The incomparable Dubrovnik... and a sneaky day trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina - 4th June 2026
- Brett Sedgwick
- Jun 12
- 5 min read
Ciao, my dear readers, from King’s Landing, a.k.a. the Pearl of the Adriatic - Dubrovnik.
When planning where to drive and stay next, ChatGPT has been invaluable. “Chatty”, as we’ve come to call him, gives recommendations in seconds rather than us trawling through sites, reviews, and booking websites. As much as I have misgivings about the use of AI, now and into the future, he has been invaluable.
(Author’s note: I’m always super kind too, so when a Terminator 2 scenario happens, hopefully I’ll be spared.)
He recommended that we stay somewhere between Zadar and Dubrovnik, rather than attempt the drive in one go. We looked at options and also at how much time we had left in the Schengen and decided to go to Dubrovnik in one go. Also, it was a Sunday, and we like to do big drive days when the trucks are parked up, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before.
The roads were interesting. Highways gave way to huge oceanside drives, mountain tunnels, bridges and everything in between.
After 8 hours, with lunch stops and rest stops, and of course our beautiful stop at Krka National Park (see previous post for incredible pics!), we crossed a massive bridge, took the slip road down to the harbour, passed a mega-cruise ship and pulled into reception at Camping Solitudo at around 6.30 pm.
Nadija, the receptionist, was super-friendly and told me she had cousins in Sydney and Perth, so there you go. She also helped us out with bus timetables, walking maps, and some printing. Her English was fantastic, and the first impressions of the park were great.
We parked up near a big shade tree, hooked up all the stuff that needed hooking up, had a feed and pretty much crashed out after our biggest drive day yet.
Author's note - again: Prime video works, and we watched the final season of The Boys - absolutely classic ending, and we are re-watching Goliath with Billy Bong Thornton, and I’m re-watching Ted Lasso at night - just in case you were interested.
The next day we walked to the bus stop and got the 9.15 am bus into the old town with about 50 other people. Yeah, it was packed, and yeah, summer has begun.
We met our guide, the 2-metre tall Marco, outside the Pile Gate and we were off on a walking tour.
Now, this was our third time here, but we decided to do a walking tour anyway.
Top five things I learnt:
1) Dubrovnik - or Ragusa - was always a town of merchants and aristocracy and 150 families and servants lived inside the wall back in the day - about 6000 people. After the mega-earthquake of 1667, 4000 of those people died and the city never really recovered its former aristocratic glory. Today only 3 of the original families remain, and the rest of the old town is now owned by the “commoners.”
2) 90% of the people who live around the city work today in tourism from March until about November - then they holiday and rest.
3) You can drink from all of the fountains. The water is clear, cold and delicious as it is naturally filtered through the limestone from the surrounding mountains.
4) It was considered a crossroads of Europe because every country West is Catholic, East is Orthodox, and North is Muslim - roughly. (I think I got that right!)
5) After the war in the 90’s, all of the borders went back to how they were before…what a waste.
The tour was OK, and he pointed out a few Game of Thrones places, but we already knew about them.
We walked around, had a pizza that was pretty good, some great coffee, saw the cliff-side bars and swimming spots and basically dodged tourists.
Editor’s note: The esteemed couple known as Brett and Jen, a.k.a. Grandude and Jen-Jen, are not, and will never be, classified as “tourists.” They are world travellers. Thank you very much. Please resume normal transmission!
We bailed around 2.30 pm and got back to our camp 30 minutes later before we headed for our own beach and a freezing dip in the Adriatic. The beach was called Copacabana Beach and was just getting into gear for summer. The bars were pumping, inflatable water park obstacles were being set up, and old and young alike were worshipping the sun!
This was the only time that we went into the old town as it’s not very big; we got some great pics, and we got to walk the cobblestones again, so mission accomplished.
We also booked a day trip to Bosnia Herzegovina.
We rocked up at sparrows - 6.30 am - at the resort next door to the caravan park and jumped on a coach with 50 other English speakers to go to Bosnia for the day. Rosa, our energetic guide, talked to us during the ride and told us many things about the political history and the surrounding villages.
After two hours, we had crossed the border and were now in the southern part of the country known as Herzegovina. Bosnia is in the north. (I guess like Spain and Catalonia.) Anyway, we rocked up to Mostar, and another guide took us around; we saw the bridge, the shops, the food, etc.
As I said, we’d been here before, but our camera was nowhere near as good 11 years ago, and Jen got some cracking shots of the river, the buildings and the mad bastards that jump off the bridge.
One thing that I did find interesting is that in Bosnia Herzegovina, they have three Presidents. One for the Catholics, one for the Orthodox and one for the Muslims. The population is roughly one third of each faith, so the three leaders all co-govern and they must agree on laws for all! Pretty cool, I reckon.
Lunch was cevapi - Slavic sausage in bread with chopped up onion and cabbage and served with fries. It sounds gross, but it was pretty magical!
Mostar is very touristy and man it was hot! The bus said it was 36 degrees when we got back on…boiling.
We got back on the road and went the 90 minutes to Kravica Falls. (Rosa pronounced this as Kravitz Falls - as in Lenny!)
Would this finally be the time when I get to swim in a fresh mountain lake under a waterfall??
You bet your assovic it was!!
For a half hour, Jen and I finally swam in the very, very cold freshwater lake while hundreds of locals and tourists ate, drank, worshipped the sun, and generally had a pretty good old time. Check it below.
We got back on the bus - had a seating dispute - ended up near the back, and got back to Dubrovnik around 6.30 pm.
A big day of travel, heat, leaving and reentering the Schengen, and swimming in the cold, pure voda (water).
The next few days we hung around the caravan park as big storms were predicted. They missed Dubrovnik, and we only copped the end of it. No harm done to Delph or the bikes.
That’s about it.
Dubrovnik is one of those cities that has to be seen, and a G.O.T. tour is a must for any fans of the show.
As we reentered the Schengen, it came up on the display that we have 43 days left, so we are leaving tomorrow to check out Montenegro for a week, and maybe some of the other Balkans before we head into Albania. We need to re-enter the Schengen later in the year when friends and family are coming to meet us, so we need to save our days!
Thank you Hrvatska. (Croatia)
You never fail to disappoint, and your natural beauty and resources are spectacular.
We’ll be back again someday, I'm sure.
Ciao.
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