22 Best things to see & do in Dubrovnik

Our summary of the typical foods, ingredients and flavours, cooking styles, dining scene and best foodie experiences in Dubrovnik.

Often referred to as Dubrovnik’s ‘Gibraltar’, the St Lawrence Fortress sits on an outcrop of rock just outside the City Walls, and took 600 years to complete. Originally built to protect against the Venetian fleet, its walls are between 4 and 12 metres thick.

Rising 415m above the city, topped with a historic fortress and accessible by cable car, Mount Srd offers spectacular views across Dubrovnik and beyond – on a clear day, the vista stretches for up to 60kms. The lower station is just ‘above’ the Old Town on Ulica Petra Kresimira IV, and it’s 3 and a half minutes to the top.

A charming Romanesque monastery with a hidden garden of orange and palm trees, a religious museum and the world’s oldest pharmacy, still functioning today.

This small wine shop in the heart of the Old Town sells wines straight from the Peljesac peninsula, plus Croatian deli items including fruit spirits, preserves and sweets.

If you want to understand the conflict that decimated Dubrovnik, and much of Croatia in the early 1990s, this museum of photo-journalism gives an intense insight into the Civil War.

A tiny shop selling understated jewellery and fashion accessories by Croatian artists. Some original clothes too.

A 2km walk along these 13th-century walls is a feast of dazzling views over Dubrovnik’s old town rooftops and the Adriatic.

This daily market is the place to come to mingle with locals buying fresh fruit and vegetables, olive oil and locally-produced Grappa – come early in the morning for the best produce, it closes by lunchtime.

The administrative heart of the Republic of Dubrovnik in the 16th and 17th centuries, the palace is now a museum with furniture, artifacts and artworks dating back to the era of the Republic.