Dubrovnik

Timing is everything here

Dubrovnik has a genuine crowding problem, concentrated almost entirely between about ten in the morning and four in the afternoon when cruise ships are in. The same streets in the early morning or after dinner are quiet and completely different. Plan the old town for the edges of the day and go elsewhere in the middle.

Beyond the walls

The Pelješac peninsula an hour north is wine country — Dingač and Postup are grown on slopes steep enough to be worked by hand. The Elafiti islands, a short boat ride out, are largely car-free.

What to see

• The city walls

  Two kilometres of complete circuit, looking down into courtyards and out over the Adriatic. Go at opening or in the last two hours; the middle of a summer day on unshaded stone is genuinely punishing.

• Lokrum

  A short ferry hop to a wooded island with a botanical garden, a saltwater lake and peacocks that have entirely lost their fear of people. No hotels, no cars.

• Srđ by cable car

  The mountain directly behind the city. The view is the one you have seen, but the small museum about the 1991–92 siege is the part people do not expect and remember longest.

Getting around

The old town is pedestrian-only and steep, and parking near it is expensive. A car earns its keep on the Pelješac wine route or the drive north, not in the city. A boat, meanwhile, is the only sensible way to reach the Elafiti properly — the scheduled ferries make day trips tight.