We spent 7 nights in Cavtat in early September 2015. Here follows an account of our trip:

The Journey

We flew out from East Midlands to Dubrovnik airport with Jet2. Both flights were on time and our transfer on arrival was less than 30 mins. Unfortunately, the return transfer did not go so well and we arrived back at the airport only 50 minutes before take-off and just made it through security in time for the final boarding call, despite going there straight from the check in desks. We are currently waiting for Jet2’s response to our complaint on this, but it looks likely that there was an error in the original pick up time that we were given, as it was only 1 hr 35 mins before departure and 35 mins later than the previous week.

The Weather

The forecasts had shown mainly hot weather in the weeks before we travelled, with the odd thundery shower. It was actually very warm for most of our trip, with daytime temperatures in the low 30s. Unfortunately a storm blew in on our last full day which meant the weather was cooler and rather windy, with a few short showers, but it was back to sun again on the day we went home so overall we thought that early September was a good time to visit this area.

Accommodation

Hotel Cavtat, Cavtat

This was our final summer holiday of 2015 and we wanted somewhere hot (but not too hot) with weekend daylight flights in both directions. After a bit of research, Dubrovnik had the best flight times from East Midlands airport and we picked the resort of Cavtat because it was near to the airport and to Dubrovnik. We chose the Hotel Cavtat because it had excellent reviews, was in a good location, and was smaller than many of the other hotels in the resort. We paid extra for a sea view room with a balcony and I emailed the hotel in advance to request a room on a high floor. We were given room 333, which was on the ground floor of the rear block with a partially obscured sea view. We would have preferred to have been on a higher floor, but the location did mean that our room was cool and quiet. The room itself was nicely decorated with comfortable beds and a very good shower and was cleaned every day.

We were there on a half board basis and therefore ate in the main restaurant every day. The huge floor to ceiling windows gave great views over the bay and we were able to get a window table at nearly every meal. The food was great for both breakfast and dinner and we particularly enjoyed the food on the Croatian evening – it would definitely have been nice to have had some more Croatian/local food nights while we were there. Drinks service in the main restaurant was fine but not as good at the Cenzura bar and the advertised ‘Happy Hour’ discount was only given when requested. A lot of the other reviews have mentioned the issue of sunbeds – well, it wasn’t an issue for us as we are both very pale-skinned and can’t sit out in the sun for too long, so we were happy to avoid the rooftop pool area and grab some sunbeds in the shadier area by the sea. The sea was much nicer for swimming as well – the rooftop pool was freezing! We also enjoyed watching the planes coming into land at the nearby airport – this was mainly during the day and we didn’t find the noise intrusive.

Overall, we had a really lovely time at the Hotel Cavtat and would definitely consider going back there some time.

Things to do

As the weather was so good, we didn’t actually end up visiting any of the museums in Cavtat, but we did enjoy going for walks around the 2 peninsulas and up to the Mausoleum, both during the day and at night. It is definitely worth going for a sunset drink at Beach Bar Little Star as the views are gorgeous. We also liked the bakery for sandwiches, Café Rosa for its lunchtime platters, the ice cream shop next door for its huge sundaes and Café Figurin for evening drinks.
We ended up spending 3 days visiting Dubrovnik. Before we went, we consulted the cruise ship timetables at http://www.croatiatraveller.com/southern_dalmatia/Dubrovnik/cruise-schedule.html to try and work out which might be the quietest days to visit. On our first trip, we took the Sea Line ferry from the main Cavtat harbour, which took just under an hour to reach Dubrovnik. We then went straight to the City Walls, ascending by the Ploce Gate. It took us about 2 hours to walk the full length of the walls because we had to keep stopping to rest from the heat. There are a couple of cafés up there, but the drinks are very expensive so make sure you take a lot of water with you. The views were particularly good on the section from the Ploce Gate to the Pile Gate so we would recommend just doing this section if you are short of time. We were planning on doing some further sightseeing afterwards, but it was too busy and hot so we just got the boat back to Cavtat to spend the afternoon relaxing.

On our second trip, we decided to take the local bus (no 10). This was a little bit quicker than the boat, but it did drop us quite a long way away from the Old Town. We had already decided to go straight to the Cable Car though, so the walk down to there from the bus stop was easier that the walk up from the Old Town would have been. We arrived just before 10am to try and beat the crowds and were able to ascend within a few minutes of arriving. The view from the top was amazing – we were very lucky to go up on a clear day so we could see for miles around. Whilst we were up there, we also visited the Croatian War of Independence Museum, which was very interesting. Some of the exhibition info was a bit dry, but one of the rooms had a tv showing actual footage of the war and we found this fascinating. Don’t miss the chance to go up to the roof (use the stairs in the main room) as you get better views up there than from the cable car station itself. We spent about 2hrs up at the top and then headed back down and into the Old Town. It was the quietest day that week so we were able to have a proper look around before heading back to the cable car base station to get the bus back to Cavtat.

On our final trip, we took the Sea Line Ferry to Dubrovnik, before catching the ferry out to Lokrum. There is not much to see on Lokrum, but we did enjoy wandering around on the forest paths and having a drink and ice cream in one of the cafés before catching the boat back to Cavtat. It’s worth noting that the Sea Line Ferry from Cavtat goes direct to Lokrum from mid-morning onwards, we only went via Dubrovnik because we thought it would let us get there earlier (it didn’t!).

As may others have mentioned, the best place to book excursions is with Michael, who is based next to the Hotel Cavtat, as his prices are much cheaper than Jet2 (who charge from £23 for a 2hr tour, up to £55 for a full day). You can also buy ferry tickets from him at a cheaper rate than you can buy them from the stalls or on the boats themselves. We chose to book the half day Konavle Wine Tour trip, with Michael as our guide and driver. This cost £25 each and included visits to a local viewpoint, the castle at Sokol Grad and the Ljuta river, followed by lunch and wine tasting at Michael’s brother in law’s vineyard. We really enjoyed this trip, although it would have been better to have started it earlier than 11:30 as it meant we didn’t stop for lunch until 3pm. Michael’s mini-van was very hot so dress accordingly! It’s also advisable to take some extra money with you if you want to go into the castle, or buy some wine/brandy to take home. The food and wine were lovely and it was a really fun end to our holiday so I think we would do the trip again if we ever go back to Cavtat.