Dubrovnik with kids and babysitter! 🌞

I have wanted to visit Croatia for some time and finally it happened. There were direct flights from Estonia to Dubrovnik and Split. I chose Dubrovnik since the oldtown seemed attractive. I was in between if should take kids with us or leave to my mum. To be honest, after being alone with 2 small kids for 24 hours I am so done, so I thought it is a bit much for my mum. So we decided to bring my mum with us instead. We stayed in Dubrovnik for 4 days, but there is enough activity for at least 1 week and if you rent the car then plenty to see around.

Beach time

ACCOMODATION

Unfortunately nun of me or Kevin are into driving a car, I guess it is partially because we do not have one and mostly bike around in Copenhagen. So we chose also logistically a place to stay that would be close to beach and access to public transport. There are not really beaches around old town so we stayed next down over called Lapad. It is maybe not the cheapest area in the hood, but totally recommend it. It was easy to get to old down by buss or take a car. If you have your own car then it is quite difficult to find available parking during high season. 

Walk to the beach with kids staff 😀

We stayed in a 1 bedroom apartment. The apartment had 2 floors. I was a bit worried since Logan is still small but it was fine with stairs. It was also good that the bedroom upstairs had its own toilet and shower. We could have used the small kitchen more to cook ourselves since it was quite expensive to eat out every day. I also enjoyed the fact that apartment had high ceilings. Usually when it is very hot outside then I get annoyed by air-condition - once it is too warm and then too hot - but in this apartment it is always perfect and it was not blowing cold air in the face. Even though it was an apartment we could use the pool at the hotel close by that was quite nice.

Beach with kids

The only sad thing was that there was a kids playland basically next door but it was only meant to be used by hotel guests. It was quite hot outside and impossible to stay at beach all day (mainly for kids) so it would have been nice to have access to some playland with air-condition. On a positive note, I think if Nolan could have used the playland, then he might not have wanted to be at beach so much as he did this time. 😊 So probably if are to go back there with kids and they are still small then might pay a bit more and choose a hotel instead.

Pool time

The owner was also super nice and he helped to organize a pick up and drop off from the airport. It is quite nice to arrive and sb with your name is standing and waiting for you.😁

View to the are from the pool

LAPAD AREA

It took some time for me to decide in which area to stay. This seemed a good area with variety of beaches but still not so far from old down. The beaches had small stones, so we all got the water shoes on. I started to like it since it is sometimes quite annoying to have sand everywhere when going to beach. There was public beach that also had an option for sand beds and then a beach club. The beach club was quite pricy - cheapest price was 50 euros a chair on the last row for a day. It was about 5 minute walk down the hill to the beach. Water was amazingly warm, around 28 degrees that was super nice for kids. It still cooled the skin down a bit since outside temperature was 30+. 😁

Coral Beach Club Duprovnik

FOOD

A nice thing about our accommodation and area was that there were restaurants and small shops just 1 minute walk. I was not that surprised about the food and as mentioned it was a bit more expensive than in Estonia but cheaper than in Denmark. The average lunch was around 20 euros per meal and one cocktail was around 12 euros. The good thing was that we found amazing Chinese restaurant and it felt very authentic so we went there 2 days in a row. I think if I would have been there on the first day then I would not have eaten anywhere else. There were also local Asians eating there that showed the quality of the place. 

The one and only Chinese Restaurant

Since we ended up in Dubrovnik around heatwave then it was still quite hot to be outside after sunset and maybe not the most convenient to eat in a place without air-condition. The small shops were quite pricy but my mum managed to walk to one bigger store close by that had bigger selection and was a bit cheaper.

My mum during evening run

OLD DOWN

Old down is one of the must see places. Especially for the Game of Thrones fans out there. I red online that best time to visit is early in the morning or an hour before closing since it is quite hot during a day. We choose to go in the morning and bought tickets next to the entrance. First I thought we could go all together, then I though just take Nolan (4 years old), but then in the end we went with Kevin alone and my mum went another morning. It was a good choice since there are many stairs and even it was 9 in the morning, it was 30+ degrees. I did see some families with small kids but it did not really look like they enjoyed it or you can then just do the one part of the wall. 

It took us for about 1 hour to walk around the wall. We also did one ice coffee break on the way. There are some toilets and other places where you can buy food or drinks on the way. Also medical help if needed. After walk around the City Walls we also looked around the old down. There are quite some tourist and it can get super crowded when cruise ship has landed. 

CABEL CAR

Since we did not take kids to old down in the morning, we decided to go to old down in the evening, have some dinner and eat ice cream. Before the sunset we also went for the cable car. It took up to the mountain. The view was nice, but it would have been better to arrive an hour earlier. Since there was a queue up to the cable car then it took longer than planned to get up and had to also queue to get down. 

With my mum at old down

Dinner at old down

Top of the mountain

Logan :)

BLUE CAVE and Kolocep Island Trip

Since we had my mum with us I also wanted to take advantage and go for a boat trip. I was a bit in between if should take kids with us or not since there could not be air-condition option on the way. Again, quite happy that we did not take the kids. I also wanted to go see the waterfalls, but chose instead one half day trip to blue cave and one island near buy.

Rare picture from the boat trip

The first half of the trip was quite crazy since it was windy and the boat was not the biggest. At the blue cave, the entrance was almost covered by water and the guide told us to hold the hand above the head when diving into the cave. At first the waves were about half to 1 meter high, so you should be quite good swimmer. We did make it to the gave but it was quite scary because the entrance was almost blocked by the water. The next stop was a bit better to reach and generally it is nice to be in the water than moving boat. 

Family picture

The trip ended in one of the small islands close by that had sandy beach. That was very nice. Also cheaper than Dubrovnik. It is also possible to just take a boat to the different small islands and stay there for a day and then go back to Dubrovnik. Would definitely do that next time when kids are also older. 

Rare sandy beach at Kolocep Island

CAVE BAR

For the last evening we got to go for a date with Kevin. I wanted to go to the Cave Bar that is basically a cocktail bar inside the cave. It looked quite cool both inside but also outside by the water. There is even possibility to swim there. There is air-condition inside that is definitely a plus. We walked there across the car road since Google maps did not show the cool walking road by the water. Would definitely had loved to walk there when there is light outside, but now we got to enjoy it on the way back. 

Sunsets were pretty

Cave bar entrance

To sum up the trip, then I would definitely like go back to Dubrovnik and the best compliment comes from Kevin, who was surprised that there is such a cool vacation spot in Europe that gave the similar vacation vibes as Thailand. :) 

Until the next tip! 😀