Dubrovnik Travel Forum

Will be arriving by cruise ship for a day and was wondering:
1. What are must sees and dos for the city? How long will it take?
2. Are there any must sees and dos outside of the city? How do we get there?
3. From the cruise ship terminal, is it easy to get to the city center, etc?

3. Easy--at the counter English is spoken, just ask for the next bus to old town (Pile Gate). There is an atm at the bus station.

2. With only one day, I would stay in old town. You could take a boat over to Lokrum to get away from the crowds for a little while.

1. Old town is quite small, you'll have plenty of time to see everything.

1. In my opinion, the highlight of Dubrovnik is a walk around the city walls, which you can start on the city side of the main entrance gate where the bus drops you. I think it takes about 1 1/2 hours to do a full circuit, it's hard to tell because you (or I) feel like stopping so often to take photos and admire the view.
2. If you are there for the day you will not have time. At best you could visit Lokrum island from the Old Town Harbour, on the opposite side of the city from Gruz (but no more than 15 minutes walk from where the bus drops you, right down the main street, Stradun). Boats go across quite regularly but you will have to check return times of course.
3. Cruise ships dock in Gruz, there are buses from there to the gateway to the old town, it would probably take you about 30 minutes to walk depending on how far away your ship docks. Yes it is easy to get there, but this is not the centre (which is pedestrianized). Your main problem is going to be that if there are several ships in, thousands of cruise passengers hit the old town all at once and it can get very crowded.

1. With only one day, I would concentrate on the Old Town, which is very charming. If you're there in summer, it can get very hot, since this is a walled city and not so well ventilated, so it's best to start as early as possible, take the wonderful ramparts walk, visit the Cathedral, and there are many other historic monuments that you can find in guidebooks or here on VT, depending upon your interests. There are plenty of pleasant outdoor restaurants for lunch. I would allocate most all of your day here.

2. I would focus on the Old Town.

3. As other posters have mentioned, if the ship is docked at the main cruise terminal, there are frequent public buses right to the gates of the Old Town. It takes maybe 20 minutes or so. There's an ATM here, and an internet cafe to check your email, if you need to. Note that to return through the cruise terminal, you need your ship-issued piece of ID. There is another spot where cruise ships anchor -- mostly the smaller ones such as Silver Sea and Seabourn -- so if you are on one of those ships, you'll be very lucky, as they anchor right beside the Old Town and transport passengers by launch directly into town, no bus necessary. Enjoy Dubrovnik!

I have just returned from a trip which included just three nights in Dubrovnik.

I would advise you to stick to the Old Town as the others have done.

I would have to ask what time of year you will be there as that would make a difference to the advice I would give.

What sort of things do you like to see and do?

Has anyone visited on Ocean Village ? Does the ship dock at Gruz, can you get water taxis from there ?Interested in going to Cavtat. Any ideas of cost and times ? I have an 80 year old with me so will be limited in the amount of walking .