Croatia comforts

Dalmatian beauty Dubrovnik is ideal for a quick getaway

The medieval warren of tiny cobbled streets radiating out from the central Stradun that bisects the walled city from the Pile gate to the Ploce gate is certainly reminiscent of Venetian architecture and planning. But the place is also unlike anywhere else in Europe, its mix of Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque architecture giving it a breathtaking beauty. In summer it’s packed with tour groups, but the autumn and winter months are the perfect time for independent travellers to enjoy one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval cities.

What to do

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Whether you approach Croatia’s southernmost city by air, land or sea, its most striking landmark is its 25 metre-high city wall, a two-kilometre, tower-studded structure that encircles the old town and offers fantastic views over the terracotta roofs of the city and out along the Dalmatian coast and islands. Allow a couple of hours to do it properly, and whether you start at the Pile gate or Ploce gate, it’s best done anticlockwise. Once down from the walls, head for the fifteenth-century Rector’s Palace, a beautiful building that was once the seat of local government and is now home to the City Museum, a three-floor collection that gives a good sense of Dubrovnik’s past in a refreshingly low-tech, traditional way. For a more contemporary view of the city’s trials, take a look round War Photo Limited, a purpose-built permanent exhibition space dedicated to showing the war work of some of the world’s most noted photojournalists (including images from Croatia’s own conflict). The city’s Museum of Modern Art is a good spot to catch some contemporary culture, featuring retrospectives, on the ground floor, and a small collection of local painters’ work on the upper floors. And should you find the walls closing in on you, grab a picnic lunch and set sail for Lokrum, the wooded island opposite the old port that’s home to a botanical garden replete with olive groves and cacti.
City Walls Walk, Plocce Gate or Pile Gate.
Open daily (winter) 10am-3pm. Adm 30kn (£3).
Rector’s Palace and City Museum, Pred Dvorom 1 (020 321437).
Open daily 9am-6pm. Adm15kn (£1.50).
War Photo Limited, Antuninska 6 (020 322166).
Open daily 9am-9pm. Adm 20kn (£2).
Museum of Modern Art, Frana Supila 23 (020 426590).
Open Tue-Sun 10am-7pm. Adm 15kn (£1.50).
Boats to Lokrum leave hourly from the old port (9am-6pm) and cost 35kn (£3.50) for a return trip.

Where to stay
There are only two hotels within the city walls, and only one that’s sensibly priced – the three-star Stari Grad. With just eight rooms, it’s advisable to book well in advance. But if it’s full, there are plenty of options outside the city walls – and good reasons for choosing to stay there. Many have access to private and public beaches and fantastic views over the old town and/or sea. Good upmarket choices include the newly opened Dubrovnik Palace on the Lapad Peninsula, a hip five-star monolithic construction that may well be spoiled by tour operators next year, but for now offers seclusion and fantastic facilities (and a regular bus service to the old town). But there are plenty of cheaper and well-located options nearer the city wall, including the Bellevue and the Lero. And don’t discount private accommodation: with the tourist office’s help, or via the web, you can get an apartment in the old town for as little as £30 a night.
Stari Grad, Od Sigurate br 4 (00 385 20 321373/www.hotelstarigrad.com).
Doubles 900kn (approx £85) per room per night.
Dubrovnik Palace, Masarykov put 20 (00 385 20 430001/www.dubrovnikpalace.hr). Doubles from 1,048kn (£100) per room per night.
Bellevue, Pera C*ingrije 7 (00 385 20 413095/www.hotel-bellevue.hr).
Doubles from 423kn (approx £40) per room per night.
Lero, Put Iva Vojnovic´a 14 (00 385 20 341333/www.hotel-lero.hr).
Doubles from 392kn (approx £35) per room per night.
For private accommodation, try: www.dubrovnikportal.com or www.dubrovnik-online.com/english/private_accommodation.php

Eating, drinking and nightlife
Seafood is unsurprisingly the staple diet of the Dalmatian coast, and Dubrovnik is no exception. But avoid the stack ’em and rack ’em restaurants on Prijeko (the road running parallel with Stradun) in favour of cheap and cheerful favourites Lokanda Peskarija and Poklisar. Both occupy great harbourside positions that work best at lunchtime, when you can watch the hustle and bustle while tucking into a large pan of mussels buzzara or a huge plate of fried whitebait washed down with a cold Oz*ujsko beer. The slightly more upmarket Proto, with an upstairs covered terrace or more formal indoor dining room, is equally good, and does an excellent scampi Dalmatian-style (succulent king prawns served in a light wine and tomato sauce) along with the best range of meat dishes in the city. And for real pomp with a dash of pompous, locals agree on the Atlas Club Nautika, recently voted the country’s fourth-best restaurant. An above-average price list can be offputting, but it comes into its own with a much more affordable light lunch menu. And its location just outside the Pile gate overlooking the sea is undoubtedly one of the best in the city. Which is also true of the Buza – a bar clinging precariously to the cliffs, it’s reached via a hole in the city wall which has a sign simply proclaiming ‘cold drinks’. It’s the bar for sunset-watching in the same way that the Gradska Kavarna, with its two terraces over the harbour and Luza Square, is the bar for people-watching. Neither should be missed, but if sunsets and people aren’t amusement enough, then the Lazareti offers live music and club nights with a laidback, genial ambience, and the Troubadour Jazz Café (owned by 1968 Eurovision star Marco) is a fun late-night bar that also often has live music.
Lokanda Peskarija, Na Ponti (020 324750).
Poklisar, Ribarnica 1 (020 322177).
Proto, *Siroka ulica 1 (020 323234).
Atlas Club Nautika, Brsalje 3 (020 442526).
Buza, Ispod Mira.
Gradska Kavarna, Pred Dvorom.
Lazareti, Frana Supila.
Troubadour Jazz Café, Buni´ceva polijana.

Shopping
A small gift market on the old port, a fruit and veg market behind the cathedral and a shop adjacent to the Ploce gate city wall entrance offer pretty much all there is to buy in Dubrovnik, namely finely handworked lace, pretty strings of succulent dried figs, delicate bags of handmade sweets and colourful local slippers. It’s definitely not – thankfully – a major shopping city (a Diesel, Benetton and Esprit are the sole representatives of the big brands), but there’s lots of fun to be had in trawling the local Konzum supermarket for beautifully packaged chocolate, delightful little bottles of Croatian rum and plastic-coated votive candles, and filling your luggage with a range of idiosyncratic gifts.
Daily gift market, old port. Open daily 8am-8pm.
Fruit and veg market, Gunduli*ceva Poljana. Open Mon-Sat 8am-1pm.
Konzum supermarket, Gunduli´ceva Poljana. Open Mon-Sat 8am-8pm.

For more information visit the Croatia National Tourist Board site at http://gb.croatia.hr or contact the Dubrovnik Tourist Board (00 385 20 323 887/ http://web.tzdubrovnik.hr).

Getting There
British Airways (www.ba.com) flies from Gatwick to Dubrovnik three times a week. Flights from £99. Holiday Options (0870 0130 450/www.holidayoptions.co.uk) and Hidden Croatia (020 7736 6066/www.hiddencroatia.com / www.airadriatic.com) both offer charter flights from Gatwick to Dubrovnik.