How to avoid the crowds in Dubrovnik

After years of overtourism, Dubrovnik’s ‘Respect the City’ initiative has led to substantial improvements, resulting in a much more enjoyable visitor experience, and a much nicer place to live in for local people. But you can’t curb demand to see this beautiful city, and it still gets very busy, so read our guide to find out how to avoid the crowds in Dubrovnik.

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How to avoid the crowds in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik was once the busiest city in Europe, with around 27 visitors to every resident in peak season (July and August). Cruise ships, cheap flights and short term lets had led to a situation where the Old Town was becoming almost unliveable for local people, while for visitors, the congestion, overcrowding and noise took a lot of the shine off the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’.

Things are getting better in Dubrovnik. Restrictions on cruise ships, tourist buses and short term lets, along with other measures designed to cut traffic jams, are relieving the pressure, and making the city a much nicer place to visit, and to live. But it still gets very busy, especially during the summer months. Here’s our guide to how to avoid the crowds in Dubrovnik.

First things first. Dubrovnik is still one of the prettiest cities in the world, spun with impossibly picturesque streets. Staircases stagger past synagogues and myriad churches dedicated to St Blaise. Its people are tellers of vital stories that should be heard, from its beginnings as a bolthole for Roman refugees in 641 to the 1991-5 Croatian War of Independence. You just need to travel with a holiday company that knows how to handle the city with care.

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Natasha Black from our small group travel specialists Exodus says:
“Avoiding a destination altogether, whilst sometimes necessary, often will actually lead to more issues than solutions. If we were to abandon visiting Dubrovnik, then in all likelihood tourists who continued to visit the city will do so in a more damaging way, focusing pressure on very few places, not contributing as much to the local economy (such as cruise ships) or learning as much. Dubrovnik is also a highlight which can attract people to Croatia who will then go and explore other parts of the country. On our tours we only spend one or two days in Dubrovnik before visiting lesser known parts of Croatia, thereby spreading the benefits of tourism to other communities.”

Responsible holiday companies will be honest about when to go walking, eating and drinking in the city. By avoiding summer and staying in locally run accommodation, for example, you’ll experience Dubrovnik’s true, best side. And Dubrovnik – not international hotel chains or cruise companies registered in Panama – will benefit from your kunas.

Keep reading to find out how to avoid the crowds in Dubrovnik.

Watch the cruise calendar

Despite being one of the tiniest towns in Croatia, Dubrovnik is one of the most popular cruise stops, with around 60 percent of all cruise passengers to Croatia disembarking here. The good news is, the biggest boats are creatures of habit and book into port a good year or two in advance. That means you can avoid them.

So check the cruise calendar. You’ll see that there’s a theme: boats pile in during late May, July, August and early September and ease off in other months. However, cruise arrivals are now restricted to two a day at staggered times, so things have improved considerably. Most cruise ships don’t dock overnight in Dubrovnik, so even in high summer it’ll only be hectic from nine to five.

These shoulder times are the best time to be in town for both you and Dubrovnik. You can snag a restaurant table on the steps of the Old Town, watch the swifts swirl around the rooftops at twilight, go for a sunrise swim in empty waters, or salute the sunset at a cliff-side bar flagged only by a door in the wall.

Powell Ettinger, founder of our partners the Small Cruise Ship Collection, says timing is everything: “If you go early in the morning or later in the afternoon or evening, then you can avoid the crowds to a certain extent. There are still lots of people around in the evenings, but you don’t usually get the overcrowding from the big ships.”

Avoid high summer

Thanks to its spot in the deep south of Croatia, Dubrovnik serves up some of the sunniest, warmest days in the country. Summer heralds two ships a day arriving in Gruz port, families freed from school and work commitments, packed beaches and city streets that give Venice a run for its money in terms of crowds.

Crowds aside, it’s not always the best time to be on the Dalmatian Coast anyway. July and August see highs of 28°C, which turns the crowds in the city and beaches into a new kind of torment. Activity holidays sometimes take a siesta during this time; hiking with heatstroke is no fun.

There aren’t just reasons not to go in summer; there are plenty of reasons to go in autumn, winter and spring. Shopkeepers and residents hang dexterously decorated eggs in their windows during the Easter season; you can ring in the New Year and the Feast of St Blaise in winter; and wildflowers spring eternal in the cracks of the shell-dented Old Town in early May. Just bring a raincoat for the occasional out-of-nowhere downpour. Read more about the best time to go to Dubrovnik.

Tomi Coric, founder and cycling guide at our activity holiday specialists Epic Croatia, says October is a good time to go: “You can have some rainy days, but it’s nicer to have rainier days than busier days. In October, days are a little bit shorter and the temperature is about 20°C-25°C – and that is a great time of year for cycling, hiking or any kind of outdoor activities.”

Buy the Dubrovnik Pass

This official city pass gives you access to many of Dubrovnik’s main attractions, including the city walls, the Martin Drzic House, the Maritime Museum and Museum of Modern Art, as well as free use of the city’s excellent bus network. This helps reduce traffic congestion while saving you money. Options for one, three or seven-day passes are available.

Enter the Old Town through Ploce Gate

Gruz, the cruise ship harbour, plonks itself to the north of the city, so the biggest crowds of tourists pile in through the northerly – you’ve got it – Pile Gate, usually via a snaking Disneyland queuing system. Choose to do as city folk do and enter through Ploce gate instead.

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Stay a few nights

On the face of things, staying longer in Dubrovnik might seem like you’re adding to the city’s weight of tourists. But actually, you’re spreading the benefit of tourism further. Cruise ship passengers eat breakfast at their floating hotel, pay for excursions remotely, often use on-board tour guides, and leave before sunset.

Stay a few nights in Dubrovnik, however, and you’ll get to see some of the everyday elements that reveal the city’s heart. Watch the swifts screech and swoop around the rooftops at golden hour. Hear the tinny song of an early morning wedding procession collecting friends and relatives as it processes through the narrow streets. Sit among the silent mass goers, lit candles and incense at St Blaise’s Church. Wave off the leaving cruise ships with a pomegranate liqueur at one of the secret cliffside bars that cling to the Old Town like wallflowers. This is the locals’ Dubrovnik, made to be explored – slowly.

Remember that Dubrovnik is bigger than the Old Town

Take the cable car up to Srd Hill for sunset, where long-range views across Dubrovnik and the Elaphiti Islands are laid out almost half a kilometre below. Some holidays will put you up in Lapad, a pine-coated suburb and peninsula between the Old Town and Gruz port. You’ll find tourists packed sunlounger-to-sunlounger on its pebble beaches in summer, but between late September and May it’s a real pleasure to trace the path that sneaks between pine trees and the sea.

Move on

Don’t think that Dubrovnik is the be all and end all of Croatia. Our holidays can take you up the Dalmatian Coast to see how life is lived in Mljet National Park or how islanders split their time between fishing and guiding kayak tours. And our tailor made holidays to Croatia can take you even further north, to lesser-visited cities like Zadar or Rovinj, which see half the number of tourists each year.

Tomi Coric, founder and cycling guide at our activity holiday specialists Epic Croatia, says: “Our travellers like to see more, to discover more. They don’t like to stay in one place much. They like to see highlights, such as Dubrovnik or a national park, but they understand there are also some nice places that are less touristy: the ‘real Croatia’, where they can speak with locals and taste lots of local products in restaurants. They have better interactions with the place they visit.”