Dubrovnik Croatia - In depth tour 🇭🇷 city #13 of 30.

Hi everyone, I'm Marina, and today I'm going to give you a tour of Dubrovnik, Croatia, the pearl of the Adriatic Sea. My husband and I, along with our five kids, are going on a 6,500 mile road trip across Europe. We are going to visit 30 of the most popular and most beautiful cities in Europe. Many of them are ranked among the most stunning destinations in the world. Over the course of this journey, we'll discover which city deserves to be called Europe's best city, which famous destination is the biggest disappointment, and which hidden gem travelers are overlooking. We'll share our honest opinions of every place we visit and rank them from 1 to 30 based on our personal experience. Today we are exploring city number 13 on our trip across Europe. Dubrovnik is located in southeastern Europe on the coast of Croatia. It sits right on the Adriatic Sea, part of the Mediterranean between Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. Dubrovnik is about 1,400 years old. It started as a small settlement in the 600s. Its unique location helped it grow into a wealthy, independent city. It acted as a shipping and transportation company connecting different parts of Europe. Dubrovnik turned an awkward rocky coastline into a wealthy international city. The city built enormous walls to protect itself. It managed to survive and thrive between some of the most powerful forces in European history. Its greatest strength was building friendly trading relationships. It focused more on prosperity instead of trying to conquer more territory. About 200 years ago, Napoleon conquered Dubrovnik and brought an end to the republic. Dubrovnik gradually began attracting wealthy travelers. Visitors loved the climate and a beautiful coastline. The unique landscape and the city's well-preserved old town became a popular film set. The most famous production was Game of Thrones. It began filming in Dubrovnik in 2011, using the city as King's Landing. The show ran until 2019. Millions of viewers around the world saw Dubrovnik's walls, streets, forts, and coastline. This is when Dubrovnik's modern fame exploded. That created a new type of tourism. In addition to the beauty of Dubrovnik, people were coming to see places they recognized from the show. Dubrovnik is most famous for its beautiful old city. The city is surrounded by massive stone walls. They stretch for roughly two kilometers or 1.2 miles around the historic city. Some of the walls rise directly above the rocky coastline. The historic walls, city, and open sea come together in one of the most dramatic ways seen around the world. The old city has several historic entrances. Walking through the gate feels like you're entering a fortress. Once inside, the old city has a very distinctive look. Most of the buildings are built from pale limestone. The streets, buildings, churches, walls, and fountains all have this same stone appearance. Local limestone was widely used because it was durable and available in the region. The city looks almost intentionally designed as one place, rather than a collection of separate buildings. The Stradun is Dubrovnik's main street. Long ago, Stradun didn't exist. A shallow channel separated two settlements. The channel was eventually filled in, and the two settlements became one city. The street is covered in smooth, pale limestone. Hundreds of years of people walking over it have polished the surface. It runs through the heart of the old city for roughly 300 meters, about 1,000 feet. The historic center is mostly pedestrian only. You're walking through centuries-old streets without modern traffic. As soon as you step off Stradun, the city changes completely. You find narrow alleyways, staircases, restaurants, and old houses. Stradun ends at Luža Square. This is the heart of the old city. Decorating the square is the clock tower and the beautiful church of Saint Blaise. Its design really stands out against the simpler limestone buildings. There are some iconic restaurants and buildings around the square. Nearby is Rector's Palace. This was the headquarters of Dubrovnik. The guy running the country was called the Rector. He only served for one month and he had to live right here in the palace. The palace contained government offices, council chambers, a courtroom, a prison, and an armory. Across the Rector's Palace we have Gundulić Square. The square becomes a fresh produce market in the mornings, with farmers bringing fruit and vegetables from nearby villages. In the evenings it becomes a social square. The stalls disappear and cafes and restaurants take over. From the square we can see spectacular Jesuit stairs. The stairs were designed by a Roman architect in the 1730s. The stairs are a popular spot for pictures as this was a popular film set from Game of Thrones. They're modeled after Rome's famous Spanish Steps and lead dramatically up to the Jesuit Church. At the top of the stairs, the Jesuits created an entire intellectual campus. Besides the church, they built a college, a library, and educational complex. It became the city's elite university. Today the complex is used as a high school and gymnasium. Exploring the old city is like stepping into another era. You can freely wander the narrow limestone streets. There are hidden stairways, cafes, and restaurants tucked into