Dubrovnik is a beautiful old city in the south of Croatia, and definitely worth a visit. As the old city is quite small and doesn’t take up a lot of your time, you might be looking for some other things to do in Dubrovnik. Luckily “The Pearl of the Adriactic” is surrounded by many beaches, islands and cool little towns, which you can easily visit on day trips from Dubrovnik.
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Table of Contents - 5 Awesome Day Trips from Dubrovnik
1. 3 Islands Tour
This is by far the most popular day trip from Dubrovnik. On this tour, you will visit the islands Koločep, Lopud, and Šipan where you’ll have time to explore the towns, swim and enjoy the beaches. Most tours include food and drinks as well, but do confirm when you book. It’s best to book this tour in Dubrovnik itself, as you’ll find better deals there than online.
Tip: If you’re looking for a more active island tour, you can also do a kayaking tour to Lokrum Island. This is a half-day trip, so you’ll have time to visit the old city as well or to just chill on the beach.
2. Mljet
Mljet is a beautiful island a little north of Dubrovnik. The best part of Mljet is the National Park in the north of the island, where you’ll find a lake, with another island in it. It’s a great place to go hiking and/or swimming and just enjoy the nature around you.
I didn’t see many tours from Dubrovnik heading there, but if you’re visiting during the main season, you don’t need one. From June to September, there is a direct ferry from Dubrovnik to the National Park in the morning, and one back in the afternoon. If you’re visiting outside of the high season, the ferry schedule doesn’t allow for day trips and you’d need to join a tour in order to visit the island in one day. Another option is to spend 2 or more nights on the island. Which is not a bad option either, if you have the time. 😉
If you visit Mjlet on a day trip from Dubrovnik, you will have 6 – 8 hours until you’ll need to take the ferry back (depending on the day). This is enough to hike around the lakes, hike up a viewpoint, visit the island within the island, and even a quick dip. You can find some more itinerary suggestions here. Staying overnight allows you to take it easy and spend more time swimming and just relaxing on this beautiful island.
How to get to Mljet from Dubrovnik: TP line has a direct ferry to Mljet National Park (Polače) leaving Dubrovnik in the morning, and heading back in the afternoon during high season. The current schedule and ticket prices can be found here. You will find the TP ferry terminal here, next to the Gruž Market and not far from the bus terminal.
3. Ston
Thought Dubrovnik had cool walls? Then head to Ston! Ston itself is rather small and the town itself is not so interesting in my opinion. But did you know that Ston has Europe’s biggest stone walls? Now that’s pretty cool. The walls are about 5,5 km long and go around Ston and connect Ston with Mali Ston (small Ston).
So why build such big walls here you might think. The answer is Salt. Yes, really salt. Ston was founded at a time before fridges, so one of the best ways to preserve food was with salt. That made salt a very valuable substance. The people from Dubrovnik started to obtain salt from Ston and made sure this place was well protected. This is how Ston ended up with larger walls than Dubrovnik!
You can walk over a big part of Stone’s walls and the entrance fee includes entrance to the Ston Castle/Fortress as well. You only need about half a day to visit Ston, as you can do the walls and the castle in 1.5 – 2 hours. But you can easily spend a full day here and spend the rest of your time at the coast. It’s also possible to visit the saltworks. And, if you like oysters, you should try some here as Ston is also famous for it’s oysters!
Tip: If you are traveling further north in Croatia after visiting Dubrovnik, you’ll pass Ston on the way. So you could easily opt for a stop there on the way, instead of doing a day trip from Dubrovnik and travel back and foreward.
How to get to Ston from Dubrovnik: Bus 15 leaves Dubrovnik’s bus terminal 3 times a day. You can take the morning one for a full day or the afternoon one for a half-day trip. If you take the afternoon one, you’ll need to hurry up a bit to visit the walls and the fortress, so I’d say take the morning one if you can and make the most out of your day trip to Ston. The bus back is at 7 pm,. Tickets are € 5,30 one way at the time of writing and can be bought at the Libertas ticket office at the bus terminal.
