Two Days in Dubrovnik

I am having total holiday blues. It's cold, I am tired and my days tick by at work. A lot has happened since my last post; left a job, started another, learnt some new pointless industry acronyms, forgot even more, applied for a postgrad, got accepted for a postgrad, organised my finances and put in an offer on a flat in Edinburgh to be only second place. As such I shall wallow in memories of Croatian seas until my next tropical holiday... Iceland. Maybe I can inspire one of you to book a summer week in Dubrovnik:

Lokrum:

I would advise spending your a full day while staying in Dubrovnik on Lokrum Island. Lokrum is easily accessible from Old Town Dubrovnik's Harbour. Numerous boats run from the harbour to the Island every 30 minutes or so. Pack a picnic and your swimsuit and catch the earliest ferry you can to claim prime location on the beach of the dead sea. Also make sure you check out the rocky shores and take time for a walk around the island, the Island boasts a staggering number of Peacocks as well as some wild tortoises which are adorable and were relatively unphased by my friends #selfiewithatortoise picture taking. I swear one guy almost smiled. As much as a tortoise could ever smile.

Old Town Dubrovnik:

Explore the intertwining streets of Old Town, sorry that means stairs (It's worth it I promise). The Wall is also a must, I would encourage anyone visiting to do the wall early in the morning or in the late afternoon, firstly the heat is bearable and secondly, you avoid the Cruise hoards. We visited early morning and it was beautiful, but I imagine it would be stunning at sunset. But be mindful that once you leave the wall you will not be allowed to go back on, so make sure you do the full circumference before existing the wall.

Cool off in the afternoon by visiting one of the two bars on the cliffs, both serve cocktails, and have dramatic views of Lokrum. Entertainment for some, anxiety for me, is provided by tourists and locals a like jumping off the cliffs. A guide to Dubrovnik wouldn't be complete without a mention of Game of Thrones, we did a tour, it was very good and really interesting. We used this company. Nerd Alert, so psyched for season 5.  

Dubrovnik is somewhere you don't need to plan, it's somewhere you explore. If you look at Tripadvisor most of the top rated attractions are nearby islands, don't be discouraged or under estimate how long you will visit the city for.

For food I would recommend Nishta a vegetarian/ vegan restaurant. Now I am a pretty big meat eater, but I actually loved it here. A lot of the restaurants in Croatia seem to offer very similar menu's, and Octopus Salad was not getting more enticing as time went on. Nishta had really interesting food, all really tasty, so tasty we went two nights in a row. I can highly recommend the Homemade Ice Tea, the Spelt Pasta and the Fallafel (which was almost as dreamy as my Parisian lover).

If you are also just doing Dubvronik in Croatia, I recommend day trips to both Mljet National Park and Korcula- these were both closer to our apartment so my guide to them is up with the rest of my Croatia guide here!

My Dubrovnik Guide and Split Guide is also now live on Atlas Addict.

With Love from,

Emma x

Croatia

I spent my summer holiday on the glorious seas of the Adriatic. We flew in and out of Dubrovnik and stayed in a family friends apartment on the Pelješac Peninsula opposite Korcula for the majority of our visit. We spent most of our days doing day trips or relaxing, with 3 days in Split and 2 in Dubrovnik. I would say that our apartment was pretty far out of it, but we managed to see everything we wanted to see, except Hvar.

Pelješac peninsula

The Roads of Pelješac peninsula are terrifying, especially when you are used to driving on the opposite side of the road. However, the scary heights made for beautiful views of some of the, 1,246 islands Croatia has in its portfolio. This peninsula is also famous for wine and for miles you are surrounded by grape crops and homemade wines.

Ston

Ston is a little town which really stood out for me. It was so different to the winding streets of the usual Croatian towns. It has a massive hill fort which you can conquer or crawl if you are a baby like me. Even if you are passing through stop and hike up the walls for some amazing views.

Trstenik

Trstenik will always be the home to my favourite chip. This little restaurant on the seafront does garlic chips. Basically chips covered in homemade olive oil with raw garlic in it. Snorkeling after raw garlic was debatably pleasant. The snorkeling here was great. If you are planning on going in the sea in Croatia (duh, why wouldn't you??), take some flip flops or jelly shoes, anything that you can wear on your feet in the sea. Croatia's beaches are rocky, not sandy and there are spiky anemones everywhere on the beaches, after watching a lady pull spines out her foot I really recommend the Jelly shoes.

As we had an apartment on the peninsula we took the car out for a lot of day trips. Firstly, and not requiring the car was Korcula

Korcula:

Korcula is the home of Marco Polo and is the quaintest little town. There is so much to see all around you, especially above, the buildings are beautiful and the streets are lined with green flowering hydrangeas. Korcula is not overly touristy as the majority of tourists would have came from Dubrovnik but it is quite a sail!

Mjet National Park:

For Mjet you will need a car and a ferry and a boat. So worth it. The national park is busy so get there early to scope your place for the day. We spent our day on the island of the Monastery of Saint Mary. This island is surrounded by a large salt lake with warm and crystal clear waters. Make sure you don't miss the last ferry home though!


Road to Spilt:

Now roads are not normally renowned for beauty, but the road to Split from Dubrovnik is beautiful! Stop at some markets on the way for a fruity lunch and admire the mountains and perfectly manicured fruit and grape farms along the way. When you drive from Dubrovnik to Split you will also drive through Bosnia Herzegovina. Bosnia has a very small sea port here and it actually took longer to get through border control than to drive through the town. Make sure you have your passports if you are doing this journey!

Brela

Make a detour on your way to Spilt and Brela. I would normally recommend going early but I don't think it would make any difference, this beach is busy, but it is obvious why. It is beautiful.


Old Town Spilt:

Modern Split is nothing to write home about, it is a city but the old town is so charming. I found Split more dominated by tourists than I did Dubrovnik which I was not expecting. Get a taxi for dinner at Dvor, I had a Chocolate lava cake in an olive oil sauce that I am still reminiscing about. The place was terribly cute with views over the cliffs to the sea, it was the best meal I had in Croatia. Old Town Split comes to life at night. Bars are everywhere and the streets come alive.

Blue Lagoon Tour

While in Split we booked ourselves onto the Blue Cave group tour with this company, but on the morning the weather was too rough to go on open water so instead they tailored a more localised tour of the Blue Lagoon, Trogir and the skippers pals' restaurant for lunch. We had a lovely day, admittedly it would have been nice to see Hvar an the Blue Cave but this tour was also very good. If you are spending time in Spilt I recommend doing a boat excursion.

Trogir:

Some boat tours will take you to Trogir, and it is very much worth it. Again, streets upon streets with interesting things to get lost in. As we were on a tour I didn't get to spend as much time here as I would have liked but it was truly beautiful.

Krka National Park

Krka stressed me out. I hate rudeness, I hate pushy people and I get even more intolerant when I am hot. Krka is beautiful, but the tourists suck. I say this being one of the MANY tourists there, I really do feel for the locals. If you go, take money and lunch with you, the only ATM in the car park (a bus ride away) and the food in the park is not good.

To avoid a complete Croatia picture overload I have separated my post for Dubrovnik, I shall  publish it soon to dismiss the holiday blues.

With Love from,

Emma x