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Published: October 8th 2010
Ratings explained: JAC- Just another church
1* - worth a look
2* - Good Times
3* - Unmissable
+ - emphasis on the rating
Having been on the go and constant sight seeing for 71 days we were feeling a bit worn out and jaded by the time we arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Thankfully we've cleverly planned all our Croatia trip to be nothing but relaxing, with very minimal sight-seeing, no alarm clocks, and time in the sun and on the beach.
We arrived in Dubrovnik by air and found the look of the Southern Dalmatian coast of Croatia remarkable to see with very steep, bare mountains rising all along the coast. The airport transfer bus gave some splendid views along the coast road and down onto the lovely Dubrovnik which looks fabulous with it's harbour, old walls, and terracotta roofs.
We wandered the streets of the walled town Dubrovnik and marvelled at how small the town is, you can walk around the entire wall circumference in around 2 hours and pretty much have crisscrossed the main roads of town and seen the main sights in 10 mins. It's a prosperous feeling place with no cars,
nice clean streets and decent shops, heaps of people without being TOO crowded and easy access to harbour area with some decent views of the sea and the many cruise ships that come to this area.
On our first full day in Dubrovnik we set out to find a beach, following a little map we found our first attempts brought us to Rocky shelfs with ladders into the water; not our cup of tea but different!
Eventually we made our way into a main beach town, a 20 minute bus ride away. After a lengthy rain delay and lunch, with the sun breaking through the clouds in the afternoon we got settled on the pebble beach and with some painful short steps over the large stones we got into the cold water for a swim. After a nice but cool swim we setup on the beach to soak up the last of the afternoon sun and read; for Croatia laying on the beach and reading is pretty much our plan.....
In Dubrovnik after dinner at our little apartment we found an outdoor jazz bar and got seats very close to the live band and ordered some cocktails. We enjoyed
our drinks and the lively music that was entertaining a moderate sized piazza of patrons.
Our next day we wandered town in fine sunshine and looked into boat hire around the waterfront. We were told under no circumstances could we have a powered boat without a driver, we gave up on hiring a boat and instead went for Kayaking. We found one operator who was willing to hire the Kayaks out all day with no strings attached and we duly hired a 2 seater packed everything into the waterproof bag they gave and set out.
Sea Kayaking is a frustrating experience we rarely do as Alicia has two huge vices that annoy Nick endlessly; first she doesn't balance the strength of her strokes so we constantly turn left since she's stronger on the right, and secondly she wants to keep a very high tempo of strokes, so high that I invariably quit in protest until she wears herself out.....
We kayaked around the Dubrovnik walls and harbour to take in the views and get photos then across to the closest island. Once we arrived we were sick of paddling and parked up and set ourselves down on
some rocks by the sea and sunbathed and ate some lunch.
After a couple of hours of rest and strolling around the island (pleasant but nothing memorable) we kayaked back to the coast near Dubrovnik. Alicia was dead tired and out of arm energy from her earlier foolish excesses.
We parked up on a little pebble beach that was densely populated and earned the wrath of a few little old ladies for parking our kayak at their feet. Eventually we stashed the kayak in a satisfactory spot and had a little swim off the beach and relax then kayaked home past the walls of the city. On the way past we saw some lads of age 12 leaping off the high rocks (about 5-6m) below the city walls into the sea. Nick fancied a go but Alicia the spoilsport refused to allow it so we finished up our day and returned the kayak. At the Kayak return the owner took the boat whilst his little son played with his grandmother on the wharf. The kid somehow lost his footing and fell into the sea fully clothed, his grandmother fished him out and he sobbed whilst his grandma comforted him with
soothing tones whilst winking at us and laughing behind her hands! Good times....
We went out for a drink and dinner in town and were lucky to find a stunning bar on the rocks above the sea just through the city wall and facing sort off toward the sunset. The tables were set on concrete ledges with sheer 3-4m drops below them on either side... one false move of the chair would send you plummeting with no rails to speak of. It was a little dangerous but gave fabulous unhindered views and freedom and it was a very atmospheric spot for a drink.
