Croatia

I have read articles where the process of upgrading the available new seating options/classes — post 2024 — is referred to as “curating the ascent” or “navigating the cabin hierarchy.” The days of merely choosing between First Class and Coach are gone. Now there are an array of options that span the gap between prime and economy and each airline calls those options something different. It’s the era of micro, inch-by-inch airline upgrades. If you want a smidgen more legroom choose row 7, an overhead collagen-stimulating red light choose row 8, a bun warmer choose row 9, an XL barf bag choose row 10. It all can seemingly be arranged, for a price. Except clean toilets.

Newark instead of Boston

We did a number of things differently during this trip, including the flight itself. Instead of flying out of Logan Airport in Boston like we usually do, we drove to New Jersey to catch a direct flight from Newark to Dubrovnik on United Airlines. United’s direct-to-Dubrovnik schedule is seasonal; it starts up in late April or early May and typically ceases sometime in October. United also offers direct service from Newark to Split seasonally.

Ours was the inaugural flight of the new season. We crossed our fingers that the pilot would still remember the way after the winter hiatus. Because it was an overnight flight, we had time for the drive (and traffic) to Newark. The flight departed just after 7:00 PM.

Upgraded Seating

The journey was also different because we chose to pay a bit more to fly "United Premium Plus." This isn’t first class (a term United reserves for domestic flights) or business class (the designation used for flights to Latin/South America); rather, it is a "middle-ground" “premium economy” experience offered on select long-haul routes. It sits above standard economy and below "Polaris" business class—the signature brand for United's European routes that feature fully lie-flat seats. Key benefits of United Premium Plus included dedicated check-in lines, earlier boarding, two free checked bags, and slightly wider seats with extra legroom and recline. It also promised upgraded food—though based on the quality of our meals, we wouldn’t know it—alongside complimentary alcoholic beverages.

Is United Premium Plus worth it? We thought so, especially the legroom for a journey spanning roughly eight and a half to nine hours.

The view of Dubrovnik from our airplane window as we were circling to land. The Old Town is the more densly packed part of the city in the foreground.

A Little History (including GOT)

We arrived in Croatia at around 10:00 AM. Clearing passport control took a half hour or more, complete with the new Biometric Entry System requiring finger scanning and facial mapping. Our final air-travel upgrade was a private transfer. A car, arranged by our hotel, was waiting for us at Čilipi Airport. After claiming our bags, we walked out to find a driver holding a sign that read “Clark-Long.” It was a first for us, and it felt incredibly luxurious.

Top Left: The oddly shaped country of Croatia.

Middle Left: Croatia and all its neighbors.

Bottom Left: Our catamaran route from Dubrovnik to Korcula to Split.

20th-Century History

The oddly-shaped crountry of Croatia covers a total area of about 21,851 square miles. This makes it almost identical in size to West Virginia and slightly smaller than Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Croatia is one of the seven currently independent countries that made up the former Yugoslavia, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.

The first version of Yugoslavia was formed after World War I in 1918, and later was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. In 1941 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded, dismantled, and partitioned by the Axis powers. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia were united as an Axis puppet state governed by a fascist leader selected by Hitler and Mussolini. His name was Ante Pavelić, and he built extermination camps on par with Germany’s. At the end of the war, he escaped to Argentina, avoiding execution. After World War II, Yugoslavia was re-established as a socialist federation under Josip Broz Tito (who died in 1980).

The collapse of Tito's Yugoslavia began in 1991 when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, sparking the Yugoslav Wars. The conflict led to NATO intervention and formal accusations of genocide against Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milošević. By 1992, the official socialist federation completely dissolved. The scars of the Yugoslav Wars can be seen throughout Croatia, especially Dubrovnik.

Winter is Coming...

In 2011 HBO began filming the soon-to-be hit series Game of Thrones (GOT) in Croatia. The series continued to be filmed in the region until 2018. Interestingly, this provided a dramatic boost to tourism after the episodes aired. The very first commercial Game of Thrones walking tour reportedly launched in 2012, right after GOT Season 2 aired featuring Dubrovnik as the backdrop for King's Landing. While we watched and liked Game of Thrones, our visit to Croatia was not a fan tour. However, we found the pervasive references to GOT very amusing. They seemed unavoidable and inevitable — part of the cultural landscape.

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Over-Tourism

That said, the cruise industry alone would have fueled Dubrovnik’s economic recovery without help from Game of Thrones. Giant, mega-sized cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers first started visiting Dubrovnik and Split in earnest around 2003 to 2005, a little more than a decade after the shelling stopped. By 2016, Dubrovnik experienced a massive crush of cruise ship arrivals, with single-day passenger totals exceeding 8,000 on 18 occasions and topping 10,000 passengers on its four busiest peak days. In 2016 between 742,000 and 800,000 passengers flooded the tiny, pedestrian-only Old Town. To save the city's historic infrastructure from collapsing under the weight of over-tourism, the local government implemented shore-excursion limits. Under current regulations, no more than two cruise ships are allowed to dock at the exact same time and they must stay docked for at least eight hours in order to stagger shore excursions throughout the day ensuring there are no more than 4,000 “cruisers” inside the walls at any point. Nonetheless, Dubrovnik is still considered by some people to be over-touristed. The city recorded 4.28 million overnight stays in 2025, which does not include the cruise ship day-trippers.

Dubrovnik, Friday, May 1 - The Lay of the Land

The Republic of Regusa (now Dubrovnik) Coat of Arms.

Two Cities

Dubrovnik is two cities in one: an outer city and an inner city. The inner city is referred to as the Old Town. It is perched on the edge of the crystal-clear, turquoise Adriatic Sea and surrounded by towering medieval walls. No cars are allowed inside the walls (which makes getting a new refrigerator a challenge for the few remaining residents). Inside the walls, you will find a maze of mostly narrow, cobblestone alleyways and staircases, and tightly packed, terracotta-roofed stone buildings. Cats lounge everywhere. Laundry hangs from windows.

Our hotel was inside the walls. Only about 10% to 15% of Dubrovnik’s total overnight stays actually happen within the walls of the Old Town. Most of the big hotels are in the outer city, many of them a couple of miles away. Most of the hotels in the Old Town are very small and the city has capped short-term rentals like Airbnb. The enclosed Old Town has a small footprint—you can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes.

The maximum capacity of people who can physically stay inside the city walls at one time is legally capped at 11,200 people (including residents). Only about 1,200 to 1,500 permanent residents live inside the walls of Dubrovnik's Old Town today. Over a third of the residents inside the walls are elderly. Like so many cities, the rise of Airbnb conversions drove many residents to more affordable locales outside the walls. Approximately 40,000 people live in Dubrovnik outside the Old Town walls.

The outer city (above) is not as densely packed as the inner city (Old Town). It has modern aphalt roads and plenty of cars. The inner city (Old Town) is paved with cobblestone. The Old Town's narrow passageways are pedestrian only. Only the main thoroughfare in the Old Town (called the Stradum) could handle two-way traffic.

Getting most supplies in and out of Old Town still involves a push cart. The donkeys that once hauled goods are long gone. Some small specially permitted motorized vehicles are allowed for trash pick-up etc.

St. Joseph's Boutique Hotel

We stayed at St. Joseph's Boutique Hotel in Dubrovnik's Old Town. The hotel is named after the nearby church. The hotel features six individually styled suites in its main 16th-century building and three additional rooms in an adjoining cottage, totaling nine accommodation options.

The hotel is located on the narrow Sveti Josip (Saint Joseph) Street in the heart of the historic center. This street intersects with the second busiest commercial street in Dubrovnik: Ulica od Puča (often just called Od Puča).

To find the hotel, you head west down Ulica od Puča and look for the small church building with a spindly cypress tree growing out of an elevated stone pot, built directly into the pediment next to the statue of St. Joseph. Find the church with the tree and turn left. That's how you find the hotel

A legend dates the tree to 1836, when it literally began growing out of the church’s facade. In 1906 it was replanted into a custom made pot affixed to the exterior facade to protect the structural integrity of the building. The tree is still alive, but by the looks of it, malnourished and stunted.

According to legend, this stunted cypress that seeded itself is 190 years old.

The St. Joseph's Boutique Hotel has no common spaces. No lounge. No terrace. Nor restaurant or bar. Just a reception desk inside the front door in a space the size of a Ford Bronco. This hotel embodied the old proverb "good things come in small packages." Our compact suite had two distinct areas: a bedroom with one wall of presumably original stonework and a kitchenette/living area with unique, bold wallpaper depicting something resembling stylized ornate wood panels.

The living/eating area had a rather stiff pull-out couch, a faux fireplace, a breakfast table, and a semi-equipped kitchenette. Both the bedroom and outer room had wooden ceilings. There was a window that looked out into the alleyway in each room. The alleyway was so narrow that you could almost reach the opposite building with a long-handled broom. Which added to the old-world charm of the hotel.

My criticisms are quibbles. The decor, namely the wallpaper and the furniture didn't totally jibe with the historic nature or price-point of the suite and there wasn't any art on the walls, which, from a design perspective, mildly disappointed me. But I think each suite is different. Oddly, there was only one small waste basket in the suite, located in the bathroom, which overflowed almost daily (possibly we had too many wine bottles!). I am sure I could have asked for a larger trash receptacle because the hotel staff seemed eager to please.

The hotel was very clean, comfortable and conveniently located a few minutes from everything (absolutely everything). It was very quiet at night and had enough ambience to make us fans. You would not describe St. Joseph's Boutique Hotel as generic—nor as overly artsy or deliberately hipster. And it wasn't stuffy. The place had a good vibe.

When we first arrived, employees from the surrounding local businesses were hanging out in the alley, smoking, flirting, and gossiping. They seemed like they were content with life inside the walls. The hotel staff couldn't have been better—friendly, accommodating, and informative.

The view from one of our hotel room's windows. The building across the alley was up close and personal (to use an old sports network term).

An alleyway outside St. Joseph's Boutique Hotel (which overlooked two alleyways (I think). All the streets and alleyways in Dubrovnik's Old Town are paved with limestone. Some are quite slick in the rain.

Our bedroom moments after we arrived before we could mess it up.

Praznik rada, Holy Burek & Buža Bar — Exploring Dubrovnik Part 1

After we arrived, we began exploring, starting with the shop-lined Ulica od Puča. We would soon learn that many of the town’s stores were closed for the Croatian equivalent of Labor Day—The First of May, known as Praznik rada or International Workers' Day. This holiday has been celebrated in Croatia for 136 years. Curiously, it was established to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, Illinois, where a general strike demanding an 8-hour workday led to a violent confrontation and the execution of several labor leaders.

Despite the holiday, some shops were open.

We bought Aidan a handmade ceramic fish with an amazing metallic glaze from a shop called Marine d'Amour.

We also went to Holy Burek and bought a savory pastry stuffed with cheese called a burek, a Balkan specialty.

A burek (originally from what is now Turkey) is long and skinny, made of paper-thin layers of flaky dough filled with things like cheese, spinach, potato, chicken and veal. It comes wrapped in a paper sleeve and is very popular (at least Holy Burek was!).

Their sales pitch: "Made from a 500-year-old recipe. Just organic flour, water, and salt. No yeast. No additives. No shortcuts."

As we explored Dubrovnik we soon appreciated that the world inside the walls was well preserved and its history was respected and celebrated. Every structure was stone (as opposed to wood), there were lots of stairs because the Old Town is not flat, most anything that was green in this part of town was grown in a pot, and the same type of lantern hung from almost every building.

At the Buža Bar. The "Hole in the Wall" Bars: Clinging like barnacles to the outside of the steep cliffside walls are Buža I and Buža II, two famous rustic bars.

At the Buža Bar. "Buža" literally translates to "hole," which is exactly what patrons have to crawl through (a hole in the town's medieval defensive wall) to get a drink overlooking the Adriatic Sea.

Azur and Porporela

Zucchini balls in a curry sauce at Azur.

Porporela

After dinner we walked to the Porporela in the Old Harbor at sunset. Originally built by the Austro-Hungarian authorities to protect Dubrovnik’s harbor from waves and strong southern winds, it’s now an area where people take in the sunset and swim from stone steps and ladders.

Azur

That night we ate at Azur. It was a challenge to find this restaurant through the maze of alleyways. We ate outside as the sun was setting. Azur is a highly acclaimed restaurant operated by brothers with a sister restaurant in China. It bills itself as "Mediterranean cuisine with an Asian twist," or "Croasian." Becky had lovely zucchini balls in a green curry. I had a swordfish green curry that, based on the ratio of liquid to solid, was more like a stew.

Dubrovnik, Saturday, May 2

Breakfast was brought to our room.

We had an ample breakfast brought to our room each morning at St. Joseph's Hotel by two young ladies wearing maid costumes (there is no communal dining area in the hotel). Yes, the staff of this six-room hotel wore traditional uniforms.

The spread included Turkish coffee, their signature miniature green smoothie, a selection of fresh pastries (like croissants), džem od šljiva (a Balkan plum jam also known as Pekmez), eggs, bacon or sausage, and fresh fruit—all beautifully served on old-fashioned China.

We learned that we could add items on to the basic spread. So we did, and ordered fresh squeezed orange juice and yogurt to go with the fruit for our last breakfast. These hearty and satisfying breakfasts allowd us to skip lunch on most days.

St. Joseph's famous green smoothie.

