Dubrovnik in 3 days, upgraded

Sleep inside the walls or above Ploče

The Pucic Palace on Gundulićeva square (from €450 a night) puts you above the morning market with a rooftop restaurant. For sea views over the Old Port, Hotel Bellevue Dubrovnik or Hotel Excelsior in Ploče both open onto Banje beach — the Excelsior's terrace bar at sunset is unmatched, even if you don't sleep there. Book any of these with a walls-facing room; the difference is night and day.

Budget doesn't have to mean a taxi ride from the walls. Hotel Kompas and Valamar Lacroma Hotel sit on the Lapad peninsula, a 20-minute walk or a 5-minute hop on bus line 6 or 8 to Pile Gate, and run €140–€220 a night in July and August, half that in May or October. For a mid-range splurge without the palace price tag, Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik is five minutes' walk from Pile Gate and has the only real pool close to the Old Town. Whichever you pick, book by March for a July stay — the walls-facing rooms at the top three properties sell out first.

Private access and one perfect day on the water

Book a private walls guide for the 7am slot before public opening (around €113 for two). You'll have the entire loop essentially alone for the first 45 minutes. On day 2, charter a small boat with skipper from ACI marina in Gruž — around €520 for a half day — to reach the Elaphiti islands with stops for swimming at Šipan and lunch at Bowa on Šipanska Luka, where a table sits directly on the pebble beach and the fish comes off the boat next to you.

If a private charter feels like too much for one day, Dubrovnik's public catamaran to Lopud and Šipan runs twice daily from Gruž harbour for around €15 return and takes 50 minutes each way — a fraction of the charter price, though you lose the flexibility to swim wherever you like. Lopud's Šunj beach, a 20-minute walk over the hill from the ferry dock, has the only real stretch of sand in the Elaphitis and is worth the extra stop if your skipper allows it. Avoid August weekends for either option — the marina queues at Gruž run long and the island beaches fill by 11am.

One dinner worth the trip

Restaurant 360 inside the walls has one Michelin star and a terrace built into the fortifications above the Old Port. Tasting menu is €147 without wine pairing. Book 3 weeks ahead for the sunset seating. If it's full, Nautika by Pile gate does a more traditional Dalmatian tasting for €121 with the same view of Lovrijenac fort. Both are the kind of meals where you'll linger 3 hours and not check your phone once.

Both restaurants close for a slow season — 360 typically shuts from January to March, and Nautika trims its hours in the same window, so confirm dates directly if you're visiting in winter. For a lighter, cheaper version of the same view without the tasting-menu commitment, the bar at Nautika's terrace serves à la carte from around €35 a plate and doesn't need weeks of notice. Either way, request the westernmost tables — that's where the sun actually drops behind Lokrum, and the difference between that seat and one ten metres over is the whole point of paying this much.

Getting from the airport and around the Old Town

Dubrovnik Airport sits in Čilipi, about 20km southeast of the Old Town, and there's no train link — a taxi runs €35–€45 for the 25-minute drive, while the Atlas shuttle bus meets every arriving flight and costs around €10 a person into the Pile Gate bus stop. Renting a car for these three days is close to pointless: the Old Town is entirely car-free, parking near Pile costs upward of €4 an hour, and the narrow roads into Ploče and Lapad clog badly between 10am and 1pm when the cruise excursions run.

Once inside, everything is on foot. The walk from Pile Gate to the Old Port takes 12 minutes end to end along Stradun, and from Ploče to the Buža bar on the seaward walls is another 10. If your hotel sits up in Lapad or Boninovo, local bus line 1A, 3 or 6 covers the run to Pile for €2 in cash or €1.60 with a pre-bought card from any Tisak kiosk — buy a few in advance, since the driver often can't break large notes at rush hour.

The day the itinerary skips — Lokrum and Mount Srđ

The private walls slot and the island charter account for two of your three days; the third is best split between Lokrum and Mount Srđ. Ferries to Lokrum leave the Old Port every 30 minutes from 9am, cost €27 return, and land you in a nature reserve 10 minutes offshore with a saltwater lake, peacocks descended from the island's Habsburg-era residents, and a rocky swimming platform on the far side that's far quieter than Banje. Two to three hours is enough; go before 10am to beat the cruise-ship crowds that hit by midday.

Mount Srđ is the other half of the day. The cable car from its lower station near the Buža Gate runs every 15–30 minutes, costs €27 return, and reaches the summit fort in under four minutes, where the view takes in the whole Old Town roofline and the Elaphiti islands beyond. Time it for an hour before sunset and have a drink at the fort's café rather than rushing back down — the last car usually leaves around 10pm in summer, so there's no need to hurry. Skip walking up unless you want a steep 45-minute climb with no shade.

Lunch and the market, not just the tasting menus

Not every meal needs to be a €120 sitting. The morning market on Gundulićeva square, right below The Pucic Palace, runs daily until early afternoon and is the best place to put together a lunch of figs, local cheese and prosciutto for under €10. For a sit-down lunch between the walls and the boat trip, the konobas along Prijeko street vary wildly in quality — most are aimed at cruise-ship footfall — so it's worth walking the extra five minutes to Ploče where the crowds thin and the black risotto is made to order rather than reheated.

If you're staying in Lapad rather than the Old Town, the seafront promenade below Hotel Kompas and Valamar Lacroma Hotel has a run of grill restaurants serving grilled fish by weight, usually €30–€40 a kilo, which is honestly priced and consistent — a good option on the evening you're not doing the big dinner. Order the whole fish rather than fillets; it's what the kitchens are set up for, and the price per kilo drops noticeably compared with fillet cuts.