Dubrovnik Old Town – A love/hate relationship

When you picture Dubrovnik, you envision enormous fortifications perched steadfast, metres above the azure Adriatic sea. Walls enclosing a maze of narrow streets, each building topped with rustic red tiles. Well, you’d be right. Except there’s one thing missing from this idyllic picture. The frankly ridiculous number of tourists.

Now, I’m not exaggerating when I say, this was possibly the most obviously touristy place I’ve been to in my life. On my first visit I felt claustrophobic. People were always around me, there was no space to relax and admire the undeniable beauty of the city. When I entered through Pile Gate, I saw them. A marauding swarm of sweaty tourists gushing up and down the main street as far as the eye could see, which consequently wasn’t very far (due to someone always standing in front of me). So what do these people do in the city they’ve travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles to see? They stand mindlessly still in the middle of the street, walk in meandering lines from souvenir stand to souvenir stand, crossing the street in a witless daze only to reawake to take a photo on their iPads. If you can’t tell from this brief description, my first visit wasn’t a success. I just wanted to leave.

However, we did return on multiple occasions and it got more bearable each time. We realised there was a way to escape the crowds and no, it wasn’t drinking so much that you forget the people are there, although that was very reasonable option two. Instead, we decided to save our livers some trouble by heading away from the main streets around the centre. Once we got towards the outer reaches of the old city, there were alleyways with only locals going about their daily lives. In those places, the true city shines through. These areas may not have the big buildings but they do have a serenity that the rest of the old city misses out on.

Once you’ve embraced your temporary existence within the hive mind of the tourist horde, you do realise that you can’t really come to the old city without walking the walls. They surround the entire city and the views you get from them, both out to sea and over the city, are stunning. For the sake of your sanity and health, don’t even consider going near midday. It’s packed. The cruise ship guests are flooding the old town and it is very hot to be walking around up there.

For the sake of making this a blog post actually vaguely helpful for once, the price for the pleasure of walking the walls is 150HRK for adults and 50HRK for children. Just go in through the Pile Gate and look left and you’re there.

Now our culinary experiences of this area of Dubrovnik weren’t great, but more than anything, this was our fault for appeasing my brother. He decided that on almost every night he wanted calamari. While calamari is very tasty and is served practically everywhere I was thinking something a little more varied than a plate of battered squid would be nice on holiday. But alas, he whined and whined saying that he wouldn’t like anything else and so we had to turn away from the lovely looking restaurants situated in the outer parts of the city (I won’t forget you ‘Azur‘). This Asian fusion restaurant was just what I wanted, but instead we ended up going back to the centre of the old town. There I ate three tasteless scallops and some leaves for double the price of a meal in Azur (180HRK or £21). I wasn’t happy.

The best food we had was outside of the walls and into the rest of the city. Where instead of 140 Kuna (around 17 pounds) for a meal it was 90 Kuna at the very most. Our favourite restaurant in Dubrovnik was in Mokošica, near where we were staying. There was a pizzeria (Pizzeria Laus) in the area with high rise flats. Now this isn’t the type of place I would usually go looking for great food (despite experience teaching me otherwise) but on the recommendation of our host we went up there and found it. The “small” pizzas were enormous and even someone who eats as much as me felt full after one. The price? A mere 45 Kuna. That’s like five quid. If you’re not feeling up to a pizza, the menu here comes with plenty more and from what we saw the other options looked very good.

Final thoughts

The old city consists of narrow, pretty alleyways and wide open squares filled with cafes and restaurants. Towards the outer walls, the city becomes quiet as there are fewer restaurants and the streets no longer act as funnels for people. Dubrovnik’s old town is incredibly beautiful but in my opinion marred by the constant stream of tourists. If walking around taking photos isn’t what you look for and you want some adrenaline, see the next post for some activities to do in Dubrovnik.