St. Joseph's Hotel shared their recipe for a green smoothie, which came with every breakfast.

Ingredients:

Mineral water

Leaf or Romain Lettuce

Spinach or Kale

Apple

Pear

Banana

Lemon Juice

Lime Juice

Ginger

Honey

Ice

The Walking Tour

At 10:00 AM, we met Robert Simić, a Dubrovnik native and our private tour guide, for a two-hour walking tour. We had originally planned to tour Dubrovnik with his wife Nera Pavlović, whom we found on the Rick Steves Forum, but she had an emergency. Ending up with Robert wasn't a bad pivot at all. A two-hour private tour cost €120. While not cheap, it was worth it for an unscripted session with a local "expert" where we could interact and ask stupid questions. We met him outside the Pile Gate (Inevitable GOT trivia: this is where "King’s Landing Riot" and "Jaime’s Return" were filmed), and then we meandered past the Onofrio Fountain, the city’s original source of water and down the main drag—the polished limestone-paved Stradun—before looping back.

We met our tour guide, Robert Pavlović, outside the Pile Gate in Brsalje Square. The city of Dunbrovnik is different outside the walls. For instance, this is where you will find the big hotels, like the Hilton Imperial (in the background) and shade trees, like this Oriental plane tree.

The main thoroughfare in the Old Town is called the Stradun. This is where we started our tour (at the Pile Gate end). The street is made from highly polished limestone. The Stradun was the digitally enhanced set for Canto Bight, the sleek, high-end casino planet in The 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Robert’s fun claim to fame is that he appeared as an extra in three different episodes of Game of Thrones, securing a grand total of nine seconds of screen time!

We learned that the city was founded in the 7th century by Roman refugees fleeing nearby Cavtat (where we would spend our final night). We learned that Dubrovnik was part of the Republic of Venice from 1205 to 1358, and flourished as an independent state called the Republic of Ragusa between 1308 and 1808. The Republic of Ragusa was governed by a “rector” that was elected to serve for one month and could not be reelected for another two years. If only we had that system in America.

We learned about BYOS (Bring Your Own Stone). When building the massive northern Minčeta Tower in the 15th century, stone was incredibly scarce. The government decreed that every visitor entering the city from the landward side had to bring a stone proportional to their physical strength to help build the fort.

We learned about the 1667 massive earthquake that leveled most of the city (but not the wall).

We learned about St. Blaise, the city’s patron saint, who is generally depicted holding a detailed, scale model of Dubrovnik in his left hand.

We learned that the city’s seemingly iconic red terracotta roofs are actually replacement roofs from the 1990s, replacing the gray roofs that were blown off during the Yugoslav Wars.

The iconic red roofs of Dubrovnik are not actually old according to our tour guide.

In the 15th century when Minčeta Tower was being built, the city charged an admission fee of one large stone. They needed stones to finish the tower. Inevitable GOT Trivia: This tower was used as the exterior of the House of the Undying in GOT's city of Qarth.

Saint Blaise, Dubrovnik's patron saint.

The changing map of the former Yuogoslavia.

While the historical facts and architectural observations were fascinating, the best part of the tour was Robert’s candid personal opinions on everything ranging from the Yugoslav Wars (and the city’s grueling 240+ day siege), to the city's grossly under-taxed Airbnb owners, to the relatively recent local Sunday retail ban limiting store business to only 16 Sundays per calendar year, to his recommendations for excellent local restaurants and wine. He was completely unscripted and possessed a great sense of humor.

Exploring Dubrovnik Part 2

Balkan Šljivovica (plum brandy) and Pelinkovac (an herbal aperitif).

Croatian arancini (bittersweet candied orange peels).

After the tour, we went on our way to find lunch and do some shopping. Becky searched for jewelry, specifically looking at Rečini (traditional filigree hoop earrings) and Konavle buttons (ornamental gold or silver beads worn as earrings or necklaces) and Šibenik buttons (traditional filigree buttons originally worn by men and now made into necklaces and earrings). She ended up buying a Šibenik button (shown in the banner graphic above ) for use as a pendant from Zlatarna MARTINI (for me to give her as a Christmas present - I love it when she buys her own Christmas presents).

Meanwhile, I went hunting for Croatian food and drink. I picked up bottles of the country's best-selling beers, Ožujsko and Karlovačko, (which were refreshing) along with two small bottles of traditional Croatian liqueurs: Šljivovica (plum brandy) and Pelinkovac (an herbal aperitif). I also bought a bottle of Malvasija Dubrovačka, the Dubrovnik regional white wine Robert recommended.

For snacks I bought Croatian arancini (candied orange peels) and a hazelnut chocolate bar from the premier Croatian chocolatier Nadalina—the chocolate cost a staggering €13! We would later be gifted more Nadalina chocolate by our tour guide in Split.

A hazelnut chocolate bar from the famous Croatian chocolatier Nadalina.

Malvasija Dubrovačka, recommended by Robert, who likes wine. Saint Blaise is depected on the label.

For lunch, we grabbed an outdoor table at Mea Culpa Pizzeria & Trattoria and shared a quattro formaggio pizza.

Ethnographic Museum, St. Savior Church and the Franciscan Church and Monastery

In the afternoon, we visited the low-key Ethnographic Museum (Rupe), housed inside a massive 16th-century state granary tucked away in a quiet, steep residential area. Fans of Game of Thrones might recognize its heavy, arched wooden entrance doors, which served as the exterior for Littlefinger’s brothel.

From there, we walked to the St. Savior Church (circa 1520) and the adjacent but separate Franciscan Church and Monastery, a massive medieval complex located right inside the Pile Gate. It has served as the spiritual, educational, and medical heart of Dubrovnik since the 14th century.

During the 1991 Seige of Dubrovnik the monastery was hit by an estimated 30 mortor shells. When the stucture was repaired, they left a hole created by a shell as is, unpatched, and sealed it with a pane of glass and put a frame around it to serve as a permanent, sobering reminder of the recent conflict.

The monastery’s crown jewel is its monastic pharmacy (Ljekarna), founded in 1317. It stands as the third-oldest pharmacy in the world and the oldest continuously operating pharmacy in Europe today.

Inevitable GOT trivia: the street, steps and exterior walls directly outside the monastery were locations for various Game of Thrones scenes, including the "Kings Riot," "Sansa's Escape Attempt" and part of Cersei's "Walk of Shame" scene.

The Franciscan Monastery's courtyard or Lower Cloister built in 1360. It's surrounded by 120 columns. It's an oasis with palm and orange trees and a central stone fountain.

Directly behind the church buildings sits the 15th-century Upper Cloister. Unlike the open Lower Cloister, this area was historically reserved exclusively for the friars' private contemplation and rest. Next to the cloister is the Monastic Orchard.

The Cats and Laundry of Dubrovnik

Laundry Day. There are still a few families that live in Old Town Dubrovnik that hang their laundry from upper level lines. Not every building houses Airbnb's. It's part of the city charm.

The feral cats in Dubrovnik supposedly have a lineage that dates back to the Black Plague. In the 1300s, Dubrovnik (then called Ragusa) was a major international maritime trading port. Because trading ships frequently brought disease-carrying rats, the city introduced a large number of cats to the streets to hunt the rodents and stop the spread of the bubonic plague.

There are even famous cat footprints preserved on a town document from the 1400s, left when a cat walked across the parchment before the ink had dried.

Today, hundreds of outdoor street cats live in the Old Town. They are well-fed by the locals who leave bowls of food outside their doors. Most of the cats are neither friendly nor skittish. They don't seek out human touch. However, they do not run away either; sometimes you have to step over them as they nap in the alleway. Many of these cats were extras in the GOT.

Mount Srđ

Skipping dinner, we hired an Uber to take us up Mount Srđ for the sunset. This sheer, barren limestone mountain, which is part of the 400-mile mountain range known as the Dinaric Alps, rises 1,355 feet abruptly behind Dubrovnik’s Old Town. It takes about 20 minutes to navigate the narrow, steep, twisting roads to the top by car, though a popular cable car is also available from the Old Town. The lines and wait time for the cable car can be quite long before sunset — thus the Uber.

Old Town Dubrovnik's north-facing wall as seen from Mount Srđ. The southern side of the wall faces the sea. "Outer" Dubrovnik sprawls east and west and north to the foot of Mount Srđ. Lokrum Island, a preserve, can be seen beyond Old Town.

The view from the summit is spectacular. The Old Town looks like a model medieval village floating next to the tree-covered Lokrum Island, while an expanse of sea dotted with islands stretches out to the west.

On top the mountain is the massive stone fortress, Fort Imperial, constructed by the French in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. Housed inside the fort is the Homeland War Museum, featuring an extensive collection of photographs, weapons, maps, and video footage documenting the grueling 1991–1992 Siege of Dubrovnik during the Yugoslav Wars. There is also a massive white stone cross standing near the cliff edge. It was constructed using stone imported from the nearby island of Brač—the same stone used to build the U.S. White House. Panorama Restaurant & Bar is a popular dining venue situated right on the edge of the mountain, offering panoramic, open-air seating. Like most of the hundred or so people spread across the peak, we were there strictly for the sunset.

We headed back down after dark to wander the Old Town. The limestone streets get dramatically less crowded and far more atmospheric in the evening, which made staying inside the city walls worth it.

Our day finally came to a head-scratching end back at our hotel, where we promptly blew a fuse while trying to reheat our leftover pizza in the kitchenette!

The Dominican Monastery in the Old Town near the Ploče Gate. It was built starting in 1225 and evolved over centuries.

Sponza Palace. Built between 1516 and 1522, formerly a customs house, mint, treasury, and armory. Located in Dubrovnik’s Old Town at the end of the Stradun (main street), next to the Bell Tower and St. Blaise Church. While most of Dubrovnik was leveled by an earthquake in 1667, Sponza was one of the few buildings to remain standing.

The 15th-century, 101 foot tall Dubrovnik Bell Tower on Luža Square.

Dubrovnik, Sunday, May 3

The Walk of Shame

The Jesuit Staircase used in the GOT Cersei's Walk of Shame scene photographed first thing in the morning before the selfie-taking fans arrived.

Inevitable GOT Trivia: Walk of Shame

We set the alarm for 7:00 AM in order to get out and walk around the city before any tour groups arrived. I specifically wanted to photograph the Jesuit Staircase, one of Dubrovnik’s most celebrated architectural landmarks. It connects Gundulić Square at the bottom to the elevated Bošković Square at the top, leading up to the Church of St. Ignatius and the Jesuit College. It was built in 1738 and designed based on Rome’s Spanish Steps.

From mid-morning on it is mobbed with tourists taking selfies. Not because it’s spectacular (which it is), but because it was used as the filming location for Cersei's (nude) Walk of Shame in season five of Game of Thrones. I was able to photograph the stairs sans people because we were early birds. The city was other-worldly without hordes of tourists.

I did ask Becky to strip down and re-enact The Walk of Shame, but she refused.

The hotel was very accommodating. We ate a late breakfast in our room after we returned from our walk.

Lokrum Island

Then we were off to the Old Town Port (Porporela / Luža Pier) to buy tickets for the ferry to Lokrum Island. The small ferry takes passengers for a quick 15-minute ride to Portoč Cove on the eastern side of the island for €30 roundtrip. We were on the island by 11:15 AM on another beautiful, sunny day.

Luža Pier where we caught the ferry to Lokrum.

A lone sailboat in the Portoč Cove area of Lokrum Island.

Lokrum Island is small—about 198 acres. It is under one mile long and about a third of a mile wide. In terms of size, Lokrum is comparable to Disneyland in California, but much smaller than Central Park in New York City. During the beautiful May shoulder season, Lokrum sees an average of 1,200 to 2,000 visitors per day. It’s been a nature preserve since 1948. Absolutely no one lives or stays overnight on Lokrum Island. Lokrum features roughly 4 to 5 miles of interconnected walking paths. It has a few rocky beaches, including an FKK nude beach, three snack bars, a defunct monastery, fort ruins, and an Iron Throne. Peacocks roam freely about the island and accost visitors for snacks. The peacocks are descendants of birds brought to the island in the 1800s by Archduke Ferdinand.

Lokrum History

The island was first settled by Benedictine monks in 1023, who built a vast monastery complex and planted the island’s first exotic gardens.

According to legend, the island has a Richard the Lionheart connection. In 1192 AD, King Richard the Lionheart (of England) was shipwrecked on his way home from the Crusades and washed ashore on Lokrum completely unharmed.

When Napoleon's French army seized Dubrovnik in 1806, they expelled the monks and built a strategic fort at the peak (Fort Royal, now in ruins).

Later, in 1859, Archduke Maximilian Ferdinand of Habsburg (later Emperor of Mexico) bought the island as a private summer residence, remodeling the monastery into a grand palace.

And of course, there is a Game of Thrones connection. Lokrum Island was a major filming location for Game of Thrones, notably doubling as the exotic city of Qarth in Season 2.

Richard the Lionheart may have washed ashore on Lokrum.

FKK Nude Beach

Les Deux Baigneuses or The Two Bathers is a painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, completed in 1884. Our Lokrum doppelgangers.

