In my notes (assembled a month ago) I have noted that we catch (local?) bus 8 at the airport to be dropped off at "the Bikers' Cafe." However I cannot now find an online reference that confirms this.
Does that sound right? (Bus 8 at DBV) If not what is the right bus number?
If we have to take the airport bus will the driver be willing to drop us at the Bikers' Cafe rather than the Old Town gate?
This site says buses 5 or 8: http://timeoutcroatia.com/dubrovnik-and-islands/dubrovnik/bars/bikers-caffe/.
Thanks, Laura. We made it, with some fortunate karma from a red-headed traveler who heard me asking about the Nbr. 8 bus at the airport! I'll post the answer, for anyone else taking this route.
The only bus (that we spotted) from DBV is the airport connection bus. It costs 40kn (or 6 euro) pp, cash only. The first stop is the Pile Gate, which you do NOT want if connecting to the city bus. Continue on to the 2nd stop, which is Dubrovnik's central bus station. From there we were able to catch the Nbr. 8 local bus (or any of many others). It runs about every 10 minutes, from bus-bay #1.
Oddly, the lady at the ticket window would not sell us tickets (which, apparently, would have been 12kn purchased from her). She said to buy the tickets on the bus from the driver, and she also said the driver would give change (which was not the case). The bus tickets, from the driver, were 15kn pp. We showed the driver our printed Google map (route to our apt.) and he nicely announced the stop at the "Bikers' Cafe."
No, we aren't 'bikers'!! Yes, there actually were some serious looking bikers present (one had a jacket reading "Hell's Angels Australia" - quite the ride!). According to our host, many of the tour operators use the Bikers' Cafe as the pickup point, so it is fairly well known locally.
With a bit more experience with the bus system we now know that the number 8 bus makes a loop. And it does stop at the Pile Gate, so had we known what to look for we could have boarded it there. From Pile the bus heads West (toward the Gruz port and, unnervingly, away from where we're staying) and then loops back along the higher road, with the Bikers' Cafe one of its stops.
The one caution on this as a tactic is that getting onto any city bus at the Pile Gate stop with any amount of luggage (even small rolling bags) could be a challenge in peak periods. We were lucky that the Gruz station, where we loaded, was one end of the line and boarding wasn't too bad (tho' even then the bus was not empty).
A lot of people offload at the Pile stop and, for the past several days (on our walkabouts), we've seen them roll their small & large suitcases through the Old Town to get to the Ploce Gate, and beyond.
