Where to stay in Dubrovnik

Old Town: atmosphere at a premium

Inside the walls is the most atmospheric base — church bells at 7am, cats on the steps, dinner 40 seconds from your door. But: no lifts, dozens of steps to most apartments, and cruise-ship crowds pouring in from 10am-4pm. Rooms start around €156 and climb past €433 in July. Best for couples on 2-3 night visits who prioritise mornings and evenings over pool time. Not for families with young kids or anyone with mobility issues.

At the top end, The Pucic Palace on Gundulić Square and Prijeko Palace on the old bakers' street both run €380-€780 a night in August and book out five to six months ahead. Dominus Little Palace and Bova Luxury Rooms sit a rung below, €180-€310, with the same stone-walled charm but fewer staff and no spa. If you're carrying suitcases, ask your host exactly how many steps lie between the nearest car drop-off point and the door — some Old Town addresses involve 60 or more, and porters are not standard here.

Ploče and Pile: just outside the gates

Ploče (east) and Pile (west) sit immediately outside the two Old Town gates. Ploče has the grand hotels — Excelsior, Grand Villa Argentina, Villa Dubrovnik — all with sea-facing pools and 5-minute walks to Stradun. Pile is more modest but faster to airport buses. Expect €217-€606 a night. This is the sweet spot for a first visit: walls at your door, but a pool to escape to when the 33°C afternoon hits.

Hotel Excelsior's terrace over the Old Port is the single best breakfast view in the city, and worth the premium if you can get a sea-facing room rather than a garden-facing one at the same rate. On the Pile side, Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik sits two minutes from the gate and the Pile bus terminal, which makes it the practical pick for anyone doing day trips to Cavtat, Trsteno or Ston without a hire car. Book Ploče for the view, Pile for the logistics — either way, avoid rooms facing the coast road if traffic noise bothers you.

Lapad and Babin Kuk: family territory

The peninsula 2 miles west of the Old Town is where local families actually holiday. Pine-shaded promenade, sandy-ish Sunset Beach, apartments with kitchens from €95 a night. Bus 6 runs to Pile every 15 minutes and takes 20 minutes. This is where I send anyone with children or anyone staying more than 3 nights — you get real Croatian evenings on the seafront path rather than the cruise-ship reheat inside the walls.

Hotel Kompas and Royal Blue Hotel both sit on the Lapad promenade with private platforms into the Adriatic, running €140-€290 depending on season, while Valamar Lacroma Hotel and Valamar Tirena Hotel further round Babin Kuk cater more to package groups and half-board families at €110-€230. Grand Hotel Park, tucked just off the beach path, is a quieter mid-range option worth checking when the bigger names are full. For self-caterers, this stretch has the city's best density of supermarkets — a genuine saving after three nights of Old Town restaurant prices.

Gruž: budget and authenticity

The working port with the Saturday market. Rooms from €48, no beach but easy ferry access to the Elaphiti and Mljet. Best for backpackers, solo travellers, and anyone using Dubrovnik as an islands base. Cavtat, 10 miles south by boat or bus, is a fifth option — a whitewashed fishing town near the airport, less touristy than Dubrovnik proper and 20% cheaper. Good for a final night before an early flight.

Small guesthouses such as Rooms Andro and Katarina Rooms cluster in the streets above the port, ten minutes' walk from the Jadrolinija ferry terminal, and are the cheapest genuine double rooms within city-bus range of the walls. In Cavtat, Hotel Cavtat and Hotel Supetar Cavtat both sit on the waterfront promenade at €90-€180, a fraction of the equivalent room rate in Ploče, and the airport transfer from here is under 15 minutes — useful if your flight leaves before the city buses start running.

Mlini, Srebreno and the southern riviera resorts

Roughly 20-25 minutes south of the Old Town by car or the Libertas bus, the villages of Mlini, Srebreno and Plat hold a run of large resort hotels built for stays of a week or more rather than city-break hopping. Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel and Sun Gardens Dubrovnik both offer multiple pools, private coves and half-board or all-inclusive packages from roughly €180 to €420 a night, aimed squarely at families and couples who want one base for the whole trip rather than daily excursions.

Maistra Select Mlini Hotel and Maistra Select Srebreno Premium Apartments sit a notch cheaper, €120-€260, with kitchenettes and a more local, less resort-branded feel, while still being a 10-minute drive from the same beaches. The catch across this whole stretch is the same: without a hire car or the (infrequent, sometimes delayed) coastal bus, getting into Dubrovnik proper for dinner costs €25-€35 each way by taxi. Choose this belt if the resort itself is the holiday; skip it if you plan to eat inside the walls most nights.

Lopud and Koločep: the island alternative

For a genuinely quiet base, the Elaphiti islands sit 25-50 minutes from Gruž port by regular Jadrolinija ferry, and both are car-free — golf buggies and your own feet are the only transport. Koločep is the closer of the two at roughly 25 minutes; Vintage house Kolocep offers simple, self-catering stays from around €90 a night, with nothing much to do beyond the pine paths and a couple of pebble coves, which is rather the point.

Lopud, 50 minutes out, has more infrastructure: White House Lopud and Hotel Lopudski Dvori run €100-€220 and put you a short walk from Šunj, one of the better sand beaches on this coast, while Beloc House Lopud Island suits longer, quieter stays for €70-€150. The trade-off is the ferry timetable, which thins out sharply after 8pm and almost disappears from November to March — fine for a two- or three-night detour mid-trip, wrong as a base if you want late dinners back in Dubrovnik.

When to book, and how prices actually move

Dubrovnik's rates swing harder by month than almost anywhere else on the Adriatic. July and August prices can be double or triple those in May, June or September, and Old Town rooms in particular should be booked four to six months ahead for a July stay — by May, the well-reviewed places inside the walls are largely gone. Shoulder season, roughly mid-May to mid-June and September into early October, gives you swimmable sea, 26-29°C days, and 30-40% lower rates than peak summer.

Winter is a different city: many Lapad and island properties close entirely from November to March, cruise crowds vanish, and the handful of Old Town hotels that stay open — Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik among them — drop to their lowest rates of the year. If flexibility allows, aim for the first half of June or the second half of September: term hasn't started for most of Europe's schools, the water's warm, and you're not paying the August premium for the same room.