We started our island hike at the FKK nude beach because that was the first stop on the trail loop. FKK stands for the German phrase Freikörperkultur, which translates to "Free Body Culture," a nudist movement that started in Germany in the 1890s and has been going strong ever since. Croatia has a long history with FKK culture. The country became one of the top naturist (nudist) vacation destinations in Europe during the 1960s and 1970s, establishing dozens of dedicated FKK campsites and beaches along the Dalmatian Coast to accommodate travelers.

Embracing the culture, we boldly traipsed past a nude couple and another nude bather, and found a secluded spot on the rocks where Becky re-enacted the GOT Walk of Shame that she refused to do earlier in the morning.

We stripped down and laid on the rocks, not a person to be seen from our chosen spot, except for the “Peeping Toms” cruising close to shore in their boats. Becky said she saw other groups of bathers spread out along the rocks. But the average water temperature in early May at this "beach" is around 63°F. It’s July before the beach becomes fully populated... and it supposedly draws a crowd.

The “beach” (I use that word loosely) features metal ladders attached to the flat rocks so you can climb straight into the water. There is no sand. We took some photos of our white butts and in 20 minutes or a half hour were back on the trail. No shame in that. No sun burn to deal with.

Metal steps affixed to the stone lead to the ocean along this "beach." The water is crystal clear.

Lokrum Highlights

After a number of stops to take in the cliffside views, we made it to the Dead Sea: a tiny, crystal-clear saltwater lake located on the southern tip of the island. From there we visited The Benedictine Monastery & Palace with crumbling gothic cloisters.

Inevitable GOT Trivia: Hidden inside the air-conditioned interior is an exhibition featuring a replica Iron Throne from Game of Thrones, which you can sit on for photos free of charge. We did not.

Behind the monastery are the Botanical Gardens. Established by the Habsburgs in the 19th- century, this garden features over 800 species of exotic plants, cacti, and eucalyptus trees. From there we hiked uphill to the ruins of Fort Royal, perched on the highest point of the island (315 feet above sea level). This circular stone fortress was built by the French in 1806 and completed by the Austrians three decades later. The fort offered an unobstructed panoramic view of Dubrovnik's Old Town and is where we lunched. We brought a yellowish bread called Pogača and a cheese called Kolan (supposedly the most popular hard cow's cheese in Croatia) as well as prosciutto-like cured ham of some sort.

From there, we took the trail back to Portoč Cove and a return ferry. We were back on the mainland by 4:00 PM.

Lokrum's rocky coastline is spectacular.

Lokrum was declared a special forest vegetation reserve in 1948 because of its dense Mediterranean plant life, exotic trees, and botanical significance.

A peacock looking for snacks at the Dead Sea "swimming hole."

The emerald water of the Dead Sea. The water must have been cold.

The Benedictine Monastery & Palace - parts of which are now ruins.

An official fiberglass and resin replica of the GOT Iron Throne given to the city of Dubrovnik by HBO. Tourists line up to be photographed bext to or on the throne.

Behind the monastery are the Botanical Gardens. Established by the Habsburgs in the 19th-century, this garden features over 800 species of exotic plants from around the world and cacti from Mexico (thanks to Archduke Maximilian Ferdinand who once owned the island and later became the Emperor of Mexico). This is a Crimson Bottlebrush from Ferdinand's time. It is native to Australia.

The wild peacocks on Lokrum are descendants of birds brought to the island in the 1800s by Archduke Ferdinand. They are, like most peacocks in touristed areas, not particularly afraid of people. And they welcome a Dorito or two.

Fort Royal ruins. The fort was built between 1806 and 1835 and sits on the island's highest point with great views. We had a picnic here.

More of the Fort Royal ruins.

B-Bar and Trattoria Carmen

On our way back to the hotel in Old Town we stopped at a highly-rated outside cafe called B-BAR located on a narrow street (the Croatian name of this narrow street translates to narrow street). We wanted gin and tonics. We had learned that gin and tonics in Dubrovnik often utilize Dalmatian lemons or bitter wild oranges (especially with their local gin). I had one at Azur. I missed that tang of the lime. So we asked to have these made with lime like a pedestrian Brit or American. And the resulting drinks were very limey. Our waiter was quite friendly. I have a photograph of Becky and the waiter goofing around. Most stores were closed today because it was Sunday. So we leisurely made it back to the hotel. We cancelled our dinner reservations at a highly rated traditional Bosnian restaurant because we felt like we wanted lighter fare.

Instead of traditional Bosnian cuisine, we went to a family-owned Italian/Croatian place off-the-beaten-track called Trattoria Carmen. Trattoria Carmen does not take reservations and has just 10 indoor seats and 16 outdoor terrace chairs so we had to wait in line.

I had Pašticada, a “quintessential Dalmatian comfort food” consisting of slow-marinated, deeply braised beef served alongside scratch-made potato gnocchi. Becky had house-made pasta with pesto and burrata.

We ordered another bottle of the Dubrovnik regional wine Malvasija Dubrovačka but got Blato 1902 Pošip from Korčula Island instead, as they were out of Malvasija Dubrovačka. Pošip is a fine wine and a bit cheaper.

We would visit two vineyards in Korčula that made Pošip in a few days. It is fun to experience the regional specialties when travelling. Croation wine was an unexpected treat.

Becky's pasta.

Dubrovnik, Monday, May 4

The City Wall

We again set our alarm for 7:00 AM. This morning we would walk the wall! You can’t go to Dubrovnik without walking the wall. And the best time to do it is before the tour groups arrive and before it gets too hot, which means when it opens first thing in the morning. We were in line at the wall entrance near Pile Gate before the wall opened at 8:00 AM.

The Walls of Dubrovnik are a series of defensive stone fortifications wrapping entirely around the Old Town. While initial ramparts were established as early as the 9th and 10th centuries, the existing stone walls were constructed mainly between the 13th and 17th centuries to safeguard the Republic of Ragusa from foreign invasions, particularly from Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

On the land side, the walls are between 13 and 30 feet thick. On the cliff/sea side, the walls are narrower, between 5 and 10 feet thick. The uninterrupted loop spans a total length of about 1.2 miles. Depending on how many stops you make and photos you take, it can easily take an hour and a half to walk. The wall is by no means level; it has stairs and many elevation changes. It reaches 82 feet at its highest point at Fort Minčeta, the imposing cylindrical tower commanding the northern corner of the fortifications.

Inevitable GOT trivia: the tower served as the exterior of the House of the Undying in Qarth during the GOT Season 2 finale.

There are three main cafes/bars located directly on top of the wall route in case you want an Ožujsko beer or some shade.

One can walk the wall for a price. Buying a standalone ticket for the walls can be pricey, but purchasing a Dubrovnik Pass (€40) costs nearly the same and grants you entry to the walls, Fort Lovrijenac, Sponza Palace, Rector's Palace, Ethnographic Museum, Franciscan Monastery and other places. The wall has lots of stairs, a few towers and great views. And a few bars, in case you need a Karlovacko (popular Croatian beer) or a glass of Pošip (a popular white wine produced on Korčula) along the way.

The Dominican Monastery in crisp morning light. The monastery doesn't just sit next to the famous Dubrovnik City Walls—it is physically integrated into them.

From the wall you have a bird's-eye view of many buildings, roads, and even the Franciscan Monastery's gardens. Curiously, in some places you can see into residential house windows. Near the start of the loop, you can look straight into the Ruđer Bošković Classical Gymnasium and see schoolchildren at desks. Further along, peering downward from the southern, sea-facing ramparts, you can see the playground court of Gimnazija Dubrovnik. On the opposite side of the loop, you have a view of the Stari Grad Basketball Court (also known as Dubrovnik Old Town Basketball Court or Partizan). The court is used by the local adjacent school but curiously was also a top-ranked court in Architectural Digest.

The Franciscan Monastery Complex (foreground) as seen from the wall. We walked the wall on a beautiful, clear morning.

The walls of Dubrovnik are one of the world's best-preserved medieval fortification systems, running uninterrupted for nearly 16,365 feet (about 1.2 miles) and reaching heights of up to 82 feet. Some parts of the wall are about 1,200 years old, while most of the visible wall is about 500–800 years old. A catastrophic earthquake leveled nearly the entire city of Dubrovnik in 1667. Amazingly, the sturdy city walls emerged almost entirely unscathed.

Who lives in this house? I can smell the breakfast they are cooking. Despite the crowds of visitors, Dubrovnik’s Old Town is still a real neighborhood with apartments, churches, schools, and longtime residents living among the restaurants, shops and historic buildings.

The proximity between the wall and still lived-in, multi-story residential houses was fascinating.

A phone booth? A porta-potty? This structure is a bartizan, or a sentry box, built on the wall. This is where medieval soldiers sat out of the sun & rain to scan the horizon for Venetian ships and scroll social media.

Rector's Palace, Fort Lovrijenac and the War Photo Limited Gallery

After our wall walk we returned to our hotel for another late breakfast. As usual, breakfast sufficed for lunch as well. After eating we visited the Rector's Palace. Built in the mid-15th century, it is from the golden era of the Republic of Ragusa (the republic spanned 450 years). The building served as the seat of government when the Rector, or governor, served a 30 day term and then moved on. It housed the executive office and private (and temporary) residential chambers of the Rector.

As noblemen walked up the stairs to enter the government meeting rooms, they had to walk directly under a carved Latin inscription: "Obliti privatorum publica curate". This translates to: "Forget private matters, tend to public business."

Today, it functions as the Cultural History Museum, displaying original furniture, historical portraits, and other artifacts.

Inevitable GOT Trivia: Unlike many of Dubrovnik's monuments which doubled as King's Landing in GOT, the Rector's Palace was used to represent a completely different GOT continent. In Season 2, Episode 6 ("The Old Gods and the New"), the palace doubled as the Mansion of the Spice King in the city of Qarth.

The Atrium and Grand Staircase of the Rector's Palace.

The palace's bell tower.

The Grand Staircase in the Rector's Palace features this whimsical handrail.

The Lovrjenac Fortress is located outside the city walls (as seen from atop part of the wall). It was built in just three months in the 11th century. The local Ragusans rushed to construct it upon learning that their rivals, the Venetians, were sailing over to build their own fort on the same cliff to dominate the city.

From the palace we crossed the town to the opposite end to explore Fort Lovrijenac (often anglicized as St. Lawrence Fortress). It is perched on a 121-foot-high sheer rock face just outside the Pile Gate.

The boxy fortress has a legendary origin story dating back to the 11th century. The Republic of Ragusa learned that their rivals, the Venetians, were planning to build a massive fort on that exact rock outcrop to dominate and conquer the city. In a race against time, the citizens of Dubrovnik gathered materials and built Fort Lovrijenac in just three months. When the Venetian ships arrived laden with building supplies, they found the stronghold already armed and fortified, forcing them to sail away defeated. Some of this might be true.

The walls facing the sea are up to 40 feet thick to resist attacks, but the wall facing inward toward Dubrovnik is only 2 feet thick. If the fort’s commander rebelled, the city's cannons could easily blast right through it from the walls of the main town.

Inevitable GOT Trivia: At the fort we evesdropped on another Game of Thrones themed tour. There was no escaping GOT. In GOT, Fort Lovrijenac served as the main filming location for the exterior and interior of the Red Keep, the royal castle of King's Landing. The small, narrow rocky cove tucked directly between Fort Lovrijenac and the main city walls is Dubrovnik West Harbor, which doubled as Blackwater Bay in GOT.

The castle is also known for the Dubrovnik Summer Festival which started in 1952. Hamlet may be the most famous and often performed play in the castle. Daniel Day-Lewis performed in Hamlet at the fort in 1989.

The blue of the open Adriatic from a window in the fort. Pile Bay, on the other hand, is a shimmering emerald.

The bay between Dubrovnik's Old Town and Fort Lovrijenac is called Pile Bay (or Kolorina Bay). This photo was taken from the fort walls looking back at Old Town.

Pile Bay is crystal clear. People swim here and its frequented by small watercraft including lots of sea kayaks. You can see the fort in the background.

According to Rick Steves, the Dalmatian Coast possesses some of the clearest, most transparent seawater on Earth because the surrounding coastal limestone mountains dissolve when exposed to mildly acidic rainwater and thus surface water immediately sinks underground rather than forming rivers. This lack of surface river runoff means there is virtually no mud, silt, or sediment washing into the sea.

After the fort, we headed to War Photo Limited, a gallery founded in 2003 by a New Zealand photojournalist dedicated to the Yugoslav Wars specifically and all war photography generally. It was a large gallery with multiple exhibits. The ground floor housed rotating exhibits and the second floor housed a permanent collection of photographs documenting the Yugoslav Wars.

Soul Kitchen

We ate dinner that night at Soul Kitchen, highly reviewed and far enough away from the bustle. We sat outside next to cats lounging in the cafe chairs and laundry hanging on the building next door. Soul Kitchen is a funky, casual, fusion restaurant with something for everyone, including lots of vegetarian and vegan options—upscale pub food. All the menu items have cheeky, punny names (in English) like "Don't Worry Be Curry" or "Let's Taco 'Bout It." We shared a walnut, pear, arugla salad and had beef and veggie burgers in an uncrowded, quiet, open-air setting. After jostling with fellow tourists all day, this was perfect.

