The City Walls
A two-kilometre circuit around the old town, ninety minutes of the finest walking in Europe. Start before nine in summer to beat the heat and the crowds.
Dubrovnik
The walled city above the Adriatic
Best time
May – June & September
Gentle pace
3–4 slow days
Ideal for
Couples · Families with older kids · First-time Croatia
Dubrovnik is a city that seems to have been carved from a single block of honey-coloured stone — a perfect ring of walls enclosing terracotta rooftops, baroque churches and steep cobbled lanes that tumble down to the sea. Walk the walls at dawn, when the light is soft and the cruise crowds have not yet landed, and you will understand why they call it the Pearl of the Adriatic.
With children, base yourselves just outside the old town in Lapad or Ploče, swim from the rocks at Sveti Jakov, and take the cable car up Mount Srđ for the whole city laid out below. The lanes are steep, so bring a carrier for little ones and reward every climb with a gelato.
Worth lingering over
Mount Srđ by cable car
Four minutes up to a viewpoint 400 metres above the city — the old town, the sea and the Elaphiti islands in a single glance.
Banje Beach & Lokrum
A pebble beach at the town’s edge, and a pine-scented island a fifteen-minute ferry away with rocky coves and roaming peacocks.
Hidden gem
Lokrum Island’s hidden coves
A fifteen-minute ferry from the old port lands you on a pine-covered island with no cars, no hotels and a string of rocky swimming coves reached by narrow paths. Pack a picnic, find a quiet rock, and swim in water clearer than any town beach — then wander up to the medieval monastery and the roaming peacocks before the last boat home.