6 Days in Croatia: Dubrovnik & Split

A day-by-day itinerary for Dubrovnik, Croatia: real activities, restaurants and hotels with prices and booking links. Copy it and make it yours.

Dubrovnik, Croatia · 6 days · 25 activities · free to copy and customize

Day 1 — Dubrovnik, after the crowds leave

14:00 Shuttle from Dubrovnik airport (DBV) (€8). €8, 30 min to the Pile Gate. Cars are useless inside the walls — don't rent one yet.
15:30 Old Town guesthouse, 2 nights (€360). ≈€180/night inside or just above the walls. Pricey, but stepping onto Stradun before the day-trippers arrive is the whole trick to Dubrovnik.
17:30 Stradun & the old harbour at golden hour. Free. The cruise crowds drain away by 17:00 and the marble streets glow — this is the city the postcards promise.
20:00 Konoba dinner in a side alley (€35). ≈€35. Black risotto or fresh fish; anywhere two alleys off Stradun halves the bill.

08:00 City Walls at opening (€35). €35 and worth every cent — but ONLY at 08:00. By 10:00 it is a slow-motion queue in full sun, 25 m above any shade. 2 km loop, 1.5–2h.
11:00 Lokrum island (€27). €27 return ferry incl. the nature-reserve fee, 15 min out. Peacocks, a saltwater 'dead sea' pool, and the quiet Dubrovnik doesn't have.
14:00 Late lunch back in town (€30).
18:00 Srđ cable car at sunset (€27). €27 return. The whole walled city below, Elafiti islands behind — or hike down the zig-zag path for free drama.

09:30 Coastal bus Dubrovnik → Split (€20). ≈€20, 4h along the Adriatic highway. With €60 more, a private transfer stops in Ston — 14th-century walls and the best oysters in Europe, eaten metres from the beds they grew in.
14:30 Split old-town apartment, 3 nights (€420). ≈€140/night in the palace quarter. You are literally sleeping inside a Roman emperor's retirement home.
17:00 First wander: the Riva & Marmontova. Free. Split is a working city wearing a 1,700-year-old palace as its old town — livelier and cheaper than Dubrovnik.
20:00 Dinner in the palace lanes (€30).

08:30 Peristyle & the palace before breakfast. Free to wander — the palace IS the streets. At 08:30 you share the Peristyle with cats and coffee drinkers; by 11:00, with everyone.
10:00 Cathedral of St Domnius & bell tower (€15). ≈€15 combined. The tower climb is narrow and vertiginous and gives the best red-roof panorama in Dalmatia. The cathedral is Diocletian's own mausoleum — history's neatest irony, given whom he persecuted.
12:00 Green Market & a čevapi lunch (€15).
15:00 Marjan hill walk. Free. Pine forest on a peninsula, swimming coves off the path, sunset over the islands from the Telegrin peak.
20:00 Konoba dinner in Varoš (€35). The old fishermen's quarter under Marjan — stone lanes, house wine, grilled fish.

08:30 Catamaran to Hvar town (€22). ≈€22 return, 1h05. Summer sailings SELL OUT — book both legs the night before.
10:00 Spanish Fortress climb (€10). ≈€10. Twenty minutes up through agave gardens; the Pakleni islands scatter below like spilled coins.
12:30 Seafood lunch on the harbour (€40).
14:00 Swim at Pokonji Dol. Free. 20-minute coastal walk east of town to clear water and pebbles — bring water shoes, the Adriatic is honest about its rocks.
18:30 Catamaran back to Split. Included in the return ticket. Deck seats on the port side catch the sunset.

09:00 Bačvice beach morning. Free. Watch the locals play picigin — a shallow-water ball game that is somehow both national sport and excuse to fall over.
11:30 Farewell coffee on the Riva (€5). A €2 espresso nursed for an hour is not loitering here; it is the culture.
13:00 Airport bus to Split (SPU) (€8). €8, 40 min. Allow extra in July–August — the coast road crawls.

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