How to travel on a budget in Dubrovnik
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Are you traveling on a budget and don’t know how you can fit Dubrovnik in your travel plans? You don’t know if Dubrovnik is an affordable city and want to know how much money you might spend?
Don’t worry, I got you! In this article, I will share with you all the traps that you should avoid and choices that you can make to reduce your travel costs.
I know that there are a lot of people that want to go to Dubrovnik because they are big fans of the famous Game of Thrones TV series. To be honest, I found out about this city after seeing the show as well. In the TV series, Dubrovnik was the city that served as King’s Landing and there are a lot of views which remain iconic.
As I mentioned in another article I wrote about Dubrovnik with “The best things to do and see in Dubrovnik”, the city has become too much of a tourist haven due to the show, which of course means that prices are over-inflated. This is something that was felt especially by the locals. This is the only thing that kind of disappointed me while visiting Dubrovnik because I felt that some prices weren’t justified at all.
That being said, don’t worry because you definitely can visit Dubrovnik and still stay on a reasonable budget if you avoid some tourist traps.
I think that if you aren’t a big fan (or not at all) of Game of Thrones it is even better for your travel experience and wallet because your itinerary will be focused more on the core, history and essence of the city, not to check out all the spots where the movie scenes were filmed.
Before I go into more details, I feel like I need to specify this: you can plan your trip as you like, of course. My purpose here is to give you tips and suggestions about things that you can be more careful about. You know your travel budget and if you can’t pay for every experience, I hope this article will help you choose the more interesting ones.
Tips for traveling on a budget in Dubrovnik
🏠 Accommodation
Find places near Dubrovnik, but not in the city itself. Try to find something near a bus station, so you can get directly and easily to the old town. We did just that and found great accommodation at a reasonable distance from the city.
We traveled with another couple and the Apartment Bella in Mokosica the perfect place for us and our needs. Here is why:
- Amazing atmosphere and kindness:
The owner was this nice and welcoming lady. She helped us with all the information that we needed and was very interested in our comfort and overall wellbeing. She was one of those people that radiated with kindness from her eyes, you know what I’m talking about, right? She showed us the easiest and fastest way to get to the old town, without our car. She gave us a map with the public transportation and explained which route to take.
- Great price:
We paid 230 euro for 3 nights, 2 couples for an apartment that had: 2 big bedrooms, one living room with an open space kitchen and a bathroom.
Disclaimer: This price was available at the end of 2019, prices may differ now.
- Free stuff:
Who doesn’t like free things? Apartment Bella offered free parking, fruits, water, and alcoholic drinks that awaited us in the kitchen.
- Important details that made our stay comfortable:
The house and the rooms were clean and spacious. Outside was a private terrace where we spent our nights chatting.
- Cute animals:
The owner had a dog and a cat, and we could play with both of them. This one is a personal preference, but a place with animals always fills my heart with pure joy. Just tell me that a place has cats for me to pamper and I will start planning how to take them home with me (I have 2 cats). And no, I’m not a crazy cat lady!
- Great location:
The accommodation was two minutes away from the public transportation station, from where we took a direct bus to the Old Town. In the area, there are a lot of markets that provide food.
🚗 Parking
Choose accommodation with free parking and use public transportation to go to places. Finding free parking near Old Town is an adventure which I don’t recommend.
🍤 Food
Most restaurants in the old town are fairly expensive. If you spend several days roaming these streets, I recommend you try street food (like wraps, sandwiches etc.) and have your lunch on a bench in the port. This way, you’ll have a great meal with a fantastic free view.
Also, for breakfast, I recommend you prepare it at your accommodation. In our case, we ate every morning at Bella Apartments. As I mentioned there were a lot of markets in the area and we bought what we needed the night before.
Bonus hint (one that our host shared with us): to avoid the over-inflated prices in the Old Town, find a restaurant outside the touristic area. You will find that prices are more accessible.
🗺 Viewpoints
Just by roaming freely the streets of the old town, you will find some amazing spots to experience the overlook of the city (check out my article “The best things to do and see in Dubrovnik”).
If you want to see the city from higher grounds and you don’t want to pay a lot of money, you can opt for Lovrijenac or the City Walls. I suggest you choose only one of them.
🖼 Souvenirs
Be mindful about these. If you are a big fan of GOT, be aware that there are a lot of souvenir places (like almost all of them, if I’m being very honest) that sell VERY expensive objects, but with poor quality. And to our surprise, we found almost everything on AliExpress at a quarter of the prices. Ask around and find the original stores or find authentic and local souvenirs (like a local bottle of wine).
