Dubrovnik.org

Source: The Independent

Restored to its former glory, this historic Croatian city and seaport is at its best when bathed in sunlight, says Claire Wrathall

Why Go Now?

Dubrovnik’s white stone architecture and honey-coloured ramparts are at their most magical bathed in the summer sun. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival (10 July to 25 August; 00 385 20 321 509, www.dubrovnik-festival.hr), featuring world-class drama, dance and music staged in Dubrovnik’s palaces and churches, is also currently in full swing.

Beam Down

Only Croatia Airlines (www.croatiaairlines.hr; 020-8563 0022) flies direct to Dubrovnik, from London Gatwick (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays), and Manchester (Tuesdays and Fridays), from around £253. For tailor-made trips, contact Europa Skylines (020-7226 4460). The airport is 22km from the city but Croatia Airlines puts on buses to meet the flights and drops passengers at the bus station (outside the city walls).

Get Your Bearings

Girded by 2km of fortified walls, and surrounded on three sides by sea, the old city of Dubrovnik is one of the most perfectly preserved Renaissance citadels in Europe. It’s also very compact and easy to find your way round. Its main street, the Stradun (also known as the Placa), runs west-east from the drawbridge of the Pile Gate (1) to the Orlando Column (2) and 15th-century clock tower. You’ll find the Tourist Information (3) (00 385 20 426 354) opposite the Franciscan Monastery at the west end of the Stradun.

Check In

There are no hotels in the Old City itself. Dubrovnik’s best are situated in Ploce, beyond the eastern gate and a short coastal walk into town. My favourite is the Villa Dubrovnik, Vlaha Bukovca 6 (00 385 20 422 933), a modernist construction built in the 1950s as a rest home for officials in Tito’s government, cantilevered out of the cliff face. Doubles, all with sea-facing balconies, cost £113 during July, August and September. The much larger Hotel Argentina, Frana Supila 14 (www.hoteli-argentina.hr; 00 385 20 440 555), once the city’s most fashionable hotel, has Seventies decor extreme enough to have featured in Wallpaper*. Doubles from £104. The budget option is to rent rooms (sobe) in private houses for as little as £10. Find one via the state tourist agency, Atlas (00 385 20 442 222; www.atlas-croatia.com).

Take A Hike

A walk around the fortified walls, built between the 13th and 16th centuries, and up to 6m thick and 25m high, will give you a sense of the layout of the town. From the top of the walls you’ll see the old town’s grid system, four big monasteries (one now a college, one a restaurant), fountains, as well as views out to sea. The number of new roof tiles also gives you an idea of how much rebuilding there’s been since the siege of 1991-92. The main entrance is by the Pile Gate (1), at the end of the Stradun.

Lunch On The Run

Croatian cooking isn’t sophisticated, but the seafood is excellent. Kamenice (4) (which means oysters) is a modest, inexpensive café on Gunduliceva Poljana (00 385 20 421 499), specialising in oysters and mussels from the beds at nearby Mali Ston. For authentic Italian bruschetta, make for the Café Festival, halfway down the Stradun (00 385 20 321 148).

Cultural Afternoon

The best of Dubrovnik’s museums are the Rector’s Palace(5) (daily 9am-6pm, adults 10 kunas (£1), children Kn5; Pred Dvorom 3, 00 385 20 321 422) for its palatial 15th-century Venetian architecture as much as its eccentric collection of coins, chipped porcelain and sedan chairs; and the Maritime Museum (6) (daily 9am-6pm, Kn10, St John Fort, 00 385 20 426 465). The latter celebrates the city’s heritage as a seafaring power and the history of shipping.

Window Shopping

Dubrovnik isn’t much of a shopping centre, but there’s a bustling morning market in Gunduliceva Poljana (7), where you can buy local produce: necklaces of dried figs with bay leaves, lavender, olive oil, wine and various herb-infused firewaters, often home-made. You’ll also see lacemakers and embroiderers selling their work. Also worth looking out for is Croatian men’s formal wear, much more stylish than conventional dinner jackets: there’s a specialist shop on Od Puca (8).

Aperitif

Café culture is an important element of life here, especially in the evening when the town turns out for the corzo, the Croatianpasseggiata. Watch the promenaders from one of the many crowded cafés that line the Stradun. There’s nothing to choose between them; it all depends on where you manage to find a table. Otherwise, make for the Gradska Kavana (literally Town Café) (9), (Pred Dvorem 2, 00 385 20 321 414), which has two elegant terraces, one overlooking the Baroque church of St Blaise (the city’s patron saint), the other looking out on the Old Harbour. Order a vermut (lemony vermouth) or a Karlovacko – the beer of choice. And remember that zivjeli! means cheers!

Dinner With The Locals

You won’t find a better shellfish risotto than the one served at Rozarij (10), 4 Zlatarska (00 385 20 321 257), tucked away in a backstreet near the Dominican Monastery. Ekvinocije (11), Illije Sarake 10, (00 385 20 420 626), beside the city walls, has the best range of vegetable dishes in town. Otherwise, make for the street known as Prijeko which is lined with restaurants, my favourite of which is Antunini (12), Prijeko 30 (00 385 20 321 199). Start with a salad of lobster and rocket, followed by a Dubrovnik fish stew. The most expensive restaurant in town is Atlas Club Nautika (13), Brsalije 3 (00 385 20 442 526).

Sunday Morning: Go To Church

Near the Ploce Gate, the Dominican Monastery (14) is still home to an order of monks, and contains an intriguing museum beyond its cloister. Hung among the reliquaries and monstrances is a fine collection of religious paintings, including one of Mary Magdalen by Titian. The Franciscan Monastery (15), at Stradun 2, contains the oldest working pharmacy in the world. And attached to the newly refurbished Serbian Orthodox Church (16) on Od Puca is a museum of icons. There are four other churches and a synagogue (17) within the city walls for those in need of further spiritual sustenance.

Bracing Brunch

Brunch doesn’t really exists in Croatia, though most hotels offer elaborate breakfast buffets until about 11am, with local cheeses, such as the salty, aromatic sheep’s-milk cheese, paski sir; meats such as the local air-cured ham, prsut, and breads. The most lavish breakfast is to be found at the Hotel Excelsior, 12 Frana Supila (00 385 20 353 353). But most Croatians make do with coffee and perhaps a pastry, and hang on till lunch.

A Walk In The Park

Take a 10-minute boat ride to the island of Lokrum. Boats leave half-hourly from the old harbour (18) for about £1.70 return. It’s a national park, thick with pines, cypresses and oleander. There’s also a ruined Benedictine monastery; the remains of a Habsburg summer retreat (Rudolf, who died at Mayerling, spent his honeymoon here); a botanical garden full of cacti, succulents and the largest collection of eucalypti outside Australia; a Napoleonic fort; and the world’s smallest officially classified sea – the Mrtvo More (Dead Sea), a limpid, intensely salty tidal pool that’s an idyllic place to swim.

Take A Ride

Twenty kilometres south of the city is the pretty seaside town of Cavtat, originally the Greek settlement Epidauros. Take bus 10 from the bus station (19), or a boat from the Old Harbour (18). The boat is more pleasant, but at less than £2 the bus is about half the price, and the coastal views from the Corniche are splendid. Among its odder claims to fame is that its team is current European Majorette and Baton-Twirling champion (the trophies are on show at the Café Figurin). There’s also a monastery and an impressive mausoleum. If you want to venture further afield into the former Yugoslavia, the Atlas Travel Agency (20), Cira Carica 3 (00 385 20 442 222; www.atlas-croatia.com), arranges day trips to Mostar and Montenegro.