3 Days In Dubrovnik
How Did We Get There?
My wife found a direct flight from Amsterdam to Dubrovnik, Croatia on an airline called Transavia… The word “save” is in the name, that is how you know I wasn’t the one who picked this flight. Needless to say I was concerned about whether our bags (and ourselves) would make it in one piece. Turns out that the Transavia flight was more comfortable than the KLM, Croatia Airlines, and Scandanavian Airlines flights we took on this trip. The flight cost us around 350 euro each.
For the hotel I chose Hotel Kompas. Typically I try to stay in major international chains in order to use or earn points. The Hilton Imperial was an option we considered as it would have earned us Hilton HHonors points and it would have been closer to the old town. However Hotel Kompas was good value for the price and was available via Chase points. The deciding factor was the location with stunning views of the sea. Three nights in Hotel Kompas were paid for with 55,210 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. That is easily attainable with a new account signup bonus from any of the Chase Ultimate Reward earning cards (Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, and Chase Ink).
| Transavia flight AMS-DBV one way | €250 |
| Hotel Kompass | 55,210 Chase Points |
The Walled City
The first thing you will want to do in Dubrovnik is check out the old city. Dubrovnik is an ancient city (founded over 1000 years ago) and its most impressive feature is its city walls. So the first thing we did when we arrived is buy a ticket and walked along the top of the walls!
HBO used the old city as a filming location for several scenes in the TV show Game of Thrones (most notably King’s Landing). I am a fan of Game of Thrones and I enjoy TV tourism so I tried to find as many of the sites from the show as I could. Red Keep, Cersei’s “walk of shame”, House of the Undying, Qarth. Maybe you will recognize some of them.
We bought a “Dubrovnik Pass” at our hotel which gave us admission to the city walls, the Franciscan Monastery, the Rector’s Palace and several other sites in the city. It was well worth the money for the 3 days we visited. The most picturesque place to visit would be the Franciscan Monastery. The monastery has some historical importance (400 year old library and a 700 year old pharmacy), we all know you are there for the instagram worthy pictures.
Getting Lost in the Old City
After walking atop the walls for a few hours we went down into the city streets for some food. Because the walled section of Dubrovnik is so old and preserved it is easy to forget that people still live within the walls. In fact you can stay at a hostel or Airbnb if you really wanted to immerse yourself in the old city!
While exploring the city we had heard rumors of a bar located in the wall that had great views of the sea. So we set off to find this place to have a drink and watch the sun set. Then we got hopelessly lost. When a city grows within stone walls you end up with cramped and winding streets that don’t follow any logical pattern. So needless to say we ended up lost in back alleys and missed the setting sun. Eventually we found our way to Buza Bar (which literally translates to “hole in the wall”). This bar is on the ledge of a cliff on the outside of the wall, which offers spectacular views of the Adriatic Sea
Kayaking in the Adriatic
The next day we headed back to the city to kayak underneath the city walls. There were several vendors offering kayak trips and it was easy to book via our hotel concierge. We set off with our kayak past the old city and down the coast a bit while our guide gave us history and information about the city and the islands in the distance. We rowed out kayaks into a little cove and had snacks on the “beach” (more on Croatian “beaches” later). We then got back into our kayaks hung out in the water for a bit to watch the sunset before heading back.
Croatian “Beaches”
So it feels like Croatia doesn’t have a speck of sand in the entire country. Every “beach” we went to was composed entirely of rocks. It was painful to walk on. The rocks aren’t jagged and your feet aren’t going to bleed but even smooth pebbles cause sore feet after walking on the for a few minutes. My recommendation is to get a good pair of water shoes. You can find some for as low as $20 on Amazon. I sprung for a more expensive pair (Vibram Five Fingers V-Aqua about $80 on Amazon) since I am often doing adventurous water activities and having a good pair that I can get good use out of is worth the expense.
We spent our last few hours with a bottle of Italian wine by the pool. Typically I am a proponent of sampling not just the local cuisine, but also the local beverages. With that in mind I convinced Gina to try local Croatian wine with me (also Plavac Mali was the only wine available by the glass for most places we went to). Needless to say we did not like Plavac Mali (it seemed unnecessarily harsh) so we just bought bottles of Italian wine that seemed plentiful. After wine we enjoyed wine by the pool it was time to bid farewell to Dubrovnik and head to our next destination: Split.
Croatia Trip Report
- Weekend in Amsterdam
- 3 Days in Dubrovnik
- Split and Hvar
- Nightclub Sushi in Sweden
