would definitely recommend taking a day tour to Montenegro or Mostar. We went to Montenegro with Atlas (the tour is called "Pearls of Montenegro" I think, and bus leaves at 7.25 a.m. from the bus stop 2 minutes outside the Hilton and arrives back in Dubrovnik at 6 p.m.) and boy, were we surprised at the beautiful and serene view. It was absolutely picturesque. I grew up with a stereo-typical image of Yugoslavia - war-torn and poverty being two key words. It was nothing like. It was just fairytale-beautiful. The day tour stopped us in a town for lunch and provided the typical mass "tour bus standard" lunch, i.e. poor. If you do take the same tour, skip the lunch, even if its free. Walk towards the beach and have fabulously huge and cheap fresh fish by the water. We had tea by the water but were drooling with envy at the table next to us.

Bit of trivia: From the former Yugoslavia , 7 countries were created, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

FOOD IN DUBROVNIK:

We recommend two restaurants of the few we tried:

LOKANDA PESKARIJA at Na ponti bb which is by the water/walls in the Old Town. It was good value for money and half the price of Proto. We had excellent seafood risotto, grilled prawns and fried squid.

PROTO at Siroka 1 which was also in the Old Town. We had black squid ink risotto this time, fried squid again (because I couldn't get enough) and fried fish. The fish was very fresh and i liked the squid, which was done slightly differently from Lokanda Peskarija. It had less gravy. But it was more than double the price and i'm not sure it was worth that. Still, if you like fish, that's a good bet.

WHERE TO STAY?

We stayed at the Hilton Imperial, just outside the Old Town. It was at a great location, nice indoor pool, spa, great rooms, and also had a decent breakfast to start the day. Some people opt to stay inside the Old Town but remember not to pack too much if you are because you're going to be carry your own luggage into the Old Town - no public transport is allowed inside. I'm glad we stayed outside the Old Town though (see comments above about hoards of cruise ship tourists). It was nice to just enjoy the hotel and chill.

HOW TO GET THERE?

We took a BA flight to Dubrovnik for less than 130 pounds a person. BA was having a sale - extremely good value flight!! You can also take the budget airlines such as easyjet.