4. The Eastern Coastline
The eastern coastline of Dubrovnik is dotted with small and cute towns which make up for a nice day trip as well. All towns mentioned here are connected by Libertas busses 10 and 11. 16 and 16A go part of the way as well. You can take these busses from Dubrovnik’s bus terminal, or from the cable car. The bus stop is just in front of the ticket office of the lower station.
Kupari
The first stop I recommend is Kupari. I happened to stumble across Kupari when I went for a walk from our accommodation in Mlini and had no idea what I just found. Between the beach and the road, there are some huge buildings, completely in ruins. As there was a war here in the 90s, it wasn’t hard to imagine what had happened to them, but it was obvious that they weren’t just any buildings. One looked like it used to be something like a palace and the buildings didn’t just get damaged during the war, they are destroyed.
So when I came back home I did some research and it turns out Kupari actually used to be Croatia’s biggest and most luxurious holiday resort. Tito even had a villa here. That is, until the war broke out and the military took up residence here. This explains why the buildings got so damaged. Some repair works on the buildings have started now, so some are set off, while others are open to enter. Enter at your own risk though. Do remember these are buildings that basically fell apart about 30 years ago.
Mlini
Mlini is a cute little town, in the bay next to Kupari. We actually stayed here, and I can really recommend Mlini as a base to explore Dubrovnik! It’s well connected, quiet, and has a small shopping mall with a supermarket and everything you may need. It’s a nice and easy walk from Kupari along the beaches of Mlini.
Cavtat
If you’re feeling like having an active day you could walk all the way down to Cavtat. It is about 15 km to walk to Cavtat, and the peninsula in Cavtat itself is really nice to walk along as well, meaning you’d be walking about 20 km in total. There are plenty of beaches to make a swim stop and bars and restaurants to stop for food or a drink though, so it’s a really nice way to spend your day! I didn’t walk further than Plat myself, and visited Cavtat another day, but it is possible to continue.
If this sounds like a bit too much for your taste, you could just walk down to Mlini (or Plav) and take bus 10 or 11 to Cavtat from there. If you’re taking the bus, you can get off at the Obod stop, right before Cavtat. Start your Cavtat walk from here to add 2 km along the coast to your walk on the Peninsula. If you don’t feel like walking much, you can also just get off at the center. The walk along the 2 peninsulas is about 4 km in total, along a nice green path with plenty of shade. From Cavtat it’s an easy bus ride back to Dubrovnik.
5. Korčula
The old town of Korčula is the birth town of Marco Polo, and most famous for this. It’s a pretty town, so if the old City of Dubrovnik has left you hungry for more, contract a tour to Korčula. If you have your own transport you can also drive there yourself. Unfortunately, the ferry schedule doesn’t make it possible to visit Korčula as a day trip from Dubrovnik by public transport.
Tours generally include winetasting and a short stop in Ston. This 30-minute stop doesn’t give you enough time to head up the walls or anything, so Ston is still worth a separate day trip or stopover on your way to your next stop in Croatia.
Other Day Trips from Dubrovnik
I already mentioned the kayaking trip to Lokrum as another option earlier in this guide. Many agencies also offer day trips to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kotor and Budva in Montenegro as well. I don’t recommend these tours though, as these countries deserve more of your time than just a day trip. Mostar for example gets SUPER busy during the day. The old town basically consists of one street and the famous old bridge. With so many people here all at the same time, looking at the many restaurants and souvenir shops walking and enjoying it becomes virtually impossible. I recommend spending at least one night here to enjoy Mostar in the morning and late afternoon when there is hardly anyone there. The bridge is quite magical at night as well, when it’s lit up.
Day trips to Mostar from Dubrovnik also include the Kravica waterfalls. If this is something you’re interested in, you can spend an extra night in Mostar and do a day trip from here. Day trips from Moster include some other interesting sights in the Herzegovina part of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. Another option is renting a car and go by yourself, unfortunately, there is no public transport to the Kravica waterfalls.
The same counts for Kotor and Budva. These cities are only small and get jam-packed with daytrippers and cruisers. Spend at least a night in one of each to really be able to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy these places before and after the daytrippers visit.
This was: 5 Awesome Day Trips from Dubrovnik
