The limestone of the Stradun has been polished by feet for centuries, and wheeled cases chew it up while making a racket that carries into every apartment above. So the city asks visitors to carry a suitcase through the walled centre rather than roll it, as part of the wider set of conduct rules it now enforces. Whether that carries a formal on-the-spot penalty has been argued over in public, with the city disputing some of the figures that circulated, so the sensible reading is to carry the case rather than gamble on which version is true this season. The same rulebook covers walking through the streets shirtless or in swimwear, sleeping in public, climbing on monuments and drinking near protected sites, and those penalties are not disputed at all.
All of which is an argument for not sleeping inside the walls in the first place. A base a few minutes out costs less, involves no steps with luggage, and puts you on a bus that reaches the Pile gate in the time it takes to read the timetable. It is worth comparing flights, rooms and airport transfer options for Dubrovnik before fixing a base, because the gap between inside the walls and just outside is the single largest number in the whole trip.
The crowd inside the walls is managed rather than random, which helps you plan around it. Cruise arrivals are capped at no more than two ships at a time, each berthing for a minimum stretch of hours, with a ceiling on how many visitors may be inside the walls at once and scheduled coach drop-offs at the gate. Entry to the walls themselves and to the museums has moved toward advance booking rather than turning up, so check before you build a morning around the ramparts. The practical consequence is simple: the walls are quietest early and late, and the middle of a docking day is the worst hour to attempt anything inside them.
Where you sleep sets both the bill and the walking. The old town has boutique hotels inside stone houses a few steps from the Stradun, at the price the address commands. Lapad has apartments and beachfront hotels on the peninsula west of the port, with Uvala bay at the end of the promenade. Gruž, around the working harbour, keeps guesthouses and small hotels beside the berths where the Elafiti boats leave. Cavtat has family hotels and apartment rentals on a wooded promontory down the Dalmatian coast, closer to the Dubrovnik airport than the old town is.
A rental car is the wrong instrument here and the reasons stack up. The walled centre is pedestrian, parking anywhere near it is scarce and dear, and the bus network already links Lapad, the port and the gate for a fare that barely registers. What a car cannot do at all is the part most worth doing, which is getting on the water: the boats to Lokrum and out to the Elafiti islands leave from the harbour, and the cable car up the hill behind the city needs no vehicle either. Personally, I would put the money that would have gone on a car into a day at sea and an early ticket for the walls. See our guide to airport transfer and day trip options before you book anything for the water.
Season and formalities are straightforward. Midsummer combines the heaviest cruise traffic with the highest room rates, while late spring and early autumn keep the sea warm and the walls walkable, which is the window almost everyone should be aiming at. Croatia uses the euro and sits inside the Schengen area, so for European visitors there is neither a currency to change nor a border check on arrival, and travellers from further afield are registered biometrically on a first entry rather than stamped. Nothing about arriving here is complicated. The complications, such as they are, all live inside the walls.
Q: Can you wheel a suitcase through the old town?
A: You are asked not to, and to carry it instead, because the wheels damage the limestone and the noise carries. Reports of an on-the-spot fine have been disputed by the city, so carrying is the safe assumption either way.
Q: Do you need to book the city walls in advance?
A: Increasingly yes, since entry to the walls and the museums has been moving toward advance booking rather than walk-up. Check before planning a morning around them.
Q: How many cruise ships dock at once?
A: No more than two at a time, with a ceiling on how many visitors may be inside the walls simultaneously and scheduled coach drop-offs at the gate. Early morning and late afternoon are the quiet windows.
Q: Do you need a car?
A: No. The centre is pedestrian, parking is scarce and expensive, and buses cover the city. The excursions worth taking leave by boat from the harbour.
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