Dubrovnik guide
Three Days in Dubrovnik
Three days is the right length here: one for the walled city, one for the water, one for the coast. The plan below is arranged around two fixed facts — the walls are unbearable in the middle of the day, and the Old Town fills between ten and two on cruise days.
Everything front-loads the morning and gives the afternoon to the sea. Swap days freely; keep the hours.
Day one
The walls, and then the shade
07:45
Pile Gate before the first groups. Big Onofrio's Fountain, the gate, and the length of Stradun with nobody on it. This is the photograph.
08:00
Up onto the City Walls at opening — €40 in the high season, valid 72 hours, one lap. Allow ninety minutes to two hours. Take water; there is no shade, and by eleven the stone is punishing.
10:00
Straight on to Fort Lovrijenac, which your walls ticket already covers. Best light of the day looking back at what you have just walked.
11:30
Lunch two streets back from Stradun, not on it. Black risotto or grilled fish, and ask the total price if the fish is priced by weight.
Afternoon
The heat hour. Either swim from the rocks below the walls, or take the indoor route: the Rector's Palace at €15, or €20 for the ten-museum ticket if you expect to use two or more.
Evening
A drink at one of the Buža bars through the gap in the sea wall, then dinner in the back lanes. Bring cash for the bar.
Day two
Water and height
09:00
First boat to Lokrum from the Old Port. The €30 reserve ticket includes the return crossing. Monastery, botanical garden, the saltwater lake called the Dead Sea, peacocks you should not feed.
13:00
Back for lunch, or stay on the island and eat there. Whatever you do, note the last boat: the current schedule says 19:00, an earlier-season timetable said 20:00, and nobody stays overnight.
Mid-afternoon
The Cathedral, free, with the Titian above the altar — avoid Mass times — and Sponza Palace, where the free Memorial Room to the defenders of the 1991–92 siege is the twenty minutes most visitors skip and should not.
Before sunset
The cable car to Mount Srđ, €30 return, and the Homeland War Museum in Fort Imperial at the top for €5. It closes in winter and stops running in high wind, so keep this flexible rather than booked.
Day three
Out of the city
The easy version
Bus 10 to Cavtat, €4 and about half an hour, or the seasonal boat from the Old Port. A harbour, a mausoleum on the hill, konobas with nobody hurrying you, and a boat back in the late afternoon.
The island version
Jadrolinija's line 807 to Lopud — about an hour — for a car-free island and Šunj beach on the far side.
The ambitious version
Ston and Mali Ston: the €6.40 bus, the longest defensive wall in Europe after the Great Wall, and oysters at the quay. Or a guided run into Pelješac wine country, which is the only practical way to reach the Dingač slopes without a car.
Last evening
Back for the Stradun at dusk, when the day-trippers have gone and the limestone goes gold. It is a different city after seven.
If you only have one day
Walls at eight, Lovrijenac after, lunch off Stradun, the Memorial Room at Sponza, and the cable car before sunset. Skip the museums entirely — see the top sights page for what that leaves out.
Prices and hours checked September 2026 and flagged in the linked pages where only third-party sources were available.
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