We then found a restaurant with a rooftop terrace that was quite pleasant and fairly empty and Nick enjoyed a decent steak whilst Alicia had delicious scampi.
Our next day we were due to move on to relax in a resort hotel but before we set off we climbed the streets into the hills of Dubrovnik outside of the walls to get views back over the town. We found some very fine views and enjoyed the beauty of Dubrovnik from above, the hotels up here (assuming you got one with a good balcony and view)
would be fabulous locations to stay.
On the bus to Orebic we had fine views on the main bridge out of Dubrovnik down a narrow mountain pass river valley. This part of the Croatian coast has impressive pretty steep mountains, and some nice stretches of coast leading down to islands and peninsulas.
We eventually settled into Orebic where we got lodged into our hotel and headed out for a stroll and a decent cocktail in a nice quayside bar in the small town. Along all the Croatian beaches we've been to they are skirted by pine trees which leaves a lovely fresh pine odour in the fresh sea air, a bit different from the seaweed smell we're used to at beaches, it's really nice and we love it.
We're on half board here at our resort hotel with buffet breakfasts and dinners; Alicia doesn't love buffets but for the most part survived and was happy. We spent a bit of our relaxing time in Orebic online doing accommodation booking and trip planning, and diary and blog catchup.
For our first buffet breakfast we found hard boiled eggs where the yoke was a sickly grey and reeked of
sulphur; we thought they were off but a quick check online revealed they were just overboiled; who knew you could overboil and spoil an egg! This hotel are experts at it anyway....
They had large fresh loaves so we took bread sliced off for our lunch and began our daily tradition of acquiring our lunches via dinner and breakfast ingredients.
We walked a long way to the nice sandy beach in Orebic and spent most of the day on the beach between either the shade from the pine trees and the burning hot sun. The sea water was clear and cool, we went for one swim and did some decent reading and relaxing in reasonable blue sky weather.
In town that night our Cocktail bar waiter said the boss has decided 'no more cocktails' as of today which we struggled to believe was true; but it was a sign of Croatian tourist businesses 'gearing down' for winter.
At our buffet dinner they were serving decent thin steaks and Nick had the ingenious idea of liberating extra steaks to our room fridge for steak sandwich lunches for the next days which worked out great.
Our next day in the sun
we went to a rocky strip of beach near our house and sat in deck chairs that were obviously for another hotels guests, no-one minded.
The beach is terribly uncomfortable to walk on due to the big pebbles. We spent another day reading and Nick was glad to finish the last of Kafka's novels and be done with it, Nick's now starting War & Peace which is a relief after Kafka! We enjoyed our delicious steak sandwiches for lunch and that night whilst wandering the pine clad paths of the coast we found a new cocktail bar hidden amongst the pine trees further along the peninsula, literally in the middle of nowhere. We had a lovely sunset cocktail by the sea and chatted briefly to the nice staff.
The next day was overcast and not beach or pool weather so we played a game of tennis together on a clay court. We were both terribly rusty and Nick found twinges in his shoulder, elbow and back, we both improved marginally throughout and had a few fun rallies.
After an afternoon of R&R we then headed down to the cocktail bar and had a couple of drinks, we asked
our local waiter to pull up a chair and talk to us. Dorian, an 18yr old local chatted to us for a good hour and a half. We enjoyed some of his youthful naivety such as 'that Croatian wine is excellent and world famous' and that the views from the Monastery above Orebic are the 'best in the world'. We also enjoyed hearing about local life where he reported everything in the Croatian coast shuts down from October to May and it's cold, windy, and unpleasant. He was keen to finish his studies and get out of there for a while, apparently that's what all the kids do.
We decided to take the walk recommended by our cocktail barman the next day and headed up the hill to the monastery. We walked along rocky paths in pine needle strewn grounds and decided to name the tall narrow pine type trees 'croatia trees' as there are plenty around prominently nosing their way up amongst other patches of forest.
