When we decided to travel to Croatia, in particular Dubrovnik, I didn’t have a great sense of excitement but still wanted to see the old city and see what everyone was talking about. We had heard so much about it being very crowded, I had also heard that it was steep with lots of steps and we had twins with a stroller. But yet again, our preconceived ideas of a place, taken from reading blogs, reviews and listening to others should have been best left until afterward.

What Kristi did though was dig a little deeper into where to stay and came up absolute trumps with the beautiful, quaint Cavtat. A small village sitting on the Adriatic coast and the best bit, a 30-minute ferry ride from its port, shown below, straight into Dubrovnik, mooring right in the middle of the old town. The big bonus? When we get there, Nana would once again be joining us for two great weeks.

The journey from Pompei to Cavtat was not without its worries, we had an 11 am flight out of Rome and we were 2 hours away. The day before we just happened to read that the Rome airport staff were going to have a day’s strike action (the second industrial action in the two weeks) while we were there and it would be hit or miss if our flight was going to even leave. So we left with everything crossed that we would be OK. When we arrived at the airport we found “canceled, canceled, canceled” all over the departure board………….except our budget airline flight to Dubrovnik, in all its glory reading “on time”. Yeah, it was time to celebrate with a bit of surfing on the moving walkways around the airport. Let’s go boys.

The short flight was easy and we landed to pick up our hire car. We had news that Nana had a canceled connecting flight in the USA and was now landing late at night. We took off to find our Airbnb less than 10 minutes away. What another great choice, the views were to die for over the sea towards Dubrovnik.

Choosing Cavtat for a base to visit Dubrovnik was a real sweet decision. Cavtat is a town southeast of Dubrovnik. Near the tree-lined Cavtat harbor were cobbled streets with cafe after cafe. It is a cross between cute and rich and a resting place for the wealthy to park their small boats for a night or two.

Pam arrived in great shape, albeit late and joined us the next day to explore the village. It was great to have her back and the kids were all excited to have Nana with us.

If you like to soak up the atmosphere, explore the cafes and walk around the headlands, you could simply spend all week in Cavtat. We did not intend to do much in the week we were here, relax, swim, eat, walk and take the ferry to Dubrovnik. Our first walk along the harbour brought joy to the boys as well. A brand new children’s play park right on the waterfront and a pleasure to grab a coffee and let them play while soaking up the sun and scenery.

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The weather looked good for the week and we quickly found the best parts to park our butts and enjoy a swim. The water was pretty warm and crystal clear but beware of the sea urchins, there were hundreds of them scattering across the sea bed and close to the shore.

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We took a walk around the headland, an area that clearly guarded itself against enemy invasion in WWII, there were ruins of gun locations all over the cliff tops pointing towards the tiny harbor entrance. It was clearly a deep water harbor with the huge private vessels that came and went day by day.

We ate breakfast in the apartment most days and were able to enjoy the restaurants on the waterfront most evenings. Kristi and I did what we also loved to, and need to do when Pam is with us, take advantage of her being there and get some “us” time. We love it, being able to talk without interruption and catch up on our state of minds and of course fill up our love tanks a little.

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Our day trip to Dubrovnik was awesome. We had heard that parking in the old town was virtually non-existent and could cost as much as US$100 for the day. So how good did we feel going to the bottom of our road, into Cavtat port and catching one of many ferries leaving about every 15 minutes? In the summer the return ferries ran as late as 11 pm. Today, we were probably going to be all day but back by the boys’ bedtime.

The ferry stops a couple of times at smaller ports along the way. We got to see deserted and derelict large hotels that still had war torn shell holes in the structure of the building. A clear sign that once again we were in a country that had seen such terrible times and all within our life, this time only about 25 years ago.

Coming in to Dubrovnik it was clear that it was a lot smaller than we had imagined, the old town clearly clinging to the hills around it and sprawling into the sea to create a magical and picture postcard old town port.

The old town, surrounded by its famous old fortified wall is pedestrian-only and thank goodness. It was very busy, full of small streets and cafes, covered in tourists and eager waiters at every turn waiting to show you to a table to charge you for an overpriced coffee. What did we do? Take a seat, had two coffees each because it was soooo good the first time around, order pancakes for the boys and soak up the people watching, just brilliant and you have to do it.

We walked around the inside, exploring every turn and just loved it. It was a safe haven for the boys with no traffic, just watch your little ones with all of the big ones around, they will get lost easily. We tried to avoid the temptation of the bakery smells but gave in to a few take away cakes. It was magic.

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Was it crowded? Relatively yes. Being a cruise ship stopping point the old town is dumped with 100’s of tourist every single day. It is, however, well well worth the visit.

The main attraction of Dubrovnik is definitely the option to walk the wall surrounding the old town. It isn’t cheap at about USD$30 each but it is so worth it, even carrying 16Kg of infant under your arm as you climb the steep steps to the walkway.

The views are amazing, there are cafes, toilets and plenty of places to stop and capture the amazing memories that the wall tour provides.

The walk takes about an hour and a half and starts at the Northern entrance and finishes at the Southern entrance. The sea and harbors are in sight everywhere you look, and so they should be, the wall was erected in the 12th – 17th century in various stages to guard against enemies by water..

The weather was amazing too, we couldn’t have asked for better, it was warm but not hot and the sea was calm for the ferry crossing.

Dubrovnik is well worth the visit but to be honest, like the cruise ship guests, for me, not worth more than a day or two at the most.

We caught the ferry back and enjoyed dinner in Cavtat. We then spent the next couple of days just soaking up the village. We had another dinner date and enjoyed it immensely.

All in all I loved this area of Croatia and so glad we stayed outside of Dubrovnik. I would love to see more parts of this beautiful country, maybe next time.

To see some wonderful shots of Cavtat and Dubrovnik Click here

Next stop Kotor, Montenegro…………