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Walking the City Walls of Dubrovnik

Florian Buechting Places & Sights No Comments

Walls of Dubrovnik

35 EUR
Walls of Dubrovnik
4.4

Rating

 4.4/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Outstanding Views
  • Memorable Experience
  • Snack bars and restaurants along the way
  • Entering from four check points

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Challenging walk, if you are not too athletic
  • May be very crowded in peak times
  • 35 EUR or purchasing Dubrovnik Pass

Dubrovnik is very often named to be the Pearl of the Adria or the Jewel of the Adria. This is majorly due to the picturesque Historic Old Town, which has also been used for the Game of Thrones series, for example. In this posting, I deal with one of the most signature experiences you can do in the Southern Croatian town, namely walking on the historic city walls. Here are my impressions and thoughts.

This posting comes with a section of 88 major size pictures in the travel galleries.

 

 

Dubrovnik City Walls – Location & Admission

The Dubrovnik city wall is surrounding Historic Dubrovnik. Towards the South, the walls face the Adriatic sea, on the East, there is the Old Harbor (there is still a wall from that side. You can enter the wall from four check points, which have access to the “public “Dubrovnik”. At these check points, you also need to re-scan your ticket, regardless if you came from the wall already or not. Getting to Dubrovnik Old Town is tricky. There are quite some parking lots around, but they are typically very crowded. The easiest option is having a hotel close to the walls, like the Hilton Dubrovnik we stayed in. An alternative are the public buses.

During our visit in April 2023, you could walk the Dubrovnik City Walls from 9:00 to 18:00. Adult admission is 35 EUR, the admission for kids is 15 EUR. Please note that this is exactly the same price as the one-day Dubrovnik Card (not too surprisingly, of course). The Dubrovnik Pass also allows you 24 hrs of riding public buses for free. It also includes the admissions to a couple of museums, like the Maritime Museum, the Franciscan Monastry Museum, Rector’s Palace or several art galleries. Dubrovnik Pass is a digital offer, you receive a QR code to log in at the museums. The admission includes the visit to the Lovrijenac Fortress. We skipped that one, though.

 

Dubrovnik Walls – Some facts about the walk

The total walking distance of the walk is about two kilometers. We haven’t counted the stairs, but our fitness trackers showed that during that distances, we walked the equivalent of 25 levels up and down. Thereby, we even skipped taking the stairs up to the towers and similar viewpoints. For me with limited athletic abilities, the walk in April 2023 was challenging. I guess that in summer with higher temperatures and significantly higher volumes of visitors, it would have been difficult to make it. The trip is definitely not suitable for people with any kind of mobility issues.

 

Dubrovnik City Walls – The Walk

We started our walk on the Dubrovnik City Walls on the Westernmost check-point, which is located right behind the Vrata od Pila old town gate. The walk is in fact really nicely organized. A key thing which helps a lot is that the whole walk can only be taken in one direction, anti-clockwise. This is even necessary as some sections of the walk do not really offer you the possibility to pass other visitors. By the way, this may be very bothering if you visit the walls at full crowds in summer. You already had some nice views of Dubrovnik Old Town at the very beginning at this routing – the most breathtaking views, however, were rather towards the end of our trip.

Once you recht the Southwest corner of the walls near the Bokar Fortress, the walls become thinner. You see the marks from the Croatian Independence War in the 1990’s. Apart from some parts of the wall, which had to be restored, you especially see the rather modern roofing / roofing tiles. They are typically an indicator that Serbian bombs hit the town during the war. However, there are also interesting and funny coincidences. People having their laundry on dryers or basketball courts within the city wall remind you that this part of Dubrovnik is not just a tourist attraction, it is a living city. I liked that part of the walk and especially enjoyed the views of the Island of Lokrum from the Southeast fortress remains.

The Old Harbor

As soon as you reach the very East of the wall, you have lovely views of the Old Harbor of Dubrovnik. On another day, we had a short Panorama Cruise from there. The view is beautiful. There is also a very short section of the walls you can visit for free, as it is the only way to visit the Dubrovnik Maritime Museum. Afterwards, you rather go upstairs again along the Northern part of the wall. As said, these are the most beautiful views of Historic Dubrovnik in total.

 

Dubrovnik City Walls – Services

En route, there are several snack bars and small restaurants who offer you a small bite, a drink or an ice cream. Some of them provide a toilet as well. At a few points, handcrafts and similar items have been sold as well. I guess there are more of these places in summer. Apart from that, you can of course interrupt your walk at the check points.

 

Dubrovnik City Walls – The Gallery

In the travel  gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery with 88 pictures of my visit at

 

Dubrovnik Walls – My View

The walk is not  bargain. It is only financially bearable if you are in Dubrovnik for the first time and combine this unique experience with some Dubrovnik Museums. The warmer the weather is and the more crowded with tourists the city is, the less this is likely a really relaxing walk. If your physical conditions are weak (like mine) it is not at all a relaxing walk anyway. Sounds very negative – but the walk is unique and breathtaking. I would compare it to walking on the roof of Milan Cathedral. Simply great!

 

Travel Postings with Picture Gallery

Here are all my Travel postings coming with a designated picture gallery:

 

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