Dubrovnik to Korčula, Tuesday, May 5

Our last morning in Dubrovnik was more leisurely—no need to set an alarm. Becky walked the perimeter of the city below the wall. I read. We left St. Joseph Boutique Hotel a little before noon heading with our bags to Pile Gate to call an Uber to take us two or three miles to the Port of Gruž (the main commercial port of Dubrovnik), located at the northern end of the city. From there we would catch a high-speed passenger catamaran ferry to Korčula Island. Our ferry was operated by TP Line. This ferry offers a 2-hour to 2-hour-and-40-minute trip depending on weather, number of stops, time of year, and other unexplained phenomena. It cost about €25 pp. It was very comfortable.

We left Dubrovnik around 1:00 and arrived in Korčula around 3:00. It started to rain as we disembarked. It was a short 6 to 8-minute walk to our hotel. The port and our hotel were both located outside the Korčula Old Town walls. Similar to Dubrovnik, Korčula is a walled city and pedestrian-only inside the walls.

Korčula vs. Martha's Vineyard

Korčula is a long, narrow island, stretching roughly 29 miles from east to west while averaging only 4 to 5 miles in width. It is about 108 square miles, making it very close in size to Martha's Vineyard.

According to stats that I found, Korčula’s permanent, year-round population is less than Martha’s Vineyard's. Korčula has a permanent population of approximately 15,500 residents, making it the second most populous island in the entire Adriatic Sea. Martha's Vineyard has a listed permanent year-round population of approximately 20,000+.

Korčula is not as upscale as Martha's Vineyard. Not nearly as fancy. It feels more like Gloucester (another seaside Massachusetts community). It is still a working community. And it is still affordable enough for Croatians to visit for a summer holiday, especially if they stay outside the Old Town like we did.

The Islands

No trip to Croatia is complete without visiting an island. Croatia has hundreds of islands, but only 48 are inhabited year-round.

The most visited islands are Pag, Hvar, Brač, Korčula, and the more distant, less developed Vis and Mljet. Pag has the most visitors because it is connected to the mainland by a bridge. Hvar and Brač appeal to the luxury, jet-setting, party crowd.

Korčula is more low-key, has a slower pace, less nightlife, and is more historic. Korčula is often referred to in travel literature as “Little Dubrovnik.” But it's rougher around the edges.

Korčula Island sits approximately 53 miles northwest of Dubrovnik in a straight line. The island is separated from the Croatian mainland by a narrow body of water called the Pelješac Channel. At its absolute narrowest point, Korčula is only 0.8 miles away from the mainland town of Orebić.

The compact peninsula of Old Town Korčula makes up about 0.01% of the island's land area (about 7.5 acres) and is surrounded by water on three sides.

Korčula in a Nutshell

The compact, walled Old Town of Korčula is a dense maze of Venetian-Gothic architecture. Instead of late-night bars and clubs, Korčula sports subdued wine bars and open-air konobas (taverns) that close at midnight. Wine is big in Korčula. But if you don’t want to quietly sip wine at a cafe after dark, and want instead a wild and crazy time, you could go see a Korčula staple attraction: a traditional Moreška sword dance.

Korčula does not have high rise (more than four stories) beach front hotels or condos. It does not have beaches in the way that most Americans think of a beach. There are no sandy beaches and we only saw a few small stretches of pebbly beach near the main town. It’s mostly rock meets water. I can’t say I have been to an American equivalent to Korčula. Which was part of the appeal.

Inevitable GOT Trivia: No parts of GOT were filmed in Korčula! Korčula is GOT-Free.

"Korčula, Sa plaže" (Korčula, from the beach), a 1930's postcard.

This is the Land Gate, Grand Staircase and Revelin Tower, serving as the main entrance into Old Town Korčula. The monumental stone staircase was added in 1907, replacing an older wooden drawbridge .

Korčula History

Greeks

According to ancient Greek mythology, Korčula was founded by the Trojan warrior and prince Antenor in the 12th century BC (around 1180 BC), following the fall and burning of Troy. The actual, documented colonization of the island occurred in two distinct waves of Ancient Greek settlers. Greek colonists arriving from the island of Corfu established the original settlement in the 6th century BC (supplanting the native islanders). A later group of Greek settlers from the island of Issa (modern-day Vis) established a colony on the eastern tip of the island in the 4th century BC. This makes Korčula significantly older than Dubrovnik.

Venetians

Korčula also has a deep-rooted Venetian connection (like Dubrovnik). The Republic of Venice ruled the island on and off for centuries, including for a long 377-year stretch from 1420 to 1797.

Marco Polo

The island's most disputed historic claim is that it was the birthplace of explorer Marco Polo in 1254. Venice, however, claims Marco Polo as its own.

This massive circular fortification in Old Town Korčula is known as "Torjun." It was built in 1483 to protect the nearby Governor's Palace.

A limestone bench in front of the Bishop's Treasury on St. Mark's square in Korčula Town. It's an upcycled piece of art made from different sculpture fragments.

This relief carving depicts Saint Roch (also known as Saint Rocco), a Catholic saint who lived during the 14th century. He is the patron saint of protection against the plague and serious illnesses.

The Frog Fountain is an almost modern-looking, stone water feature located on the historic Sea Gate in Korčula Town.

Hotel Korsal

We stayed at the Hotel Korsal, as were numerous other ferry passengers. There was a check-in line when we arrived. Hotel Korsal is a 25-room hotel, built on top of a 300-year-old house (with parts of the original structure still visible). It is located outside the walls and across a pedestrian-only street from the sea.

The Hotel Korsal opened in 2010. It is a roughly 6-to-8-minute walk southeast of the historic Korčula Old Town Gate. The route from Old Town to the hotel encompasses the Šetalište Frana Kršinića, a promenade locally known as the Borak area, featuring beachy eateries and bars. Many of these establishments were not quite yet open for the season. Many places in Korčula were still fixing up for the tourist season, nailing things back together, repainting, washing down outdoor tables, setting up umbrellas etc.

Banje Beach (Plaža Banje), a small pebble beach suitable for children (and adults), was located directly opposite the hotel's outdoor terrace. Minutes away was the ACI Marina Korčula, important if you happen to be traveling by private boat.

The Hotel Korsal as seen from the municipal (town-owned) beach in Korčula. The blue doors lead to beach changing cabins (perhaps no longer in use based on current condition) built directly into the stone retaining wall of Plaža Banje. A fascinating, but not the most upscale part of town.

Looking out at the neighboring Aminess Liburna Hotel and Marko Polo Maradiso Hotel. Both seemed barely populated (though they had been open since March 29).

The bedroom.

Our room was curious as it had a small wall-to-ceiling, glassed-in area next to a window. Inside this enclosure there were two chairs and a small table. I have read that this is called an enclosed loggia or sunroom, but I am not sure of its function.

All in all, the hotel’s location was good. The view was much better than our view in Dubrovnik (we could see the sea from our room).

Our Room and Amenities

The room was very comfortable and fun, but not fancy. The ample communal outside areas would have been absolutely divine if we had better weather. Places to sit and relax outside, especially with a view, are worth a premium.

Breakfast was served in Restaurant Moreška that wasn’t quite big enough for all the guests when it was raining and the outside, uncovered tables were soaked. Restaurant Moreška was also open for lunch and dinner, but we did not eat there.

We got the feeling that the breakfast staff were just getting the hang of it and some might have been new this season (the hotel opened for the season mid-April, so it had only been open for a few weeks). During our first breakfast the staff seemed overwhelmed. This is not uncommon and should be expected and accepted as part of the pre-season experience.

For example: During our first breakfast the hotel offered unlimited espressos, lattes, and cappuccinos, which seemed to burden the staff. It takes time to make such beverages. During our second breakfast, they offered one fancy caffeine fix of your choice. No refills. Which freed up the breakfast staff to replenish the food items that made up the impressive continental breakfast. That said, there was a pot (or two) of standard coffee that was replenished as needed. It was just the fancy barista prepared caffeine that was limited. The breakfast was high-end and complimentory. So one can't complain.

The staff and management at this hotel were excellent. They were friendly and prevented a near disaster, which I will tell you about later.

Exploring Town

After we checked in we walked to the Old Town in the rain and visited some shops. It's a short walk to the Old Town,

Compared to Dubrovnik, Korčula was empty. It had densely packed historic stone buildings and twisty, narrow cobblestone streets like Dubrovnik. But the wall wasn’t as high or distinctive and Korčula’s Old Town is smaller.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the cats of Korčula. This guy is visiting the Borak Bar, a beachfront lounge and terrace located along the waterfront promenade near our hotel. The sign has seen better days. The bar was not yet open for the season.

In Korčula, like Dubrovnik, people left food out for the cats. The tin under the chair has been licked clean.

Dida, which means "grandfather" in the local Dalmatian dialect was near our hotel. It didn't look open. But I love the sign with photos of their fare.

The Hotel Korsel was located among the beachy eateries and bars on Šetalište Frana Kršinića, a promenade locally known as the Borak area. Many of these establishments are very casual, affordable and frequented by locals as opposed to the more upscale and touristy restaurants and bars along Zakrjan Promenade. And many of the establishments in the Borak area were not quite yet open for the season.

Before returning to our room we bought a bottle of local Krajančić Pošip Intrada from seemingly the only currently open wine shop in Old Town (The Wine Corner) for €26. Wine in Croatia seemed more expensive than wine in Italy or Portugal, places we have visited in the past two years. The shop sold other alcohol as well. I was startled to see a .750-liter bottle of Grey Goose Vodka priced at €97. While a bit shell-shocked by their vodka prices, I had to buy a wee bottle of TRUT gin distilled in Korčula just to try it. It tasted like gin.

Pošip wine is more interesting, a bit minerally and saline. Pošip is made from a white wine grape native to the island of Korčula and the Dalmatian region of Croatia. Wine experts have described Pošip as “a beautiful bridge between Chardonnay (for its creamy weight and texture) and Viognier (for its bright stone-fruit aromatics), though it remains distinctly drier and more savory than either.” We had a bottle of this wine at a restaurant in Dubrovnik and would try it again during our wine tour the next day.

Obligatory selfie, Korčula Old Town behind us. Took this photo as we walked along the shore.

The Šetalište Petra Kanavelića (also called Zakrjan Promenade) is short, only about 650 feet long. It was mostly empty today.

This was a view from one of the many empty tables on the promenade. Pine & sea.

The Šetalište Petra Kanavelića was distinctly different from most of what we saw in Dubrovnik’s Old Town. The Šetalište Petra Kanavelića is the seaside pedestrian promenade wrapped around the northeastern part of historic Korčula’s Old Town. It features a long row of open-air cafes, cocktail bars, and seafood restaurants with plenty of outdoor seating shaded by tall, old pine trees, offering dramatic views across the Pelješac Channel. In high-season, I am sure this area is mobbed. This afternoon it was abandoned.

Restaurant Filippi

We rested before dinner and alerted the hotel staff that the wifi was weak (wifi sucked when we arrived). And guess what? They fixed it. Not immediately, but before the day was over.

On our first night in Korčula we had reservations at the fanciest and most expensive restaurant of our trip. We like to have at least one splurge meal when we travel. Was it a good idea to eat at an expensive restaurant on an island that isn’t known for being fancy... and before the season was in full swing? Well...

Amuse-bouche “fish balls.”

Beef tartare topped with caviar, rare beef slices, crispy toast.

Vegetarian strawberry tomato jam purée.

Pašticada-like slow-cooked beef cheek and gnocchi.

Sous-vide swordfish with squid ink polenta. The polenta was good.

Dessert.

We ate at the Michelin-recommended Restaurant Filippi located on the Šetalište Petra Kanavelića promenade in Korčula Old Town. We were the only ones there until dessert was served. We sat inside because it was raining. It is a bit unnerving to be the only people in a restaurant.

Restaurant Filippi has a very limited menu and requires dinner guests to generally choose from their structured multi-course formats rather than a wide open à la carte board, although à la carte seems to be available sometimes. You can generally choose a three-, four-, or five-course meal. I had a four-course meal and Becky thought she was ordering à la carte, but we think she ended up with a three-course meal, sort of. It was hard to tell. We started with an amuse-bouche, or "mouth-amuser," consisting of “fish balls.” Generally this is a free, small, unlisted chef-inspired palate enticer. That was part of my meal plan but Becky had to pay for her's according to our waiter, making her meal essentially three courses.

My first course was beef tartare with a side of rare sliced beef. While I eat carpaccio from time to time, this was my first beef tartare. Raw ground beef. Becky ordered something that looked just as bloody—a strawberry tomato jam purée. We both liked our first course.

My second course was a traditional Croatian pašticada-like slow-cooked beef cheek and gnocchi (which I had previously in Dubrovnik). Becky did not have a second course.

The third course (entree), which we both ordered, was a sous-vide swordfish with squid ink polenta. We only had two entree options to choose from. The polenta was great.

Sous-vide involves sealing food—typically meat or fish—in an airtight plastic pouch and cooking it in a temperature-controlled water bath. It’s supposed to keep fish from drying out. Our swordfish was purplish and raw-looking on the inside and well-cooked and white on the outside (like seared tuna). But the unnerving part was that it was hard to cut with a knife and oddly chewy—the wrong texture for swordfish based on how we usually consume this fish. Neither of us ate much of it. We joked with each other that the chef missed the ferry from the mainland and the busboy was cooking. Too bad, because everything else was very good.

We washed everything down with a glass of Rukatac, a crisp, light, everyday regional white wine (and perhaps the cheapest wine you can buy on the island). We shared a nice dessert to finish up. All in all, an interesting, very memorable, expensive and somewhat disappointing experience. And I am glad to report, we did not get sick afterwards. The bill: €246 with tip.

