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Today in Dubrovnik

Spent yesterday and today in Dubrovnik. Beautiful city glad we came, but expensive and as jam packed with tourists as Prague.

Posted by
7448 posts

We enjoyed Dubrovnik as well, but afterwords saw many parallels with Venice...Expensive, few true inhabitants (in the Old town), and capable of being way over run by cruise ships.

I think if I were to return, I would focus on nearby towns and sights, maybe try to figure out the docking schedule for cruise ships, timing to avoid them.

Posted by
5687 posts

I recently visited Dubrovnik for the second time. The first time, a few years ago, I spent three nights. I was a bit put off by the tourists then, too, and almost didn't stop again on my recent trip back to Croatia. But I'm glad I did. I spent only a brief night the second time and arrived in the late afternoon after most of the cruise ship tourists had left, and it was wonderful. Magical, especially at night. I had a cheap hotel (about 30 Euros/night) in nearby Lapad (this was early May, not high season) and took the bus to the old town for a few hours, and I really didn't have a proper meal there, so I guess "expensive" never occurred to me. With the strong US dollar, everything seemed cheap to me in Europe in 2015.

My one regret about my recent return visit Dubrovnik was not getting a proper sunset into the ocean. I recently reviewed my 2009 Dubrovnik pictures, and there were some absolutely breathtaking sunsets into the Adriatic (early October). You can find high viewpoints to see the sun set over the old city below, and it's quite magical to see.

Posted by
2118 posts

There IS a way to figure out the docking schedule for cruise ships. I use this website whenever I'm planning a visit to a place where cruise ships can be a problem ... it worked great for Dubrovnik and Istanbul, and I'm going to use it to plan the timing of our visit to Santorini next spring.

In Dubrovnik, our strategy is to stay outside the city (in lovely peaceful Cavtat) and visit Dubrovnik on a day with no (or few) cruise ships in port.

Posted by
6732 posts

Yep, what Charlene said. I do my best to avoid anyplace that gets cruise ships, period. If it's someplace I really want to go, then I'll work hard at being there when the impact of the cruise ships is minimalized (early/late, and/or on days when they're not there at all or at worst few in number). It's not always easy, but it sure beats having to literally squeeze myself through dense crowds and feeling like I probably should have just stayed home.

Posted by
17627 posts

Beautiful city glad we came

Yep, what Charlene said. I do my best to avoid anyplace that gets
cruise ships, period.

I understand but i don't like absolutes. That would rule out Barcelona, Venice, Copenhagen, Kotor Bay, Riga, Oslo, Lisbon, Amsterdam, London to name a few. David, some of these you should really take the time to visit. Then do we consider river cruises? Those river boats average 200 passengers and i have seen as many as 6 of them parked in one central European city. 6 x 200 is about half the capacity of the average Cruise ship. So do we eliminate all the Danube cities?