stone buildings. It seems like there's something fascinating around every corner. You constantly see the dramatic centuries-old walls surrounding the city. One of the best ways to explore Dubrovnik is from the top of its ancient city walls. As you walk along the stone pathways, you can see the entire Old City below. The Old City isn't a museum. People still live and work inside. From the walls, you can see courtyards, laundry, restaurants, rooftops, and homes below. This is also a great place to enjoy the unique scenery and setting of the city. It takes about one to two hours to walk around the entire city, depending on how often you stop for photos. It's one of the most beautiful and most unique walks in Europe. Here is a quick highlight. The Old Harbor is right under the city walls. This is one of the most picturesque corners in the city. The area is very lively and full of restaurants serving Mediterranean cuisine. On the opposite side of the city is the West Harbor. This is one of the most fascinating little corners of the city. It's much smaller and quieter than the Old Port. The harbor sits underneath Lovrijenac, the spectacular fortress perched on a 37-meter high rock outside the city walls. This was another popular filming location. This area is one of the busiest places outside the city walls. It's full of restaurants and beautiful viewpoints. There is a playground at the foot of the city walls and a quiet green space, one of the most incredible settings. Here is a quick highlight of the area. As the sun goes down, the bright orange rooftops fade into the darkness. Warm lights illuminate the ancient stone streets and walls. People fill the restaurants and the streets with music and conversation. The old city feels less like a historic site and more like a living medieval city. It's a very quiet and romantic atmosphere, perfect for date nights. Srđ is the mountain that rises directly behind Dubrovnik's old city. It reaches about 415 meters or 1,360 feet above sea level. This is one of the best views of Dubrovnik. The view from here perfectly explains why the city is so famous. One of the easiest ways to get to the top is the Dubrovnik cable car. You can also drive or walk up. There is a winding trail with switchbacks that climbs from Dubrovnik toward the summit. At the top are a few cafes, restaurants and some of the most beautiful viewpoints. Once you leave the old city, Dubrovnik changes from a medieval fortress into a modern Croatian city. The urban city is home to around 27,000 people. There are different neighborhoods and developments scattered along the hillsides. The modern parts are built into an incredibly dramatic landscape. The city climbs up the hills so you often get amazing views of the old city, The Adriatic Sea and Islands. There are several beaches and small harbors. They allow residents and visitors to enjoy the bright blue water. It shows a more relaxed modern side of Dubrovnik outside the ancient old city. On the other side of Lapad is Gruž Harbor. For hundreds of years, ships came to Dubrovnik carrying merchants and goods. Today, many of those ships carry tourists instead. The powerful trading port turned into one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations. These are just some of the reasons Dubrovnik is one of the most remarkable cities on the Adriatic coast. Now it's time to rank it. Dubrovnik and Croatia as a whole just seem to be very clean, very neat, everything's very well taken care of. But seeing the dramatic landscaping, like we went up to Mount Serge in the morning and we were looking down at Dubrovnik when outside. It's so quiet, peaceful and just Adriatic in general is beautiful. And seeing such a cool walled city below you, very, very special and something you'll remember forever. Yeah, we enjoyed hanging out there, the kids running around. On top of the mountain with flowers all around us even though it's a little desert-y and dry there's still a lot of wildflowers. It's pretty rocky as well. Either way it was beautiful to hang out overlooking the city. We also really enjoyed walking around the walls of the old city. It's definitely one of the experiences that you don't want to miss and something very unique that you don't really get anywhere else in Europe. We really enjoyed the food there. The food really reminded us of like Slavic food. Slovenian food is really similar. All the kids liked all the things that we got them at these bakeries that we would always stop by. So where does Dubrovnik rank? We rank it right between San Sebastian and the Dolomites. It's such a unique city. There truly is nothing else like it in Europe and the way it's preserved and just its location right on the Adriatic Sea with the mountain behind it. It's just absolutely stunning location. Would we come here again? Yeah, we absolutely would love to. It takes a little bit more effort to get to, but it is a popular spot for a stop on a Mediterranean cruise and we'd love to visit it when we explore this side of Europe. And I think it has one of the most unique atmospheres at night of any city we've been to so far. Thanks for watching, and if you'd like to support our journey, subscribe or join our Patreon community. And the next place we'll be visiting is the most trending destination in Italy. Until next time, as we journey across the real coast to coast.