Korčula, Wednesday, May 6

The hotel served an ample continental breakfast buffet-style with a variety of bakery items, cheese, cured meat, yogurt, fruit, and a complimentary hot egg and meat (bacon/sausage) option. Croatian bacon, by the way, does not taste like North American bacon. For eggs, you had a choice between an omelet with cheese and a few veggies, simple fried eggs, or scrambled eggs with truffle oil. I learned that I really do not like truffle oil on anything, especially eggs. Geoffrey Zakarian and Alton Brown are right: truffle oil should not exist. But croissants and Croatian pekmez od šljiva (plum jam) are a great combination. Pekmez has less sugar and is less sweet than many jams. The restaurant had a big bowl of pekmez that was as dark as chocolate. It’s a staple in Croatia but an expensive gourmet item in the U.S.

Breakfast seemed to take forever this morning and the dining room was packed. The hotel must have been full. After breakfast, we walked to the Old Town. We meandered up one cobblestone street and down another. We soon learned that most streets in Korčula have stairs at one end or the other — a true hill town. We saw lots of locals doing exterior pre-season prep work, getting ready for the warmer weather and annual wave of vacationers. It reminded me of Block Island before Memorial Day (one of our favorite times to visit).

Many establishments were not yet open. There is a little boy running up the steps lower left — my favorite part of this photo.

Korčula is not full of must-see attractions. And it’s a sleepy place in early May. Korčula's Old Town is much smaller than Dubrovnik's, but a much higher percentage of its buildings are still occupied by local families who live there year-round, which gives it a different, more authentically Balkan vibe.

Spring cleaning - getting ready for the summer of 2026 and the tourist season.

A Venetian-style, Renaissance-era limestone balcony, weathered by salt and time. It's amazing that the decorative stone corbels supporting the weight of the platform hold up still.

The peeling layers of the now defunct St. Catherine’s Church, locally known as Crkva Svete Katarine. Sveta Katarina was originally built in 1422 but it was reconstructed in the 16th century. The small side street which is home to Svete Katarine is known as ‘Cala dei Pensieri‘ (meaning: the street of the thoughtful). It’s supposedly the only street in the Old Town that has no steps.

We mostly wandered through the uncrowded streets, looking at buildings and wondering what it would be like to live here. We did some window shopping and made note of the places we wanted to visit on Thursday. We stopped at one curious shop — Boya Crayons Shop & Atelier. Boya Crayons were invented in Zagreb, Croatia and are unique in that they have a teardrop, ergonomic shape.

I love shutters. Windows in Croatia don't have screens. But they have shutters. And the shutters don't always match.

To get from point A to point B, you have to climb stairs.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a food market called Konzum and bought bread, mladi kravlji sir cheese, olive oil and fruit for a light lunch. And then we walked from our hotel away from the Old Town along the shore toward the much bigger Aminess Liburna Hotel and its neighboring Marko Polo Maradiso Hotel. Both seemed almost vacant.

Vineyards and Bicycles

At 2:00, we met John Flynn, a British expat who owns Korčula Explorer with his wife, Rachael. Becky and I and two other couples had signed up for a wine tasting tour led by John to two small, family-run vineyards on the island in the neighboring village of Lumbarda, which is famous for its sandy soil and indigenous Grk grape varietal. We would get to these vineyards on bicycles, doubling the fun.

This was the inaugural excursion of John’s “Korcula Bike and Wine Tour - Wine Tasting in Lumbarda” 2026 season. John and his wife moved from Britain to Korčula in 2011. He started this tour company a few years later. This afternoon, he was in high spirits. I think he likes what he does for a living.

The tour started in Korčula Old Town where we met our fellow pedalers — two other couples. Couple #1 was about our age and from Indianapolis. Half of couple #1 was a wine importer and here in Croatia for a work conference. Though she knew wine, she did not show off. Couple #2 was much younger than us and also American (living in New Jersey). Half of couple #2 was a filmmaker and intriguingly mysterious — we didn't get enough info to check her out on IMDb. It was a great group to spend the next six hours with.

The bike riding was fun but minimal. We only covered about six miles. We biked out of town, past the pavement and onto gravel roads, then narrow paths through vineyards and olive groves on our way to Lumbarda. En route, we stopped in the middle of a field and John shared some of the 18 liters of olive oil he made last year, magically producing the olive oil and bread from his saddlebag.

The paved road quickly turned into a dirt track through vineyards and olive groves.

The view from the small Cipre tasting terrace, outside what was formerly the family garage.

John Flynn, our charismatic bike/wine guide.

Our first stop was the Cipre Winery. The Cipre Winery is owned and operated by the Markovina family. The family has been harvesting grapes and making wine for generations, but not necessarily as a commercial enterprise. While they made wine privately for a very long time, they opened a tasting room to the public within the last ten years. The grapes are grown on a few acres that have been in the family for hundreds of years. The “winery” is in the owner’s converted garage (next to his house) on a hillside in a suburban neighborhood. Frano Markovina manages the vines and the winemaking, while his daughters host the tastings on their small outdoor terrace. Cipre produces only about 5,000 bottles of wine annually. Because their production is so small, they do not export their wine and most sales are made at the winery itself — at what the industry calls the “cellar door.” They are small enough not to maintain a stand-alone website. We tried Grk, Rukatac, a Rosé, and a red Plavac Mali. All really good. The daughter doing the pouring was also the person who designed the wine labels (she is a graphic designer).

A note about Grk. Not only is it an unusual wine, it has a great name. I love words without vowels. Korčula is very proud of its Grk, supposedly one of the rarest, most geographically restricted wine varieties in the world. The overwhelming majority of Grk is grown only in the sandy, sea-level fields surrounding the village of Lumbarda on the eastern tip of Korčula Island.

Popić Winery was our next and final stop, also located in a residential neighborhood. Supposedly the Cebalo-Popić family has been growing grapes and making wine in Lumbarda for more than 300 years. But winemaking as a commercial enterprise and the tasting facility were relatively new. Popić Winery produces only about 5,000 to 10,000 bottles of wine per year. Because their production is so small, they do not export their wine and it is only carried in a few shops locally (and they too have no stand-alone website). They grow their grapes on 2 to 3 acres of land. We sat outside. Popić supplied a generous Croatian-themed charcuterie board that they kept refilling. It included goat cheese, cow cheese, olives, Dalmatian prosciutto and other cured meats, capers, pickled onion relish, Marcona almonds, tomatoes, fresh bread, olive oil, figs, and strawberries. Needless to say, this was dinner. We sampled Grk, Pošip, a Rosé, a red Plavac Mali, and a sweet Prošek dessert wine. The pours were generous. The wine was delicious. To celebrate the start of the season, they brought us a full glass of wine at the end of the tasting while we sat and talked and ate their seemingly all-you-can-eat charcuterie. Luckily, we did not have to pedal home (by now it was close to 8:00 PM). A van came and picked us up, then returned and picked up the bikes.

Super fun, super satisfying. John Flynn was affable, funny, and knowledgeable — a perfect guide. I’d go out drinking with him anytime. And our other companions were a pleasure.

Korčula, Thursday, May 7

Around Town

Stairs lead up to Novi Puti offering a panoramic view of the city.

This morning it was pouring. It rained until noon and then the sun came out. We waited for the wet to end. Then, we walked up stone stairs to the hillside above Korčula's Old Town for the panoramic vantage points located along Novi Puti (New Way) area. We looked out across the fig trees and terracotta rooftops toward St. Mark’s Cathedral, the sea, and cloud-encased mountains beyond.

Korčula has two half towers, split down the middle. This is the Berim Tower. The metal staircase leads up to the Cocktail Bar Massimo, which occupies the open roof of the turret. Drinks are made at the bottom and hauled up via a pulley system. It didn't seem to be open yet.

This is the Kanavelić Tower, built into the medieval walls of Korčula Old Town. There's a restaurant at its base. It's just down the street from the Berim Tower.

We climbed down the stairs and headed to the far end of Old Town via the Šetalište Petra Kanavelića to the Berim Tower (also called the Zakerjan Tower — it now has a bar at its top). It was originally a 15th-century stone fortification crowning the northernmost point of the city's walls. We continued westerly to the Kanavelić Tower. Both are odd-looking "half" towers, sliced vertically down the middle.

We then proceeded through the city walls to the outside world. We walked along the quiet concrete pier / boat slipway along the Put Svetog Nikole (promenade), past the pink stucco Church of Saint Justina that is flanked by angel statues. We saw people working on their boats and someone who caught a large fish from the stone embankment. He kept it, so it must have been edible. Supposedly, one can catch two types of seabream, as well as mullet, bogue, and dreamfish from here.

A boat undergoing repairs along Put Svetog Nikole, the scenic seaside promenade winding just outside the town walls on the western/southwestern edge of Korčula.

The Dominican Monastery and Church of Saint Nicholas in the Western Harbor.

We traveled as far as the Sveti Nikola Church and Monastery complex and turned around.

The church/monastery had vibrant coral-orange clusters of tubular Soap Aloe flowers planted in front of it.

A protected, shallow neighborhood harbor traditionally reserved for local residents and small utility skiffs called mandračs.

Becky bought handmade jewelry as Christmas presents for herself and others from a shop called Perla, which specializes in freshwater and saltwater pearl jewelry and then we shared a gelato from Aroma Global.

Right: Near the jewelry shop Perla on Ulica Marka Andrijića. This is a "stone fly-bridge. " It allowed residents to move between separate wings of their household—such as kitchens or servant quarters which were detached from private bedrooms—without ever having to step down into the busy public alleyways below.

Korčula Town Museum, St. Mark's Cathedral and St. Anthony’s Hill

Colored sketch by Dutch architect Maarten Ruijters entitled "The alley of my dreams...found in Korčula’"—was sketched during a trip he took to the region on August 19, 2007.

Right: I love the corbels on the Ismaelli Palace, a 15th-to-16th-century residence located in the center of Korčula’s Old Town, just a short walk away from the Cathedral of St. Mark. The Ismaelli family was one of the wealthiest noble houses on the island during the peak of the Venetian Republic's rule.

We then went to the small Korčula Town Museum (cash only). This place reminded me of how museums looked in the 1980s — displays and wall tags. The museum is housed inside Gabrielis Palace, a 15th-century Renaissance palace built by a wealthy local noble family. Its claim to fame: the museum holds the Psephisma of Lumbarda, a 4th-century BC stone tablet written in Ancient Greek. It is the oldest written document ever found in Croatia and outlines an ancient agreement about sharing land on the island.

We then we visited St. Mark’s Cathedral (separate admission, cash only). The cathedral was built over a span of about 150 years, beginning in the early 14th century and finishing in the late 15th century. Because it took so long to complete, its style is a mishmash of Romanesque and Gothic with elegant Renaissance touches. Inside, the high altar features a painting by the legendary 16th-century Venetian master Tintoretto. Despite the nearby cruise ship, both the museum and the church were almost empty, if you consider a half-dozen visitors as inconsequential.

Before heading back to our hotel, we stopped at The Wine Corner again, confirming it was the only open option, and bought a bottle of Radovanović Grk for €35. We learned that Grk is a special-order, premium wine in the U.S. due to its extreme regionality and limited production. We bought this bottle to bring home. Otherwise, we might never taste it again.

Above the main entrance of St. Mark's Cathedral in Korčula Old Town, dating from the 15th century. This woman is Eve. She may be peeing.

This dude is Adam. A balding Adam. The true consequence of original sin = hair loss.

A transom rosette window located above the entrance to the Church of All Saints in Korčula Old Town.

The western facade gable of the 15th century St. Mark's Cathedral.

A supportive bracket (corbel) beneath the first-floor balcony of Gabrielis Palace (now the Town Museum), located on St. Mark's Square. Gabrielis Palace was built during the 16th century.

Dating back to the early 3rd century BC (circa 300–250 BC), this Greek stone inscription is considered the oldest written document ever found on Croatian soil. It was discovered in 1877. On display in the Town Museum.

A stone relief that depicts the Lion of Saint Mark (also known as the Winged Lion of Venice) in the Land Gate Tower. This lion motif served as the official symbol of the Republic of Venice. The 15th century local Dalmatian masons working on Korčula's fortifications had priobably never seen a live lion. Which is maybe why it looks so weird. Look at that face!

Quirky corbels on the Ismaelli Palace.

St. Anthony’s Hill

After dropping off the wine and other purchases at the hotel room, we headed in the opposite direction, away from Old Town. We were off to climb St. Anthony’s Hill, a scenic, protected viewpoint and historical landmark located just outside of Korčula Old Town, about 1.5 miles from the hotel. The most famous element of the hill is its dramatic approach: 101 stone stairs shaded by towering cypresses. At the top of the summit sits the Church of St. Anthony. A small chapel stood here in the 14th century, but it was expanded and rebuilt in the late 1600s. From the summit, one gets lovely views of historic Korčula and the seascape beyond. No one was there except us. I suppose this is why you visit Korčula in early May. Note: 75% of Korčula's "attractions" do not have independent websites, but are instead listed on the equivalent of the Tourist Board or Chamber of Commerce websites. The Church of St. Anthony has no website (but it has a billboard).

This is a bus stop with a billboard behind me of the steps leading up St. Anthony's Hill.

