10 Days in the Balkans: Dubrovnik, Mostar and Montenegro

Getting there

We flew to Dubrovnik from Luton Airport on ThomsonFly. It cost £190 or so for both of us return, although we did book six months before. ThomsonFly only fly to Dubrovnik over the summer, although easyJet and Ryanair both fly to other Croatian cities, such as Split, Rijeka and Zadar year-round.

Cilipi Airport is about half-way between Dubrovnik city and the Montenegro border, so is handy for both (Montenegro doesn't have an international airport to speak of). We then hired a car from Avis at the airport for £45 a day, which includes insurance for Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Hotel

We found a perfect place to stay for our 10-day visit to Dubrovnik. Croatia is full of business-class hotels (with price tags to match) which are well out of most tourists' leagues. The good people of Dubrovnik and other coastal cities have realised this, and have opened up plenty of apartments in their own properties. These vary in the number of guest rooms, but the one we stayed in, Apartments Nadramija on Put od Bosanke, has seven apartments of various sizes for guests to stay in. Our double-room apartment (A1) had a perfect view (large photo above right) overlooking Dubrovnik's Old Town and harbour, Lokrum island and the cruise liners which pull in and out, and all for only €70 self-catering (£55/$100) a night in high-season. As I said in my TripAdvisor review (the first one written for these apartments), the only thing you have to worry about is the amount of steps up to the apartments - 192 to the city centre, or 269 (smaller steps) down to the beach. Going down isn't a problem; coming back up is - although the view from the balcony certainly makes up for the climb!

Orientation

Dubrovnik is a relatively easy city to get around, and can be split up easily into into three parts: the Old Town, the area west of the Old Town, and the area to the east of it. The Old Town contains the majority of the shops, restaurants, cafes and museums, and is surrounded by the famous city walls. West of the walls contains a large residential area and the port of Gruz, where the large cruise liners and ships dock, and from where you can pick-up ferries to the islands along the Croatian coast. The area to the east of the city - Plocé - contains the harbour, with taxi-boats to Lokrum island, Banje Beach and the bay round to the bombed-out Hotel Belvedere.

Old Town

The best way to see the Old Town itself is by taking a walk on the city walls (right), for 40Kn (£5/$10) each. It's an amazing way to see the city contained within, the sea and the fortified gates at both ends - expect to spend at least half a day wandering the walls.

We didn't go into any museums in the Old Town, but there are plenty to keep you amused should the weather be poor or you're a culture-vulture.

In the evening, make sure you head to one of the Buza bars for the perfect sunset view, looking towards Italy. What makes it so special is the fact they're outside the city walls. They were built during the war, when planning permission was the last of the authority's worries, and have remained since, despite local objection. There are two Buzas - Imaginitvely called Buza 1 and, err, Buza 2. To find them, walk up the steps from the old town towards the nearest city wall to Italy, and then look for the door-shaped 'holes in the wall'. Buza 2 also has a 'cold drinks' sign outside the 'door'. Buza 2 - nearest to the Pile gate in the west of the city - plays smoochy music and serves drinks in small plastic cups (complete with glass bottles, explain that?!). Buza 1 plays more modern music, but didn't seem to have any Croatian beer every time we were there. It also has strip lighting built into the rocks. At both Buzas, the brave dive from the rocks into the sea, and the others watch in amazement. Don't stay here all night though; drink prices were the most expensive we found in the town, at around 35Kn (£3.50/$7) per beer or alcopop, compared to an average of about 20Kn for a beer (£2/$4)

Summer Festival

While we were in Dubrovnik in July 2008, the city was gearing up for the annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival. It started a few days into our trip, with a beautiful fireworks display (left) to mark the start of the 45-day extravaganza. Festival events include open-air opera, choir-singing, acting and plenty of street-art, which I got roped into one evening (don't ask, but photos are - unfortunately - available...).

East of the Old Town

The attractions outside the city are as numerous as the ones inside.

Banje Beach - the city's main beach - is a rocky beach just outside the Plocé gate, and was always packed when we were there. Half of it is owned by a beachside bar - although you don't have to buy anything from there to use it. They've filled it choc-full with beach furniture and parasols, and six four-poster beds, which were quite cool but too expensive unless you're there for the whole day. The rest of the beach, plus a long, thin area leading almost up to the city walls, has plenty of opportunities for sun-bathing and swimming, aided by steel steps moulded into the rock.

