After spending a few days in Dubrovnik, our first stop on our Croatia road trip, we quickly understood why it’s nicknamed “The Pearl of the Adriatic.” From the rich history and the architecture to the mountains and the Mediterranean beaches, Dubrovnik really checks all the boxes to fulfil a tourist’s dream. We spent 3 nights and 2 full days here, giving us plenty of time to explore the Old City and nearby beaches, before setting off to our next adventure of exploring a Croatian island.
We flew to Dubrovnik from Munich and upon arrival, it was a warm sunny day. It was cool and rainy while in Germany, so the sun was a nice welcome. We grabbed our luggage and picked up our rental car. Who knew we were in for such an adventure… in our manual car.
After a quick “practice” lap around the airport, we headed towards the city and our airbnb. We missed our turn to the road of our bnb a few times, making us detour around what seemed like the entire city since we didn’t know how to turn around, but on the fourth try, we pulled into this tiny alleyway. My wingspan was probably wider than this “road.” Turns out, we couldn’t park on this street so we had to turn around.
By this point, we had not needed to put the car in reverse so we literally did not know how. Many failed attempts later, we figured it out. Let’s just say, we may not be getting our $1000 deposit back on the rental.
To say we were frustrated, anxious, and stressed would be an understatement. So this experience serves as a reminder that vacations (and life in general) are not always as beautiful as the pictures and videos, sometimes they are scary, stressful, and costly. Well such is life, we all post the beautiful photos while going through what feels like reversing a manual car uphill to keep it from rolling off the side of a cliff and into the Adriatic Sea.
After the car ordeal, many curse words, and maybe even a couple tears later, we found a parking spot, thanks to some friendly Croatians whom helped us, and made it to our peaceful airbnb. By that time, it was dark outside but we woke up to some decent views.
Once rested, we went to Bellevue Beach, a 5 minute walk from our place. We spent the next several hours there, Sean jumped off the cliffs many times, while I just relaxed and took in the sun and scenery.
Next, we walked the streets of the old city. The old city is encircled by impressively tall stone walls that were built in the 13th century. Everywhere you looked, you could find a picturesque view that displayed the rich history and medieval and gothic architecture. It’s no wonder why many scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed there.
After wondering the streets, we discovered a literal hole in the wall that lead to a bar on the side of a cliff. Just in time for sunset!
Once the sun set, we wandered back into the old city and found a place for dinner. The restaurant was next to the shame stairs, making it a popular spot for GOT fans to stop for pictures and videos.
Aside from being a historical and movie landmark, the restaurant had the best food we had on the trip so far. We were blown away by the čevapai, which is traditional Croatian meat. The restaurant was under the second canopy on the left and sat next to a couple from Whales, UK. We chatted with them throughout our meal as if we were on a double date. We enjoyed their company and I especially enjoyed their accents.
On our second full day in Dubrovnik, we walked the walls of the old city and then later took the cable car up to view the city from the top of the mountain. The city walls were probably my personal favorite thing about Dubrovnik. Some of the best views of the city and the sea could be viewed from the walls:
We took the cable car up for a quick stop at the top of the mountain before it started raining.
We basically got rained out, the walkways and stairs in the city were super slick when wet, so we took the bus back to our airbnb. Later we grabbed dinner then decided we should practice driving since we had a 4 hour drive the next day. We were both anxious about our previous driving experience, so we found a very rare, large parking lot in which we could simply practice getting into first gear and reversing the car. Lol. Well we felt much more at ease after a few laps and ready for our road trip the next day.
The next morning, we packed the car and said goodbye to our neighborhood cat who we named Olive and hit the road. We drove about 3 hours along the coast, through small towns, through the mountains, and even through a small distance of the country Bosnia and Herzegovina where they stamped our passports and we were back on our way.
The ferry dropped us off at Sumartin in the island of Brač where we then drove to our hotel for the night in Bol. This was a long day of travel just to stay on an island for 26 hours, but we soon found that it would be 100% worth it.
The next day, we rented e-bikes and discovered a secluded beach then later rode to the city center.
Until now, I’ve never been able to see such immense detail below the surface of water. It was so crystal clear, we could see the textures in the pebbles below and the details in the varying types of fish from afar.
For obvious reasons, the island of Brač has been one of my favorite stops on the trip. I still cannot get over the turquoise beaches and will be dreaming about them for the rest of my life! I didn’t have time to feel sad about leaving, as we had to quickly leave to catch a ferry to our next destination, Split, Croatia. The drive to the ferry in Supetar was 45 minutes of scenic, mountainous, winding roads filled with multiple heard of sheep (that tested my downshifting abilities) along the way.
If you’ve even made it this far, thanks for following along! As you’ve seen, it’s been a pretty busy trip with a tight schedule, but well worth every second (although not always as pretty as the photos). Dubrovnik may have bumped itself up to the top of my favorite European cities list and the island of Brač was simply a dream. Croatia really has it all- the cities, the sea, the islands, the history, the mountains, the list goes on and we hope to discover more as we continue our road trip through this beautiful country.
The Aud Blog 