Advice on Dubrovnik & Croatia

TabulaRasa

Hello All,

I have a buddy who is getting married in Dubrovnik in August, and I have decided to make a holiday of it and spend a couple of weeks touring Croatia while I am there. I need some advice though;

1. I have looked at hotels in around the city of Dubrovnik and they seem very €xpensive, are there other options close to the city and bit more reasonable price-wise? And does anyone have any recommendations? Should I book all the hotels for the entire 2 weeks in advance?

2. Getting around, how is the public transport? Would I need to hire a car or are trains and buses good enough to get around?

3. What are the "must sees"? Have any of you been there and what did you like/dislike?

Thanks for the help/advice

sam34

was in croatia three years ago. really loved it. we stayed in cavtat, a littlr village near dubrovnik. to get to dubrovnik we went by boat (quite cheap, cant remember exactly). the prob was the last boat back was early in the evening, so a taxi back was needed, cost about 30 quid. we didnt get round to figuring out the busus as we stayed put in cavtat mostly and you could walk everywhere there.

hotels can be dear, however, therre will be plenty locals at the bus.train stop offering you a room in their house. lots of tourists do this, stay with the locals, its the done thing over there.

must sees include a cruise around the islands- idyllic. also go on the walk on the old walls surrounding dubrovnik - u'll suffer in the heat but the views are gorgeous.

food is great if you like seafood. if not, be prepared to have a lot of steak and mixed grills!

the beaches there are unusual - theres literally no sand, just water and stones. oh, there are lots of sea urchins - the spiky yokes- on the sea bed, so you'll need these kind of jelly shoes for swimming in the sea if you dont want your feet pinched. you can buy those shoes out there for a few euro.

thats all i can think of. i really enjoyed my time there and would go back.

enjoy!

jdivision

I was there a few years ago and really enjoyed it but mates went last year and said it had gotten really expensive and a lot of people had become very unfriendly. If you eat and drink on the main square it's very expensive. Also beware that many of the cheaper dishes advertised are barely even starters so real cost is much higher. We got around Croatia by ferry and bus and it was fine. No real problems. We got our Dubrovnik accommodation off this site:
http://www.dubrovnik-area.com/Eng/default.asp

rok

We visited in Dubrovnik in June 2005, we loved it, really beautiful place, lovely narrow marble streets and tall buildings - definitely going back sometime.

We stayed in a hotel first outside the old town, http://www.hotel-lero.hr/ , it was grand + clean, did the job,
it was overlooking the sea and out on the Lapad Peninsula so it was about 10/15 mins walk to the old town - where you will prob go at night for food etc. We then moved to an apartment within the old town walls, if I went back again I would prefer to be within the city walls.
We booked from http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/english/private_accommodation.php - Good website for booking houses Appartments in Dubrovnik.
If you are minted you could stay at the Pucic palace, very pricey!
Could be hot in August so I would recommend a place with air-con.
Hotels were a bit pricy, but private accomodation is reasonable (nice appartment) same as B+Bs here.
so for a place to stay I would google for a good apartment within the old town walls.
www.dubrovnik-apartments.com/
www.dubrovnik-apartments.info/
www.apartments-dubrovnik.net/
www.apartments-dubrovnik.com/
www.dubrovnikapartment.com/
www.apartmentsdubrovnik.com/
www.accommodation-dubrovnik.com/

Dubrovnik old town (stari grad) is pedestrian-only, spotless clean marble slabs, very compact old town, no driving within the city walls I think. I would recommend a walk around the old town walls. We were a bit disappointed with nightlife, a bit too quiet.
Beaches on coast + on islands were rocky, but there are a few sandy/pebbly ones too and the water is really clean.

We flew into Dubrovnik from Dublin, visited islands, Hvar was best island.
If you are travelling around try to find the bus + ferry websites in advance to check the schedules
- a couple of the ferries we took were at the craic of dawn - they didn't really cater for the tourists!!
Reserve a seat number if you are taking a bus trip as they will pack as many in as possible + you could be standing for the duration of the trip!

Split is a bigger more industrial looking city, a nice city but Dubrovnik is waaay better - more touristy.
Thought the croat people were curt at first but then lovely when they warm up a bit. Thought food prices were ok in Dunrovnik. Food same everywhere, Italian influence, pastas, pizza, fish, menus were the same everywhere, if you like fish you'll be ok.
We didnt visit the Plitvice Lakes above Split but they are supposed to be fantastic.

some Croatia links-
http://www.hiddencroatia.com/ nice pics
http://www.adriatica.net/vodic/main_en.htm hotels + Private accomodation
http://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/
http://www.marcopolo.hr/grad.asp?id=9 MarcoPolo+Atlas travel agencies/tour operators are everywhere offering day trips etc, bit of a rip off.
http://www.croatia-info.net/croatia-property/karta.aspx good map
http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/english/private_accommodation.php - Good website for booking houses Appartments in Croatia
http://www.dubrovnik-area.com/Eng/apartment.asp more appartments
http://www.balkanholidays.co.uk/countries/cntr_croatia.htm some basic Info
http://www.croatiabus.hr/english/index.php
http://www.croatia-beaches.com check out Beaches by region for Dubrovnik , http://www.croatia-beaches.com/bestbyregion_dalmatia_s.html
http://www.croatiainfo.net/e_Spiagge.html photos and description of beaches along the Adriatic Coast, watch out for the special beaches for nudists (with FKK sign)

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whatever u are into yourself!!!

TabulaRasa

Thanks everyone for the replies...I'll look at all those sites.