Ships and boats

The new harbor is located in the Gruz section of Dubrovnik. The water is deep enough outside the Old Harbor at Ploce, but to offer quayside berthing and not require tender access from cruise ship to dockside, the new harbor was built. Since Dubrovnik has fishing boats and other ships with a long history of seafaring, construction of a new harbor with modern facilities made economic sense.


This beautiful new bridge, reminiscent of a similar one crossing the Ohio River at my town in West Virginia, crosses the inlet just outside the harbor, providing a shortcut for the road north. Cruise ships are visible lined up at the quay.







This monstrosity is not even the largest cruise ship that visits Dubrovnik. The MSC Musica boasts all the wonderful amenities that entice cruisers....and can accommodate between 2500 and 3100 people on board. Cost range per person from $1800 upwards for a 7-day cruise that includes a 6-hour stop at Dubrovnik.














There are so many large and small ships visiting, yachts of all sizes. There are even kayak tours available.


























The flip side to all this wonderful accessibility is that some days the Old City is terribly crowded. Cruise ships tend to arrive between 9:30 and 11:30 and depart about 6 hours later. That means on any given day on the hours between 10 and 4, there may be as many as 7000 tourists of all nationalities wandering the Stradun.

Locals have begun to figure out how the various nationalities spend their time. Without getting into name calling, you might be amused to learn that there are many cruisers who arrive in the New Harbor, take the bus to the Pile Gate entrance, walk down the Stradun, buy a cone of gelato on the walk back up the Stradun, and then get back on the bus back to the ship. Others actually pay the entrance fee to climb up to the top of the City Walls and walk the circumference, climbing down, hot and tired, sit in a cafe for an hour, and then head back to the boat. Some others join an escorted tour of the Old City with anywhere form 25-40 following a guide with an amplified megaphone which is unintelligible from 10 feet away. What is particularly sad is that these cruisers then tell their friends or actually post advice on the internet telling people that Dubrovnik "can be done" in a couple of hours. There has got to be a better way.



Actually, there is. Cruising is a hugely attractive option for many people...it provides the ease of one room that moves....lots of fun facilities, and the promise of more food than you should eat. The cruise lines offer land excursions but these are not the only arrangements that can be made.










There are a number of private guides like Carol who offer very small custom tours. While custom tours are definitely more expensive than what you would pay for a ship sponsored tour, the quality of the individualized attention and customized locations enhance the experience above and beyond what that poor guy at the end of the 40 people who can't understand a squawk the guy is muttering.

Next time you travel, whether you are lucky enough to cruise to an exotic location, or you are on a drive somewhere here in the US, most visits can be enhanced with a local expert hired just by you and your family. We have hired an archaeologist near Mesa Verde, Colorado and an ex-pat living in Paris to shwo us secrets of the back streets that tourists never find. The magic of being shown hidden gems is there for you to discover.