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Favorite Moment
Check out Guidester’s favorite Dubrovnik experience.
Jet Skiing the Walls of Kings Landing
Croatia is a wondrous place rich in natural beauty, history, and culture; and Dubrovnik hits all three of these in grand style.
Dubrovnik is one of Croatia’s most visited tourist destinations with the entire medieval city center declared a UNESCO world heritage site.
I was here at the tail-end of a two week road trip that started in Western Germany and ended in Southern Croatia. Dubrovnik isn’t a big city and you can walk the entire historic center pretty quickly, so we decided two days here was sufficient. I would stay longer on my next trip as there’s a lot to do around the more modern city and surrounding area. One such experience is jet skiing around the old city walls.





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It’s absolutely unreal the sight of the walled off city jutting out into the Adriatic Sea surrounded by mountainous terrain. Long past its glory and prime, Dubrovnik used to be the center of a vast empire that rivaled even Venice. Today, the city is perhaps most well-known for its role as the capital city in the HBO hit series Game of Thrones. Tourism to Croatia was steadily on the rise before the show, but the global series has boosted visitors to the city tenfold bringing in millions of people each year. Any first-time visitor should begin with a walk around the city walls; the complete circuit measures over a mile. The city walls incorporate several fortresses, towers, and cannons. From high up on the walls you have perfect views over the old town and looking out across the glistening Adriatic Sea. Tours and activities can be found all over ranging from Game of Thrones tours, to historic walking tours, and as we are about to find out, jet skiing! I knew from my research that water activities were a big thing in Croatia and thought it would be a unique way to see Dubrovnik from the water. The problem was finding available rentals. All the companies we looked at were completely sold out. We looked online, we checked in the tourism office, and we asked all the local vendors walking around selling tours if a last minute spot had opened up. Nothing. We were starting to lose hope. While getting to see Dubrovnik was absolutely awesome and worth it, we thought having a jet ski around some old castle walls in the Mediterranean would be a cool pretty cool way to end the trip. As fate would have it, we did get our jet skis. We were walking through the old town on our last day when we noticed a guy standing in the middle of the square looking very distraught. I mean this guy looked upset. He had a company shirt on and was holding a clipboard so we assumed he was working for a local travel company. We were kind of just wandering the streets when we decided to walk up and approach him. “What’s going on” we said. “Anything we can do to help?” He looked up from his clipboard with a worried look on his face and told us that all his tour bookings had just cancelled a few minutes before they were scheduled to leave and he’s going to be out of pocket for the expense. We chatted back and forth with him a few minutes as he told us the story and the position he was in. “Well, what tours were you selling” we asked. “Jet ski tours” he replied. Mmmmh interesting we all thought to ourselves. At this point we were all still pretty cash poor as I was building a travel business and my friends had just started new careers, so we didn’t have much to work with but we did want to help. The rentals were like 200 bucks a person for a couple hours for us each to have our own jet ski, and unfortunately we didn’t have that kind of money. He was pretty desperate so he offered us half off and we could double up on the jet skis to save a few more bucks. “Done deal” we quickly said. Oh and to sweeten things even further, he just let us go free roam for a couple hours without any real direction. “Just don’t hit the castle walls and you’ll be fine” was the direction we got. Can do! And we were off. There we were not only getting the jet skis we were looking for but for half off and complete unfettered access. We hit those jet skis so hard and so fast, ripping up and down past the castle walls, then deep into the bay, and around the various islands scattered in the sea. I even stopped at one point to get off so I could swim to a little island. On this little island was a small old stone guardhouse just sitting there from a bygone era. It was unreal. We jet skied around the coast for hours in the midst of the medieval city and a stunning landscape. I would have to say this was one of the top travel experiences I’ve had. And it was all made possible because we decided to be polite to a stranger. So the moral of the story is you should always be kind to everyone because you never know when you’re entertaining an angel unawares!

Jack Baumann
Hi, my name is Jack Baumann, and I have a passion for helping independent travelers unlock the wonders of Europe. I founded Guidester - we build personal mobile guidebooks sourced from local experts - so travelers could cut through the noise and dive deeper into the wonders of Europe. I hope you enjoy my stories and tips!

Jack Baumann
Hi, my name is Jack Baumann, and I have a passion for helping independent travelers unlock the wonders of Europe. I founded Guidester - we build personal mobile guidebooks sourced from local experts - so travelers could cut through the noise and dive deeper into the wonders of Europe. I hope you enjoy my stories and tips!
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Local Tips
If you’re planning on visiting a number of museums in Dubrovnik, purchasing a Dubrovnik Card is a must. The card gives you entry into many of the city’s museums, as well as allowing you to use the city’s public bus system for free. You can purchase a one-day card for 130 kn.
There’s now more tourists in Dubrovnik per square foot than perhaps any major destination in Europe. It’s a small city center jam packed with people, most of them not local. If you arrive into the old town early enough you’ll be able to beat the majority of the crowds who don’t start filtering in until late morning.
Walk it!
Dubrovnik is small compared to other major destinations and you will spend most of your time on foot.
Tipping:
Tipping is appreciated but not expected in most restaurants. If you want to tip you could simply round up the bill and that would be appreciated. In higher class fine dining restaurants it is advised to tip 10%-15% on the bill.
Know the proper etiquette:
Table manners are relatively casual as people like to eat and chat at meal times. Wait to be shown where to sit. Leaving a small amount of food on your plate indicates that you are finished eating.
One of the best things you’ll ever do is jet ski around the legendary city walls of Dubrovnik. There are a few tour companies offering water activities in Dubrovnik but make sure to book far in advance as these sell out quickly.
Where To Stay
Inside the old town city walls would be preferable if you’re short on time as it puts you right in the middle of the major attractions, however this will be a more expensive option.
There are plenty of hotels outside the walls along the coast that will be more cost effective and you can simply walk or take a cab into the old town.
Guidester Favorites

Walk the old city walls
This is definitely an activity that you can’t leave the city without doing. The city walls were originally constructed in the 10th century, fortified considerably in 1453, and offer spectacular views of the city and surrounding coast. The walls are nearly 10 feet thick along the sea wall, and 20 feet thick inland. A guided tour of the walls is recommended.

Ride the cable car
One of Dubrovnik’s famed attractions is its cable car, first built in 1969. The service has been fully restored with entirely new equipment and an absolute must for visitors. A journey to the top of Mount Srd takes only 3 minutes, and once there you can take in the views or relax at the cafe at the top. Also at the top of Mount Srd is the Museum of the Croatian War of Independence.

Dubrovnik Cathedral
The Assumption Cathedral originally dates back to the 7th century and the current structure dates from 1673. The cathedral includes Assumption Of Our Lady The Virgin painting that has been assumed to have been painted by the great Titian. The Treasury of the Cathedral is home to the skull of St Blaise which has been encased in a jewel-encrusted crown.
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