The Church of St. Anthony's rustic bell tower.

The actual steps leading up St. Anthony's Hill. Not a billboard.

The actual steps leading down St. Anthony's Hill. Not a billboard.

The Church of St. Anthony.

The view from St. Anthony's Hill.

Offerings left at the Church of St. Anthony.

Outside the church.

A stone relief of St. Anthony of Padua (the church's namesake). St. Anthony spent decades living as a hermit in the Egyptian desert spanning the 3rd and 4th centuries. According to his early biographies, he was relentlessly tormented by the devil, who often took the physical form of ferocious wild beasts—including vicious wild boars.

Also St. Anthony, perhaps older and now bearded. At his feet is a pig traditionally associated with the "Order of Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony," whose pigs wore bells and were permitted to forage freely. In early Christian art, artists placed a pig at his feet to represent the Deadly Sin of Gluttony or earthly desires that Anthony had conquered through fasting and prayer. But the order also raised pigs to render pork fat for medicinal purposes, namely to treat a Medieval, painful, burning skin disease called ergotism. Who knew?

Silk - Dinner on an Empty Šetalište Petra Kanavelića.

We ate outside that night at a pan-Asian restaurant called Silk. Silk has three other restaurants in Croatia. This one was located on the famous sea-facing, pine-lined promenade called Šetalište Petra Kanavelića. We chose this restaurant in part so we could sit outside on the promenade—the weather was cool, but it wasn’t raining. The entire promenade was quiet and almost empty. The evening view from our table was spectacular. The food reminded me of Asian food that one could buy in almost any large town/small city or tourist destination in the U.S. (that is, not bad but not unique). But the coastal view and lack of other tourists were fun as heck.

The "intimate" or "cozy" (i.e. smaller than many) Costa Deliziosa cruise ship as seen from our restaurant seating.

Looking away from Old Town. The boat is named "Barbara." It's a 134-foot luxury motor sailor (powerful motor plus sails). The vessel accommodates up to 35 passengers.

The Costa Deliziosa (Italian Costa cruise line) was anchored offshore. Supposedly, Korčula caters to boutique cruise lines that carry only 450 to 600 passengers. But the Costa Deliziosa carried between 1,500 and 2,000 passengers. They stagger the shore excursions to minimize the impact. Indeed, the town was much busier than the previous two days, but by no means crowded.

Korčula to Split, Friday, May 8

Panic on the High Seas

We needed to be at the ferry dock by 9:30 AM, so we opted for an expedited breakfast with no eggs. This morning, we were taking a TP Line passenger ferry/catamaran to Split. The ride is about 3 hours and 15 minutes and stops at ports on Hvar and Brač islands. Split is about 65 nautical miles northwest of Korčula.

An hour or so into the boat trip, we received a text from our hotel alerting us that we had left prescription medicine in the mini-fridge (but packed the wine and cheese). And I thought, did we forget anything else? Passports?

Indeed, we left our passports in the room safe, so we had a moment of panic. We had another two-plus hours on the ferry before reaching the Split port. Taking a ferry back to Korčula to pick up our passports would take the rest of the day, and then we would have to spend the night in Korčula in order to wait for the next ferry. Split operates the busiest passenger seaport in Croatia. It serves as the primary nautical launchpad for ferries heading out to the islands of Hvar, Brač, Vis, and Korčula. But was there even a late afternoon ferry from Split to Korčula? What if there wasn’t? What were we going to do?

Thankfully, the manager at Hotel Korsal had a solution. He put the medicine and passports in a brown lunch bag, wrote our name on it, and handed it off to an employee working the next ferry headed to Split. Seemingly, we were not the first tourists to leave their valuables behind.

So, three hours after we arrived in Split, we had to venture back to the Split ferry port, which was undergoing construction, and locate the 4:10 PM ferry as it arrived from Korčula. This wasn’t as easy as it might seem, as it was a different ferry company and ship, arriving at an undisclosed location thanks to ongoing port construction. We had no idea what the boat looked like or where the boat would dock in this large port, but we narrowed it down to two or three locations. In the end, all was well. We found our boat. And then all we had to do was ask various random guys who looked like they worked for a ferry line if they had a paper bag with our passports until we found the right guy, and then slip him €10. Easy-peasy. In the end, we were grateful to Hotel Korsal for reuniting us with our passports. Kudos to the hotel manager. Stellar customer service.

A Few Things About Split

Not Gandalf. Not Dumbledore. The massive 28-ft bronze statue of Gregory of Nin (Grgur Ninski), sculpted by Split’s very own Ivan Meštrović in 1929, stands outside the main (Golden) gate to the city walls. Rubbing its shiny left toe is said to bring good luck. Before we left Split, we visited Meštrović’s mansion on the beach and saw more of his work. Look at those hands!

Split coat of arms.

A waterfront map of Diocletian's Palace (as it used to be). There's a whole city inside the walls now.

Looking out toward the Golden Gate, which serves as the northern entrance to Diocletian's Palace (or from this vantage point, exit out of Diocletian's Palace).

How Old is Split?

Split was officially established around 305 CE. The tyrannical Roman Emperor Diocletian built a massive, fortified retirement palace on the peninsula. Diocletian was the only Roman emperor to live long enough to retire. Diocletian's Palace is one of the world's best-preserved examples of Roman imperial architecture. It is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Split and the Fall of Rome

After Diocletian died around 313 CE, the complex ceased to be a private home. It remained an active, state-owned Roman facility for the next 100 years. Julius Nepos, the last recognized Western Roman Emperor, fled to Dalmatia and lived inside Diocletian's Palace. He was assassinated inside the palace halls in 480 CE. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Roman administrative systems completely dissolved across Europe, and the palace lost its funding and military garrison. It became mostly abandoned, empty, and quiet for decades. By the 7th century, the palace was abandoned, and nearby citizens fleeing the “barbarian” invaders (the Avars and the Slavs) took refuge inside the thick stone walls of the former palace, transforming the hallways, chambers, and temples into permanent houses and shops. Thus this Roman era palace was completely transformed into a city, with layers of history. As the city grew, the Roman era structures were recycled, incorportated and built around, into and on top of.

Modern Split

Today, Old Town Split is pedestrian-only. Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 permanent residents live directly inside the stone walls of Diocletian's Palace, the heart of historic Split. The population of Split's urban city center, which includes historic areas (largely medieval) outside of the palace, is around 152,000 to 160,000 people, making it about the size of Savannah, Georgia. The greater metropolitan region encompasses between 310,000 and 400,000 residents, ranking it as the second-largest city in Croatia right behind the capital, Zagreb. Split is much bigger than Dubrovnik.

Heritage Hotel Cardo

Our bedroom in the Hotel Cardo.

The shutters on our windows at the Hotel Cardo. Our room looked out on two communal bistro tables on a raised terrace. The shutters offered additional privacy and noise insulation.

A Murano glass chandelier in our bedroom.

We stayed at the stylish and very small, 5-room Heritage Hotel Cardo, located inside the historic stone walls of Diocletian's Palace, minutes from Peristyle Square, the heart of the living museum that is Split’s historic center.

When we first arrived in Split, we were met by a young man driving a golf cart. His job (arranged by our hotel) was to transport ferry passengers to their various hotels. It was a luxury hotel add-on, but well worth the cost because the trip to the hotel was indeed not straight-forward. Getting around was a bit disorienting at first.

The hotel’s entrance sits right on today's Dioklecijanova Street, which was the original main, north-south Roman road called the Via Cardo and is still a major (but narrow) pedestrian route from the main (Golden) gate to the most significant Roman ruins.

The hotel building itself dates back to the 15th century. The hotel is a wing of the grand D'Augubio Palace that is nestled within and incorporates some features of the much older Diocletian's Palace. Two palaces in one. The D'Augubio Palace was built when Split was ruled by the Republic of Venice. The same company that operates Hotel Cardo offered three additional guest suites in a different wing of D'Augubio Palace — a total of nine accommodations.

The D'Augubio Palace's upper-floor loggia which connects to our hotel. You have to walk under this to get to the Golden Gate in one direction and Peristyle Square in the other. This is one of the views from the small hotel terrace outside our bedroom.

This photo was also taken from our hotel terrace, looking down into Dioklecijanova Street. The D'Augubio Palace is on both sides of Dioklecijanova Street. The arch was once the main portal of D'Augubio Palace. Behind the arch is a courtyard and the Fig Split bistro where we ate lunch.

Our room was located on the first floor next to the hotel’s small terrace and just outside the hotel’s reception area. It was surprisingly quiet considering its location, which at first gave us qualms. It had a stone floor and an impressive Murano glass chandelier.

Our bathroom was the highlight of our room, as it featured exposed Roman stone brickwork from Diocletian's Palace. The bathroom wall was once a part of Diocletian's Palace’s massive northern basilica that served as the imperial administrative command center.

I learned that the brickwork was an example of “opus mixtum” (which means "mixed work" in Latin). It’s a Roman building technique where masons mixed rows of rough stone blocks with horizontal bands of flat red bricks. How cool is that? We showered next to a wall built 1,700 years ago.

Exposed Roman stone brickwork from Diocletian's Palace in our hotel bathroom.

The Fig Split bistro across from the hotel just inside the D'Augubio Palace's original main entrance and courtyard.

We ate lunch in a cafe called Fig Split directly across from the hotel. We sat outside in the stone courtyard and drank wine and spritzes. I ordered a Jalapeño-Bluberry Burger (with onions and smoked Gouda), and Becky had a salad.

We watched a cat jump into a diner’s lap and nonchalantly walk across her table on its way to someplace better—not interested in the lady or her food. Like Dubrovnik and Korčula, there were cats everywhere in Split.

After lunch, we picked up our passports at the ferry port.

Split Tour

We were due to meet a tour guide, Maja Benzon (from the Rick Steves’ forum/€120), at 5:30 PM for a private two-hour tour, similar to what we did in Dubrovnik. She had an emergency so we started closer to 6:00. She wanted to buy us drinks as an apology. We declined to take advantage of the remaining picture-making light. The tour was quick-paced and fascinating, and there was much information to absorb. Most importantly, the tour piqued our curiosity about certain sites, gave us the lay of the land, and helped us decide how to prioritize the next few days, which was what we needed. As we circumnavigated Split Old Town (the historic center), we learned that 75% of the original Roman wall still remains with three surviving towers and four gates. Unlike Dubrovnik, it is not a walkable wall. The maze of narrow cobblestone streets inside the wall are now tightly packed with interconnecting stone buildings—shops, cafes, and small hotels, as well as people’s homes. In addition to the historic center, we walked with Maja through parts of the medieval town called Varoš that grew just outside the western walls of Diocletian's Palace. There were plenty of people on the streets still. By the time we were done, it was almost dark.

Maja Benzon, our private tour guide. I highly recommend starting a multi-day stay in Dubrovnik and Split with a private tour. And I highly recommend Maja (Split), John (Korčula) and Robert (Dubrovnik). (Repurposed, edited photo of Maja, photographer unknown).

The 1,700-year-old Roman Golden Gate serves as the northern entrance to Diocletian's Palace. If you walk down Dioklecijanova Street from the Golden Gate, you will pass Hotel Cardo and end up in the Peristyle, the spectacular central square of the palace.

Gorgona the Sphinx

Near Emperor Diocletian's mausoleum, now the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, is a 3,500-year-old black granite Egyptian sphinx with human hands named Gorgona, the sphinx of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC). It was looted by Diocletian's armies. Diocletian had as many as a dozen sphinxes in his palace, most of which were eventually destroyed or mutilated/decapitated after his death by the vengeful Christians. No one knows why this one survived more or less intact.

The ruins of the Vestibule (also known as the Rotonda, or Atrium). It's part of the Diocletian's Palace complex. Constructed between 295 and 305, it served as the grand entrance to the emperor's private chambers.

In People's Square (Narodni Trg), commonly called Pjaca, is the relief of St. Anthony on the historic 14th-century Ciprianis-Benedetti Palace. St. Anthony seems very popular in Croatia.

Like Dubrovnik and Korčula, there were cats everywhere.

Sudamja Festival

Promotional Sudamja Festival 2026 graphic.

We learned from Maja that the day before we arrived in Split, May 7th, was the culmination of an annual celebration called the Sudamja Festival (also locally known as the Feast of Sveti Duje), which happens from April 30th to May 10th. The festival celebrates Saint Domnius, Split’s patron saint. May 7th is the official feast day, and there is a procession where thousands of locals and pilgrims carry the relics of Saint Domnius from the cathedral down to the Riva promenade on the waterfront. There is also live music and performances, and the Riva Street Fair where the waterfront fills with market stalls. Locals traditionally buy handmade wooden cooking spoons and a type of wooden bird toy for children called a klepetalo. The day ends with fireworks. Too bad we were a day late! Thousands of people visit Split for the feast day celebrations, which explains why we saw so many people out and about.

Game of Thrones & the Palace Cellars

Inevitable GOT trivia. The last highlight I remember from the tour has to do with Game of Thrones. No Croatian tour would be complete without a GOT reference. During the tour (and many times after the tour), we walked through the palace substructure (Palace Cellars) as it’s the fastest way to get to the waterfront Riva promenade. This route takes one through cavernous stone rooms that served as Daenerys Targaryen’s Throne Room in Meereen. It was also the dark vault where she kept and chained her dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion.