We had fine views along the coast from the top path by the monastery, not 'the best in the world' but still very fine indeed with views up and down the pleasant
coast near Orebic and across the bay to the island of Korcula with a view of the whole old town. We walked further along the hill top under our steep mountain tops still shrouded in grey cloud and walked up past some little Croatian vineyards and farms that all had good rustic charm.
Our final destination in Croatia was the Island of Korcula and after a short ferry ride across the water we met the hostess letting us a little apartment for a few nights. Our room was set in a little block on a gentle hill with fine views of the town and bay from the balcony, not quite high enough to be spectacular but very, very good. The hostess then gave us some good info about town, provided us with beach towels and a beach bag, and helpfully did a huge load of washing for us we desperately needed. Our apartment also had a shared kitchen where the hostess provided guests with baskets of potatoes, garlic and onions which she had grown herself. This was phenomenal service!
We sat about on our balcony enjoying the views in the afternoon, including a spectacular rainbow over the bay, and
ended up chatting to our fellow tourists at great length, first to two mid 20s British lads and then Alicia found another English couple in their 60s in the room next door and we talked to them too. The British lads had a restaurant tip from a girlfriend who'd been in town recently so we went with them to the place in town which ended up serving fair local cuisine. We then bid farewell to the lads and went to a cocktail bar they'd recommended.
The bar was set in a little fort in the wall, you had to climb a steep staircase then a ladder (!) through the bottom of the forts stone top to get to the bar. After a harrowing climb we found a decent table by the battlements and ordered some cocktails Nick a 'Mojito' and Alicia 'Sex on the Beach', in fine social form we found a British couple next to us from Nottingham we got to chatting and had a nice talk with them too.
Our next day in Korcula we set out for Lumbarda beach, one of the few sandy beaches. Our arrival on the bus was tricky as we'd been told
Cocktail Bar in Korcula
This is the fort you have to climb the ladders to get up to the roof, cocktails on the roof was excellentto look out for a church and wide open fields, both of which we found but they didn't seem close enough to the coast.... we watched the other tourists on the bus who in turn watched us as no-one knew where to get off! We ultimately came to what appeared to be the end of the road and asked the driver who confirmed to walk up a road leading through the vineyards to the beach. We and the other tourists where a little dubious but 5 mins walk brought us there.
At the beach we were able to hire a big beach umbrella for under 3 euros which was a good investment and meant we could stay at the beach for most of the day. After all our pebble beaches we where pleased to find that the beach was all sand, although the sand was not as white as we are use to. The water level was very shallow and only gently got deeper over a long distance. We took a pleasant long walk out into the water and were eventually at chest height about 30m off the beach. We decided to swim out to buoy perimeter as the water
was beautifully clear with the sandy bottom. We got out to the buoys about 100m offshore and Nick dove down to find the sandy bottom was only about 2.5m down; such a shallow bay! We swam back in and noted a rocky section of beach further along populated by a few nudists.
After enjoying our beach we alternated between sitting in the sun and in the shade of the umbrella, read our books and Alicia even had a nap. Alicia declared it a very kid friendly beach, we saw a number of families with kids.
After a debacle getting home from the beach since buses were cancelled for 4 hours we finished our day with a shower and home made dinner then stopped in at a nice modern bar where they had some live music and drank a couple of cocktails whilst listening to a couple of chaps turning out a few well known tunes (e.g Sultans of Swing) on guitar. Feeling exhausted from the day in the sun we were home to sleep.
Our next day was a nice day in the sun on the same beach again, we had another good little swim and were amused to
Alicia climbs the ladder to cocktails
It is unwise to have too many cocktails up top as you have to climb down this bloody ladder afterward! see the same people there from the day before!