To be honest, I was shocked to see that those small statues which were made from cheap plastic can cost like 100 euros or more. I mean, I get it, being a big fan of Game of Thrones, you want to buy something from the city that hosted most of the filmed scenes. But, this is ridiculous and I think that we should educate ourselves more to avoid these traps. Sustainable traveling isn’t just a fancy way of traveling.
If you really like them, just take some photos of them and afterwards search for them on AliExpress. The main difference between the ones from AliExpress and these ones, is a sticker which says HBO.
I don’t want to be rude or anything. In fact, scratch that, honesty and transparency are very important to me, so I’m not gonna censor myself in any way in my blog articles even if that means that I’m going to be seen as rude. I feel like if you try to sell me cheap plastic souvenirs that have an HBO basic sticker stuck on them, basically you are aiming to sell me junk and you’re considering me a big fool.
📺 Game of Thrones-themed tours
Fan of the famous TV series, or not I feel like going on Game of Thrones-themed tours wouldn’t add real value to your trip. For example, if you visit Lovrijenac Fortresses you will be captivated by the amazing view of the Adriatic Sea and the Old Town. I don’t see how this experience can be improved if you go with an organised group and have a guide that will explain what scenes were filmed and where. When we visited the fortress, we got a sneak peek from a guided tour that was visiting at the same time. This is just a personal opinion, as I said before, you plan your trip as you wish.
My husband and I are big fans of Game Thrones (he is even more passionate about the story than me), but we weren’t tempted at all to go on these tours.
If you want to go on a themed tour, I suggest you choose just one, because they offer it for different famous landmarks like Lovrijenac Fortress or the City Walls.
🚢 One-day trips to other islands
I don’t know how to describe how big of a scam this experience was. When I’m writing now about it I’m laughing with my husband, but at that time we were with our nerves stretched to the limit. If I think about it, that day was the worst of our whole trip.
How we got ourselves in that mess, you may ask? Well, we were strolling Dubrovnik’s beautiful streets and were approached by a lot of advertisers that presented us with this amazing offer of a one day trip to small islands near Dubrovnik (not Lokrum, of course). The photos that they showed us looked amazing and pictured this luxurious and adventurous trip to a gorgeous, unique island. After some consideration, we figured that a change in the scenario was welcomed, so we booked the trip for the following day.
I’m not going to go into a lot of details, but the trip was horrible. I did take some pictures, so you can see them for yourself. The whole experience left us with such a bad feeling. Starting from the awful condition the boat was in, to the gross food they offered us and the overall disappointing atmosphere.
We felt like we were part of a very bad joke or something. I mean, look at those bottles of water and wine that they gave us… The recipients look like something picked out from garbage cans. Moreover, the entire crew was rude and just ignored all of our requests or feedback. And to add more on top of this whole pile of shit, the island that we went on wasn’t impressive at all. It was a basic island with dull beaches.
Anyway, if you are tempted to go on these kinds of trips, I highly HIGHLY encourage you to do your research beforehand. Ask your host, locals, search for reviews or other blogs that share their experience. I’m not saying that every company offers shitty trips like this one, but I want to draw attention and raise awareness around this topic. I want you to be careful and know that these trips can be scams. Maybe you should protect your travel budget or spend it on something more worthy.
Run from glass boat trips
OMG, what a hilarious story I need to share with you regarding this experience. These glass boat trips are very popular in Dubrovnik and aren’t that expensive (like 9-10 euro per adult). I don’t know what got into us, to be honest, but we said “Ok, let’s try this one as well” :)).
The outcome? It was a waste of our 20 euros (per couple). With this glass boat, we were supposed to sail around an island near Dubrovnik and see beautiful and colorful fishes through that glass (it was a “glass boat” get it?!). Of course, we didn’t see any fish, our driver didn’t speak any English and our boat broke in the middle of the trip. What a FANTASTIC adventure this was!
For you to picture the disaster that this trip was, I need to dedicate an entire article telling this horror, but kinda funny story. It involves dirty glass where the fishes were nowhere to be seen, a broken engine and a seashore full of naked men :)). YES, you are reading this correctly: naked men showing all their “valuables” without any shame (it was a nudist beach). Stay tuned, I will be posting this story on my blog. Sharing is caring, right?! And I care a lot about your humor.
The conclusion of this article?
Choose to spend your money wisely, instead of crappy trips to “gorgeous” islands, buy a pass to all the museums and art places and spend time learning about the culture and the history of the city. Or pay to see something that can add real value to your trip, like visiting Lokrum Island or eating traditional food. Or buy a ticket for the cable car and experience an amazing view over the whole city.
I hope you find this article useful and it clears up the confusion regarding staying on a budget and still enjoying the beauty of Dubrovnik.
I hope that by following these tips you can plan your trip to Dubrovnik, while still staying on a budget.