We did not eat dinner that night, but we did drink a glass of wine on the hotel terrace.

The next day, Maja bought a lovely box of Nadalina chocolates and left them for us at our hotel as an apology for the tour's later than expected start time. Not only was the gesture kind, but the chocolates were also very good. Nadalina has a tiny flagship store on the same street as the hotel.

Split, Saturday, May 9

Morning Before The Crowds — The Sights

After our tour with Maja and her advice about when to visit certain attractions, we canceled our Saturday reservation for a morning guided bike rental/ride so we could visit some of Split’s main historic sites before the tour groups arrived. We were up and out of the hotel by 8:00-something. By 9:00 AM or so, the tour groups arrive. Split is also a cruise ship destination.

We went to Diocletian’s Mausoleum/Cathedral of Saint Domnius to see the inside and the crypt below. We climbed the Saint Domnius Bell Tower. We visited the Temple of Jupiter, a Roman temple built inside Diocletian's Palace that was later converted into the Baptistery of Saint John. The temple has a headless sphinx that survived from Diocletian’s time. We visited the Golden Gate, the grand northern entrance of Diocletian's Palace. Standing directly north of the gate, across the old defensive moat area, is the colossal statue of Bishop Gregory of Nin. It was created in 1929 by Croatia's favorite artist, the 20th-century sculptor, Ivan Meštrović. Gregory looks a bit like Gandalf or Dumbledore.

Peristyle Square, looking out across its ancient Roman stone courtyard toward the 13th-century Skočibučić Palace complex. Peristyle is an architectural term for a continuous row of columns (a colonnade) surrounding a courtyard. The columns in the foreground, some "imported" from Egypt, are part of the 4th-century Diocletian's Palace. The same columns were later integrated into the buildings across the street. One of those buildings, the Lvxor Café, puts red cushions out for people to sit on at night. Peristyle Square stays lively well-after dark. This photo was made around 8:00 AM. Our hotel was a 2-minute walk away.

The eastern colonnade of Peristyle Square looking up at the Bell Tower of the (Catholic) Cathedral of Saint Domnius (formerly Diocletian's Mausoleum). Diocletian’s Mausoleum has been a Catholic church since the 7th century. Which is only fitting, since Diocletian never met a Christian he didn’t kill. The Bell Tower was built in phases between the 13th and 16th centuries. The tower underwent a massive restoration around 1908, when it was disassembled and reassembled.

Looking-upward at the Roman brick dome (cupola) and upper colonnade of Emperor Diocletian's Mausoleum (built around 305 CE). Today, this structure serves as the core nave of the Cathedral of Saint Domnius.

The Altar of Saint Anastasius, located in the left northern niche inside the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, from 1448.

Cathedral of Saint Domnius

The Emperor Diocletian's mausoleum, now the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, was a two-minute walk from our hotel. The mausoleum was officially converted into a Christian church during the 7th century CE when Christian refugees moved into the palace. This was ironic because Emperor Diocletian was Rome's most notorious persecutor of Christians, killing thousands. Saint Domnius was one of them (he was beheaded). Diocletian’s sarcophagus is believed to have been smashed and buried as the mausoleum was converted. The cathedral is still an active church. Becky stumbled upon a wedding taking place at the church a few days later.

View from the Bell Tower.

Saint Domnius Bell Tower

Outside the cathedral is the Saint Domnius Bell Tower, built in the 13th century (with some early structural phases dating back to around 1100 CE). It took over 300 years to fully finish, wrapping up in the mid-16th century. The bell tower was dismantled and rebuilt between 1890 and 1908. The restoration project took only 18 years.

Top: View of the waterfront from the top of the Bell Tower.

Bottom: Looking down at the bells from inside the Bell Tower.

This view frames the western arcade of Peristyle Square, looking directly down the narrow corridor toward the courtyard leading to the Temple of Jupiter. The foreground features original Roman gray granite and Cipollino marble columns. During the Middle Ages, when locals transformed the abandoned fortress into a vibrant city, they built multi-story stone houses directly behind the ancient Roman colonnade, recycling the Roman architecture.

The Church of Saint Roch (1516), nestled within the western colonnade of Peristyle Square. Medieval and Renaissance builders recycled Diocletian's Palace. The reddish stone pillars framing the church entryway are original 4th-century Roman columns that support the Peristyle’s monumental arcades.

The entrance of the Temple of Jupiter (also known as the Baptistery of St. John), located down a narrow western alleyway just off the main Peristyle Square. On the left of the stone block platform sits one of the original 3,500-year-old black granite Egyptian sphinxes that Emperor Diocletian imported to guard the sacred complex. This one is missing its head.

Away from the tourist center, you'll find residential houses built onto/into the limestone cliffside of the outer southern sea wall of the city.

The Fish Market

Split's Fish Market (the Ribarnica or Peškarija) has operated in the same venue since 1890, just west of Diocletian's Palace. It is said that you can find 50 different types of Adriatic sea and shell fish here. I didn’t count. The market is famous for a surprising natural quirk: it sits near natural sulfur springs, supposedly keeping the flies away. I didn’t see any flies. But the smell of sulfur and fish isn’t for everyone. Spit’s sulfur springs/spas have been a tourist attraction since Roman times. In addition to the prawns, there was European sea bass, octopus, some type of flatfish like flounder, sole or turbot, monkfish, red sea bream or dentex, and the bumpy scorpionfish - a staple of Dalmatian cooking, especially for brudet (Croatian fish stew).

Konoba Korta

A Splitska Torta, otherwise known as Split Cake, a traditional Croatian cake made of crispy, fruit-and-nut meringue layers held together by a rich vanilla buttercream. Part of our first breakfast at Hotel Cardo.

Konoba Korta and Split Cake

After our early morning excursions, we had a late breakfast. The hotel’s complimentary breakfast was served down the street and around the corner at a restaurant called Konoba Korta, which specializes in traditional Dalmatian seafood and Mediterranean dishes. What we didn’t realize to begin with is that the restaurant is part of the hotel, and despite the circuitous route to get to the restaurant, it is actually on the ground floor of the same building.

The breakfast was a restaurant-style, multi-course meal that included a charcuterie board (cured meat, local cheese, olives), fruit, baked goods, eggs prepared in various ways (we had poached eggs with hollandaise sauce), coffee prepared in various ways, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and a dessert. For dessert we shared a Splitska torta, otherwise known as Split Cake, a traditional Croatian cake made of crispy, fruit-and-nut meringue layers held together by a rich vanilla buttercream. This was a decadent breakfast experience.

Splitska Torta Recipe —

Ingredients for the sponge layers: Egg whites: 9 large. Granulated sugar: 9 tablespoons. Dried figs: 150 g, finely chopped. Raisins: 150 g, chopped. Walnuts or almonds: 150 g, coarsely chopped or ground. Wheat flour: 3 to 4 tablespoons.

Ingredients for the vanilla buttercream: Egg yolks: 9 large. Powdered sugar: 4 to 5 tablespoons. Vanilla sugar or extract: 1 packet (or 1 tsp vanilla extract). Unsalted butter: 200 g, softened to room temperature. Optional splash: A little rum or Maraschino liqueur for brushing the layers.

Very healthy.

Meštrović Gallery and Cat Bay

After breakfast, we visited the Cathedral Treasury Museum (locally called the Riznica). This modern museum houses historical Roman and Catholic artifacts accumulated by the church over the last 1,300 years.

After the Treasury Museum, we took an Uber to the Meštrović Gallery on the slopes of Marjan Hill outside of town. Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962) is a renowned 20th-century artist often described as the "Croatian Rodin." Unlike typical public art museums, this grand neoclassical mansion was entirely conceived, designed, and built by Ivan Meštrović himself between 1931 and 1939 to serve as his personal family summer villa, working atelier, and exhibition space. The mansion features a stunning, columned stone portico overlooking a terraced sculpture garden. The outdoor grounds are dotted with large bronze statues and offer panoramic views of the Adriatic Sea. The mansion houses close to 200 sculptures and hundreds of other artworks. Across the street from the mansion is the popular (stone, no sand) Kaštelet Beach, which seamlessly connects directly to Ježinac Beach.

Ježinac Beach is known as Cat Beach or Cat Bay because of the large colony of feral cats that live there. I met a young German woman feeding the cats while we walked along the beach. She asked for money to buy more kibble or Fentanyl; my German isn’t that good. We walked back to our hotel.

The view from the Meštrović Gallery's front yard. Not a bad view.

The stairs to the Meštrović Gallery.

A smattering of work from the Meštrović Gallery.

Kaštelet and Ježinac Beachs, where the cats and sunbathers lounged away the afternoon.

Portofino & Grše

We ate that night at an upscale, Falstaff-rated Mediterranean restaurant called Portofino, which wasn’t far from our hotel in Poljana Grgura Ninskog (a plaza/courtyard). We sat in the courtyard and people-watched. Portofino’s menu was comfortingly familiar. I had filet mignon and a pear and gorgonzola salad, and Becky had European sea bass and a goat cheese salad. For dessert, we shared tiramisu. This was one of the most satisfying meals of the trip.

It was dark by the time our meal was over, so we explored the city after dark. Toward the western wall of Diocletian's Palace in Pjaca/Narodni Trg, we came upon an outdoor concert and a huge crowd of people grooving to the Croatian rapper/hip-hop artist Grše. Not that we knew who Grše was, but we got down. When in Rome… There was a mosh pit specifically for elderly American tourists. The free concert was part of the Sudamja Festival.

We shared tiramisu for our dessert.

The Croatan rapper Grše provocatively eyeing my tiramisu. (photographer unknown)

Split, Sunday, May 10

Change of Plans

We didn't have time for a multi-course breakfast at Konoba Korta this morning because our private driver was picking us up at 9:00 AM. Konoba Korta opened at 8:00 AM, so we had plenty of time for yogurt and granola but had to forgo the eggs and Split cake. We had originally booked a group bus sightseeing tour out of the city and into nature to explore Krka National Park. But the group tour was nine hours long and made a side trip to the town of Skradin for lunch and shopping that didn’t interest us. So, we found a private driver that cost just a bit more than the tour group to take us to Klis Fortress and Krka National Park. The excursion would last five or six hours instead of nine. It cost €200 plus admission instead of €120 plus admission. For an additional €80 we bought ourself three or four hours to do other things (explore/nap). This was our first time hiring a private driver (as opposed to an Uber) for an excursion when travelling. Our first foray into no holds barred travel. They say there's no going back...

Klis Fortress

The Klis Fortress is about nine miles away from Split's Golden Gate, our pickup point. It took about 25 minutes to get there. Along the way, we passed an above-ground section (54 feet high) of the Diocletian Aqueduct, built around 300 CE and still standing! We arrived at the fortress before 9:30 AM.

Parts of Klis Fortress were built before Diocletian’s Palace, around the 2nd century BC by a local tribe called the Dalmatae. From that point on, its walls were continuously built, torn down, rebuilt, and expanded by a series of different empires over a span of more than 2,000 years. Following the fall of Rome, medieval Croatian rulers transformed Klis into the seat of the early Croatian royal state.

The fortress was strategically built along a narrow limestone bluff that reaches 1,263 feet above sea level at its absolute highest point. The ramparts offer an expansive view of the city of Split, the ancient ruins of Salona, the Klis valley, the Adriatic Sea, and the islands of Brač and Šolta. The fortress was used until the 1800s and then fell into partial ruin. It was opened as a historic site in the 2000s.

Inevitable GOT trivia: In Game of Thrones, the physical ramparts and winding steps of Klis Fortress were used as the primary set for the city of Meereen. Meereen was the massive desert city that Daenerys Targaryen marches upon and conquers in Season 4. The steep, zigzagging stone paths leading up to the main gates were used to film the dramatic scene where Daenerys famously crucifies the city's slave masters along the high city walls.

We spent a little over an hour at the fort. There were probably fewer than ten other people exploring the fortress. The GOT tour busses would arrive later in the day.

Krka National Park

Krka National Park is about 55 miles or an hour from the fortress. Krka National Park is famous for its seven spectacular travertine waterfalls and its beautifully clear, emerald-green waters. The ancient Roman Colosseum in Rome is built mostly out of travertine stone blocks, by the way.

The most famous waterfall is Skradinski Buk, which features a massive sequence of 17 individual cascading terraces. The park encompasses roughly 26,934 acres and was officially established in 1985. There is a 1.2-mile-long, zigzagging wooden boardwalk loop through the forest next to and over the rivers that often didn’t seem to be contained by any embankment.

The frogs were cacophonous. An aural extravaganza. The river was teeming with trout, Dalmatian rudd, and Illyrian chub/ide. The nature was glorious. And there were tons of people mostly taking selfies. This walk would be magical on a less crowded day. We were there for about two hours.

Parting Gifts, Bokamorra Pizza and Forest Park Marjan

We got back to the Split Golden Gate around 3:30 PM. At our hotel, we were gifted (by the hotel) a bottle of white wine from Brač called Stina Godiment. We really enjoyed Croatian wine. Unfortunately, Croatian wine is hard to find in Connecticut. Much to my surprise, this wine is exported to the US by a small company that handles all the wines from the Stina Winery as well as other Croatian wines. We didn’t have time to drink this bottle, but didn’t want it to go to waste, so we packed it in our suitcase and brought it home.