Lokrum Island is a large island about four times the size of the Old Town, and home to lots of peacocks. Taxi-boats shuttle between the island for 40Kn (£5/$10) each until 8pm (Apparently no local will stay on the island after 8pm due to some ridiculous Old Goose tale). It has an abandoned monastery, currently under some reconstruction, a 'dead lake' which is perfect for swimming in, rocky beaches (and a naturist beach), plus - if you're really fit - a lookout tower at the top of a very steep hill with a beautiful view back to Dubrovnik Old Town and down the coast to Montenegro. After the climb, treat yourself to a Coke Float (Coca-Cola and Icecream) at the cafe near the harbour.

Bete's Cave - A small cave about half-way between the city and Hotel Belvedere (see below). The legend goes that Marin Getaldic, a mathemetician and physicist, spent his time here working on hypotheses and theories, making the locals very suspicious of him.

Hotel Belvedere - Walk around the coast, away from the Old Town, down quiet lanes surrounded by fig and cypress trees, and stumble across tiny, private beaches where the only thing you'll share it with are the rocks and the occasional boat horn. Continue walking, and you'll come to a rusty gate with the words 'Hotel Belvedere' above them. This once-mighty hotel was completely destroyed during the seige of Dubrovnik, because the tanks firing shells towards the Old Town were based in the scrublands just past the hotel grounds. It simply didn't stand a chance. However, the gates remain wide open today, and visitors can wander round the 1950s faded glory of this huge hotel complex. See the two now-graffittid swimming pools (right), outdoor entertainment arena with a backdrop of the Mediterranean sea, Lokrum island and Dubrovnik Old Town, lift shaft with the lift cabin somehow staying up on the top floor of the shaft, kitchens with blackened extractor pipes and utensils still visible, and, looking up although inaccessible, the hotel tower itself, with broken windows, pockmark shell holes, a stuck-in-time exterior clock, and the feeling it's all going to come crashing down around you. Just below the complex (take the old lift to 'beach' level if you dare) is a fairly quiet rocky beach with a bamboo shack cafe and watersports. I've since found out that occasional gigs, parties and concerts are held at the hotel site; I'd love to be there as the atmosphere is amazing even without the added magic of live music. (Update January 2013: The official Croatia tourist board website report that the Belvedere is under reconstruction as of February 2012 - although no further detail is given).

Excursions

There are plenty of excursions to go on from Dubrovnik. We had a hire-car throughout, but you can get to Mostar and Montenegro through organised coach excursions (visit the tourist offices in the Old Town), and your trip to Mljet starts at the port of Gruz, which you can reach by bus from the Pile gate in the north-west of the city gates.

Mostar - Think Mostar, think the Old Bridge bombed by the Croats in 1995. Well, now it's been rebuilt - the 'new Old Bridge' - and stands proudly among the churches, mosques and still-bombed-out buildings on both sides of the emerald-green Neretva River (left). Watch young divers from the Mostar Diving Club jump off the bridge (after raising enough money to do so, of course), explore the Turkish-style gift shops and climb Mosque minarets for the picture-perfect view of the Old Bridge on the Muslim east side of the river, and walk down the former front line with unrepaired buildings bombed out during the Homeland War of the early '90s on the west side.

Montenegro - We stayed for one night in Kotor in Montenegro. This tiny, mountainous country has a long coastline, the largest fjord in Europe (Bay of Kotor), and lots of national parks to explore. We started by making our way up Lovcen Mountain - a very hair-raising drive - and stopping at the top for a well-deserved drink and magnificent view over the fjord. At the other side, Cetinje - the old capital - sits looking very regal, with old embassies now various specialist schools for the arts and sciences. Kotor itself is like a mini-Dubrovnik; a walled city with a harbour (no cruise ships, though!) and more fish restaurants than you can tease a shark with.

Mljet Island - A popular Adriatic island, a 2-hour boat journey north of Dubrovnik, which contains the tiny St. Mary's Island, which contains the abandoned St. Mary's Monastery, a delicious sea-food restaurant and excellent opportunities for swimming. It'll take you just 15 minutes or so to walk around the entire island, but make sure you stop off and go for a swim on the east side, where you'll be surrounded on three sides by forest on the opposite shore, and the other side the island itself. Also on Mljet is the National Park, where you can swim in a dead lake at 'Mali Most' (Little Bridge), see traditional Croatian island villages and listen to the sound of cicadas all around you.

Photo Gallery

See more photos in the photo gallery '10 days in the Balkans'