View from the city walls Pictures Colour Library

Prev

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Next

View gallery

Where are most people plotting their trips for this summer? Paris? New York? Barcelona? Think again. In April, according to Expedia, the top worldwide destination for British holidaymakers was none of the usual suspects – but Dubrovnik.

What does Croatia’s David have up its sleeve to trump the big-hitting Goliaths? A perfectly maintained medieval centre, lashings of beach and Med heat, for a start.

The ads at the airport call Dubrovnik “the way the Med used to be”. They’re right – provided you get up early enough. Before 9am, the limestone-paved main street, Stradun, lies empty. The buildings – all buttery stone, terracotta roofs and neat green shutters – stand unmarauded, except for a quick hose-down by the cleaners.

At this time, you’ll have the sights to yourself. Onofrio’s fountain – a washing station big enough to fit 50 around it, built in 1444 by the hygiene-savvy citizens in an attempt to ward off the plague – is free of its usual infestation of tourists, zither players and fake medieval jesters hawking keyrings. The 13th-century statue of medieval knight Orlando stands unmolested amid the gothic-baroque mix that is the pretty Luza Square.

And the vast city walls, which at 25m high and 6m thick have staved off marauders since the 12th century (until now, when they’ve been commandeered by tourists tramping the circuit), are empty.

The spell’s broken once the clock (a 15th-century one, no less) strikes 9am. First the cruise passengers are unleashed (they’re the ones sporting the all-inclusive wristbands). Then the coach trippers. Then the people staying in the resorts around town. Crowded doesn’t begin to describe it. But it’s still possible to keep it quiet once the masses have descended. Just head off the main drag and up the steeply raked side streets and you’ll get winding lanes and alleyways to yourself.

And even though the daily market is steadily turning towards the holiday crowd, it’s mostly still full of wizened old ladies shifting broad beans from their veg patch or wild cherries from the orchard.

The Balkans conflict hit Dubrovnik hard. More than 200 people died during its seven-month siege in1991-2, and the Sponza Palace in Luza Square has a room devoted to them, with photos of the dead and a slideshow of pictures from the siege.

But thanks to a mammoth restoration effort, the scars are barely noticeable. In fact, everything’s so shiny, it’s like some kind of historical Disneyland.

What’s left are shrapnel dents on the façade of the St Saviour’s Church by Onofrio’s fountain, weals on Stradun buffed to a gleam by the tramp of feet, and the patchwork of terracotta, knitting the old and new rooftops together. Go to the Rupe agricultural museum perched high on the cliff for the best view.

Its exhibitions on country life are eminently skippable, but the building itself – an old storage barn for wheat, which was kept in 30ft deep caverns dug out from the cliff beneath it – is worth a look.

Dubrovnik’s florid architecture – a mish-mash of spiky gothic and sweeping baroque arches – and the lack of cars give off the feel of a less doleful Venice (in fact, it was under Venetian rule in the Middle Ages).

Unlike Venice, though, the joy of Dubrovnik is its manageability. After you’ve done a round of the walls – evening with sunset closing in is the best time – taken in the view from the Rupe museum and walked round the frilly Franciscan and Dominican monasteries, there’s not a massive amount of museumy sights to see (although the Orthodox Church Museum – about 70 icons displayed in someone’s front room – is astonishing).

Instead, you’re better off spending your time floating round the cobbles from cafe to bar, then on to the water for a trip out – whether it’s a full day trip to the Elaphite Islands, an afternoon in Cavtat, or a quick hop to an olive grove on the island of Lokrum (see below).

The really lazy, though, can just look at Lokrum from the Buza bar perched right on the cliff edge outside the city walls (to get there, follow the signs for “cold drinks” from the Jesuit church above the marketplace, and you’ll find it through a crack in the south side of the walls).

Have a beer, watch for dolphins in the water below as the sun sets, and thank those Expedia users for hitting up Dubrovnik – they definitely knew what they were doing.

Taking the day off: Make like the locals and have a trip out on the water

"It was badly damaged in the Balkan conflict, but thanks to a mammoth restoration effort, everything’s so shiny, it’s like some kind of historical Disneyland"

QUICK SUNFEST: LOKRUM

Plonked in the bay opposite Dubrovnik, 15 minutes away by a shuttle ferry, the uninhabited – apart from a caretaker and a brood of peacocks – island is rumoured to be where Richard the Lionheart was shipwrecked on his way home from the Crusades in 1192. Since then, it’s housed a monastery (15th century), quarantine area (17th century), country retreat for Maximilian of Habsburg, brother to the Austrian Emperor (19th century) and a botanical garden started by Maximilian, nearly destroyed in the Balkans, and revived after the war. Now, the crumbling monastery serves as a bar in which bikinis and cloisters make for an interesting combo. The rest is a sprawlers’ paradise – whether it’s in one of the inlets round the island, on the benches in the botanical gardens, or in the middle of a grove of

300-year-old olive trees, where the only thing disturbing you is the squawk of the peacocks strutting around.

AFTERNOON BATHE: CAVTAT

Shuttle boats leave Dubrovnik every half-hour or so for Cavtat, a cutesy fishing village about an hour’s south, that’s home to an idyllic harbour, lots of swimming opportunities – like the water volleyball court brushing shoulders with the boats – and a first-class restaurant, the Taverna Galija. It’s perfect for swimming – even in the harbour here, the water is so ultra-clear, it looks like the fishing boats are floating in mid-air.

DAY TRIP: ELAPHITE ISLANDS

Dubbed “the Croatian Adriatic at its unspoiled best” by Rough Guide, you’ll need a whole day to discover the Elaphites (literally the “deer islands”, as named by Pliny the Elder). Just three of the islands are inhabited – Kolocep, Lopud and Sipan – and on a trip from Dubrovnik harbour you’ll stop at all three (staying longest on Lopud) and clock up some beach time as well.

SORT IT

Get there

Croatia Airlines flies from £153, www.croatiaairlines.com

Where to stay

Minted: Hotel Bellevue

Stunning modern hotel a 15 minute walk from the Old Town, but the private beach and sea-view-only rooms more than make up for it. Doubles from £191, www.hotel-bellevue.hr.

Skinted:

Expedia has three nights at the three star Hotel Vis, including flights, from £281pp,

www.expedia.co.uk

More info

See www.gb.croatia.hr