We ate an early dinner at a trendy, upscale hipster pizza parlor called Bokamorra Haute Couture Pizza & Cocktails down on the waterfront promenade. This joint is on all of the city's best pizza lists and even cracked a top 50 pizzerias in Europe list back in 2021. We had the "Mammina" (€15 — less than an American pizza!): Their signature veggie pizza topped with fresh lamb's lettuce (matovilac), leeks, "domaća šalša" (homemade tomato salsa), dried tomatoes, mushrooms, corn and "fior di latte mozzarella" on hot dough. The pizza was delicious, but you had to eat it with a knife and fork. The cocktails were pretty special too. They are renowned for their cocktails. My cocktail was called a Gin Morrison.

After dinner, we walked up toward the 734-acre Forest Park Marjan, which sits on a hill with a 360-degree panoramic view from its highest point (584 feet). The park is indeed a forest with trails and paved paths. We did not go all the way to the top. It was getting dark.

The park’s historic stone staircase—known as the Marjan Stairs —begins directly across the street from the Hotel Ambassador, right on the edge of the medieval Varoš neighborhood just west of the Riva promenade where we ate. We climbed only 314 stone steps to the first viewing stage, which is also the platform for a restaurant called Teraca Vidilica and the Old Jewish Cemetery that dates from 1573 and contains over 700 historic Sephardic tombstones. We walked back to the hotel through the Varoš neighborhood and arrived shortly after dark. Split, like all of Croatia, felt very safe.

The Marjan Stairs leading to Teraca Vidilica restaurant, the Old Jewish Cemetery and Forest Park Marjan.

The steps down to the Varoš neighborhood.

Split to Cavtat, Monday, May 11

On the Road with Octopus

We had not used private transportation for a ride this long since we were in the Czech Republic in 2016, traveling between Prague and Český Krumlov. Even then, it was a van with other tourists.

Today, we headed 155 miles south to the charming, peaceful, coastal town of Cavtat, located less than four miles and ten minutes from the airport. In essence, our Croatian itinerary formed a circuit—we were returning to the airport we started from.

We hired a driver through Octopus Transfers for the approximately three-and-a-half-hour road trip. No holds barred travel.

We could have taken a high-speed passenger catamaran from Split down to Dubrovnik, which takes about 4.5 to 5.5 hours depending on the specific ferry route and boat company. We could have then Ubered from the Dubrovnik ferry docks to Cavtat, another half hour. But that would have taken two to three hours longer than Octopus Transfers.

We originally thought we would do some sightseeing with our driver along the way, which they accommodate for an additional fee. We thought about making a detour into Mostar, a fairytale city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, famous for Stari Most (the Old Bridge), its historic Ottoman-era Old Town, and local bridge divers. But the idea was a bit of a miscalculation in terms of alotted time. We heard rumors the border crossing could take an hour or more, so we drove directly to Cavtat with no sightseeing, which gave us more time to explore Cavtat.

Our friendly driver wasn’t a tour guide, but he shared a wealth of information about what we passed along the way. He could be a tour guide if he wanted to be one.

Croatia is split in two by a narrow strip of land called the Neum Corridor (or the Neum Strip). The corridor provides the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina with roughly 12 miles of coastline on the Adriatic Sea. This corridor dates back to a 1699 treaty. The Pelješac Bridge was built in Croatia in 2022 to allow motorists to travel from one end of Croatia to the other without the hassle of two border crossings (that were minutes apart).

Photo courtesy of Cortec Corporation. It was a big deal when this bridge opened in 2022.

A 500-year-old Oriental plane tree (approx. 16 feet wide and 150 feet tall) in Trsteno Arboretum.

The route to Cavtat was very interesting. We passed miles and miles of seemingly uninhabited rocky, mountain terrain, inland and along the coast, in an area called the Makarska Riviera. We passed the Baćina Lakes, a beautiful cluster of seven interconnected freshwater lakes sitting right alongside the highway near Ploče. We passed through the lush Neretva Valley, known for growing tangerines and strawberries. We passed by the Neretva River, which is supposedly the coldest river in Europe, never getting above about 44 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit. We crossed over the 1.5-mile- long and newly completed (2022) Pelješac Bridge, which connects southern and northern Croatia, avoiding a border crossing into Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We drove by the Trsteno Arboretum, a 500-year-old botanical garden and historical estate located in the small seaside village of Trsteno, about 12 miles northwest of Dubrovnik. Our driver showed us the colossal 500-year-old Oriental plane tree (16 feet wide and 150 feet tall) in the arboretum.

Inevitable GOT Trivia: Trsteno Arboretum was the filming location for the Palace Gardens of King's Landing in Seasons 3 and 4 of Game of Thrones. The seaside stone pavilion on the cliffside is where Sansa Stark, Lady Olenna Tyrell, and Margaery Tyrell frequently met to drink tea and plot their political moves.

It was a peaceful scenic drive—more educational than the ferry.

Cavtat

A somewhat creepy painting named "Fantasy (Heads of the Family)," 1906, by Vlaho Bukovac.

We would spend our last night in Croatia in Cavtat. It was a good choice. Cavtat is a charming, peaceful resort town located on the Rat Peninsula (what a name), about 13 miles south of Dubrovnik. It serves as a relaxed, but still upscale alternative to its famous walled neighbor. It was closer in size and vibe to Korčula than to Dubrovnik or Split.

Cavtat is pronounced as if it starts with an "S" rather than a "K."

Inevitable GOT Trivia: No parts of GOT were filmed in Cavtat! Cavtat is GOT-Free.

Cavtat has a long history that predates Dubrovnik by centuries. Like Korčula, the town was originally established by ancient Greek colonists in the 6th century BC.

Cavtat is famous as the home of Vlaho Bukovac (1855–1922), Croatia’s most celebrated realist painter. You can visit his Cavtat childhood home, the Vlaho Bukovac House, which is now a museum displaying his lush murals painted directly onto the interior walls. The museum was closed for the day by the time we got there after loitering about town. Our half-day in Cavtat wasn't long enough for Bukovac.

The entire Cavtat old town is situated on a forested, horseshoe-shaped peninsula, which creates a popular clear-water bay for boating enthusiasts. The town's main promenade is a wide, traffic-free boardwalk paved in smooth stone and shaded by towering palm trees and centuries-old pines. It is lined with upscale open-air restaurants, cocktail lounges, ice cream shops, and craft boutiques facing the harbor.

From there, one can (and we did) walk the “Peninsula Loop,” a flat, continuous 1.5-mile pine-lined pedestrian path that wraps entirely around the wooded Rat Peninsula. Along this loop are a couple of popular pebble beaches and scenic swimming coves.

Mainstream cruise lines—including Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, and Disney Cruise Line—dock nearby at the Port of Gruž or anchor off the Old Town of Dubrovnik. They then transport passengers to Cavtat via tour buses or local shuttle boats for half-day trips. Like in Dubrovnik, the cruisers arrive around 10:00 AM and leave by 3:00 PM.

Tourists like Cavtat because it is small and comparatively serene with plenty of beach amenities and because one can hop on one of the small, traditional wooden passenger boats that run regular shuttle circuits from the Cavtat harbor straight to the Old Town Harbor of Dubrovnik—a 45-minute ride. In many ways, Cavtat is a nice alternative to staying in Dubrovnik’s Old Town.

Hotel Supetar Cavtat

In Cavtat, we stayed at the Hotel Supetar Cavtat, part of the Adriatic Luxury Hotels network. It’s a small, 16-room, high-end (one Michelin Key) hotel and unlike our even smaller Dubrovnik and Split hotels, it had communal spaces and other luxury amenities: a citrus-tree-lined pool, large outdoor terrace, separate bar and restaurant—with views of the harbor.

The hotel is housed inside a three-story private villa built in the 1920s. It was constructed directly over the underground remains of the ancient 4th-century Roman settlement of Epidaurum. In 2022, it was completely refurbished. It was not crowded in early May.

The room was spacious and comfortably appointed. There was a complimentary bottle of Plavac Mali wine waiting for us. The marble bathroom with a heated floor was huge and had a shower that could accommodate four people and a Japanese-style bidet/toilet, but no exposed Roman walls. The included buffet breakfast was luxurious.

A sweet intaglio by Vjeran Duvnjak (born 1976). He is a Croatian painter, printmaker, and professional conservator-restorator. I bought it unframed which made it easy to pack. But then I framed and hung it before I photographed it. The glass makes it hard to photograph.

After checking in, we checked out the harbor shops and fancy boats. We bought souvenirs, including Šljivovica for Riley and Aidan and olive oil at a small shop called Škatulica.

I also bought an unframed etching from this shop by an artist named Vjeran Duvnjak who works as an art restorer/conservator. It features a cat with laundry in the background—two iconic Croatian scenes combined!

The artist used a non-commercial ink originally formulated by Rembrandt for the etching (just to be geeky). It cost €30.

After shopping, we walked by a life-sized "mural" of a cat painted on a seemingly random street. Crotia seems to not only tolerate the stray cat population, but embrace and celebrate it.

A tabby casting a shadow, painted in April 2026 by the Croatian street artist Filip Mrvalj at sidewalk level an a building facade nestled between the old town walls and the Konavle Tourist Board — an homage to the stray cats of Cavtat.

Before our planned hike around the peninsula, we went to check out the boats in the harbor. The Dalmatian coast is a favorite destination of super yachts. The 148-foot, award-winning, luxury yacht named "Tremenda" was docked in Cavtat's harbor when we visited. It was finished in 2025 at an estimated cost of $22M – $33M USD and is featured in various yachting publications. It can accommodate up to 10 over-night guests across five suites.

Cats galore. I doubt there are many rats on Rat Peninsula.

The narrow stone lanes of the Old Town will bring you to St. Rocco Cemetery and the Račić Family Mausoleum at the peninsula's highest peak via a scenic back route.

St. Rocco Cemetery

The view of town and a super yacht from the crest of the hill where St. Rocco Cemetery is located.

Looking through the fence at the cemetery which is located on the town's most scenic vantage point.

After scouting out the harbor, we explored the elevated tier of cobblestone streets and alleyways behind the waterfront. Then, we climbed the cypress-lined stairs to the highest point on the peninsula—St. Rocco Cemetery.

The jewel of the hill is the Račić Family Mausoleum, built entirely out of pure white Brač limestone by Ivan Meštrović in 1922. Meštrović is the artist that made the “Gandalf” statue at Split’s Golden Gate and whose art-packed mansion we visited.

The Račić stone vault was built without a single piece of metal or wood—only interlocking stone blocks. The interior ceiling is beautifully covered in dozens of carved stone angel heads. Admission is €4 for adults.

The cemetery offered panoramic views, which the feral cats seemed to enjoy. We shared the views with the cats and another couple until the couple left. The cats probably live in the cemetery.

The Račić Mausoleum, designed by Croatia's most famous sculptor Ivan Meštrović (whose mansion/gallery we visited in Split).

The view is to die for.

Not a dead cat. “Street” cats, neither completely feral nor completely friendly, were abundant in Dubrovnik, Korčula, Split and Cavtat.

Rat Peninsula Loop

From the St. Rocco Cemetery, we headed down the hill and walked the lovely Rat Peninsula Loop, greeting many cats along the way and gawking at the hardy bathers on the rocks. The Rat Peninsula Loop is an approx. 1.2 mile coastal walk that wraps around the main forested headland of Cavtat.

This is a “beach.” I don’t think there are many sandy beaches in Croatia. There are some pebble beaches. But mostly the beaches are rock and cement. The water is crystal clear, a beautiful color and free of kelp & sea weed. The ocean water temperature in Cavtat on May 11, 2026 was refreshingly between 64°F to 68°F.

The view from between the towering Aleppo pines on the Rat Peninsula Loop.

La Bohême

A Croatian fish dish called brudet.

The cat that helped eat Becky's brudet.

Saltimbocca.

La Bohême is an upscale Mediterranean and seafood restaurant where you can sit outside and watch the people on the promenade, the people on the boats moored in the harbor, and the sun set.

I ordered saltimbocca and it was just OK. Becky ordered a traditional Croatian fish dish called brudet which is a robust seafood stew packed with langoustines, mussels, and local white fish simmered in a rich tomato sauce. Becky's seafood entrée did not suit her palate, so she naughtily fed much of it to a cat under our table. Cats in Croatia hang out at restaurants for handouts but never seem aggressive. They don't usually jump onto the table. They don’t beg like dogs or steal your food like seagulls. They sleep in empty chairs and discretely wander under your table and might (if they are bold) rub up against your leg.

The highlight of the meal for me was the wine. I finally got to try Croatia’s famous Dingač, a full-bodied red, with a robust alcohol content. A perfect last wine (recommended by our Dubrovnik tour guide/"sommelier" on our first full day in Croatia).

A toast goodbye.

A barka cabin cruiser at sunset.

After dark, we walked the waterfront in the opposite direction, away from St. Rocco Cemetery and toward the Rector's Palace—a lovely last day in Croatia.

The 15th-century Rector's Palace along the harborside promenade.

Tuesday, Cavtat to Newark, May 12

Our 12:15 PM flight was delayed by an hour, so we had extra time at the hotel. We Ubered to the airport. Then, the flight was delayed for another half-hour. The return journey proved unremarkable. Other than getting lost in New Jersey and the usual hair-raising, rush-hour George Washington Bridge experience, it went smoothly.

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