After our day in the sun we had an early sunset cocktail at our fort-top cocktail bar via the ladder and despite strong wind enjoyed a decent sunset and fine views. We then dined in the Marco Polo restaurant which had grilled lamb chops for Nick (done over the fireplace) and delicious Calamari for Alicia, served with a roast Capsicum puree which Alicia found delicious. Overall we were very happy.
Next day we were up at dawn to return to Dubrovnik .We both began to feel sick on the bus due to our early wake up, tiredness, and the incredibly windy road that lurched and dipped us around.
Despite our 10:30am arrival in Dubrovnik thankfully our incredibly cheap, central guest room checked us in immediately!
We grabbed our lunch and headed to the mostly sandy beach just out of the old town harbour and after avoiding a billion cigarette butts on the sand (Croatian beaches can be disgusting with cigarette butts prevalent) we went for an excellent swim in the cool but very clear water. We swam out to about 3m depth and saw a few moderate size
fish swimming below and wished we had a snorkel and mask. After a very nice long swim we returned to the beach for sun bathing, reading, and some chicken rolls for lunch. There were many people on the beach and it started to fill up with a few decent lookers, some topless; Alicia was not amused and we soon departed.
Our last afternoon in Dubrovnik we walked the walls. After circling the entire wall in around 2 hours and 100+ photos (the views are fabulous around town) we walked the last stretch overlooking the sea and looked down to fine views of people swimming in the water below the cliff edge bars at the base of the walls. It looked like a nice place to swim.
Before sunset we made our way to our favourite little bar set on the rocks outside the city wall above the sea. This was the amazing bar with perilous drops below quite a few tables and no railings. We had some nice drinks and watched a local with a sea fishing road haul in a couple of small fish which she fed to a cat that was waiting expectantly!
After enjoying our final
Croatian sunset we set off into town and found a decent terrace restaurant where Nick had a good mixed grill where the sausage in particular was very tasty, and Alicia had a squid dish she quite liked. The restaurant had a couple of little cats roaming about on the terrace begging for scraps, one poor little one was missing an eye which freaked Alicia out. We fed the one-eye one all our scraps at the end of the meal.
Our last day in Dubrovnik we were due to fly at 4pm so we pottered around town in the morning then headed out to the airport in the early afternoon only to find our flight delayed by around 7 hours and also realised we had left Nick's jacket somewhere in Dubrovnik. Unfortunately we where unable to go and retrieve it. Bad times!
We arrived in Barcelona very grumpy at 00:55, and by the time we collected our bags,took a bus which limped into town through a lot of traffic lights and back streets to main square and then a Taxi to hotel we where finally ready for sleep around 3AM... then Alicia discovered a bug in her bed which when
killed produced a stain of blood on the sheets. Further searching found another bug or two, Nick said he didn't care and we swapped beds so Nick had the bug bed and went to sleep with Alicia upset and ranting that all was bad.
We awoke around 4am with Alicia extremely itchy all over and hysterical, Nick too sleepy to care. Alicia went out to have a row with the front desk guy who amazingly demanded to see the bugs as he couldn't conceive that his hostel wasn't clean or that we hadn't let the bugs in through the window.
He came into investigate and under Nicks sheets found two bugs that looked like weevils, plus the squashed bug stain and finally relented and found us another room which he said we couldn't keep for more than one night. We grabbed armloads of gear haphazardly to transport them to our new room from the old in sheer exhaustion then Alicia had a shower to soothe her severe itching. THEN we couldn't find Alicia's gold earrings which presumably had been thrown in amongst everything else when we moved rooms. After 10 mins searching including going through the old room again with
the front desk guy we resigned ourselves to find the earrings in the morning and we went to sleep about 4:40am!
That ends our Croatia portion of the trip, the next entry covers our week in Barcelona.
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Mum&Dad G
non-member comment
Croatia
We really enjoyed your Croatia Blog You write so well Nick It sounds a great place to go we may fit it in next year I think Dad and I need two life timesl for all the travel we still want to do !!! Keep up the fantastic reporting.XX