The Dalmatian coastline on the road to Dubrovnik
Coasting through Croatia
Christine Chaseling heads along the beautiful Dalmatian coastline, the superb Renaissance city of Dubrovnik firmly in her sights.
Cicadas singing in cypress trees and hard sunlight on stony ground are our first impressions of the coastal region of Croatia. As we head out of the mountain tunnels towards Split, the sea ahead reveals the breathtaking beauty of the Dalmatian Coast, promising Mediterranean warmth and Italian-style cuisine.
When the Roman Emperor Diocletian retired to Split more than 1700 years ago, he built an immense palace. Every afternoon during the summer months, an enactment by Roman soldiers enlivens the palace ruins, giving insight into life in Diocletian’s time. Its half-ruins disclose a labyrinth of streets, inside and outside the palace walls. These walls and their upper terraces unexpectedly form the building infrastructure for private residences that are still inhabited today. These structures, despite strict building regulations, manage to be very stylish.
A profusion of bougainvillea in Split's old town
Shops are everywhere, nestled into the solid stone walls, and designer outlets and elegant boutiques flank the waterfront but are beyond our budget. It’s market day, so we head up the alleyway of stalls, searching for bargains. Necklaces strung from the corals that grow along Croatia’s coast are on sale at reasonable prices, and there are bracelets shaped like dolphin heads, too. In a small bay-side village a little way out of Split, Italian seafood is served up with traditional Croatian music. The musicians invite requests and we sing along to old favourites, enjoying the ambience of the warm evening in the vine-covered terraced courtyard.
The busy seaport of Split has an international airport as well as regular ferry services that run between Split and Italy or Greece. It is also a point of departure for the string of offshore islands that forms a protective channel for the waters of the coastal mainland. But Split is not our main destination: we are headed for Dubrovnik via a road that snakes around bays and zigzags through the villages that dot the narrow coastal shelf between the mountains and the Adriatic.
The sheer rock faces of the mountain walls dominate the north side of the road. The land between the mountains and the sea is terraced for citrus and olive growing. Abandoned stone houses testify to the economic migration that decimated the area’s population during the ’50s and ’60s, and showing signs of gunfire strafing. Damage from the Balkans wars is apparent but, surprisingly, many new and repaired residences stand unfinished, their top storeys missing windows or doors – a local idiosyncrasy that results from residents eager to avoid taxes on finished construction.
In the main street of old Dubrovnik
We stop at picturesque Bacina Lakes, a series of six lakes visible from the roadside. They take their beautiful aqua hue from the limestone bed that lies below sea level. From our vantage point overlooking the lakes, we zigzag down the steep road to the lush, fertile delta of the Neretva River, then onwards across the Franjo Tudjman Bridge, named after the first elected President of Croatia (and billed, in engineering literature, as one of the most significant cable-stayed bridges in Europe). This spectacular suspension bridge crosses a deep narrow inlet and forms a gateway to Dubrovnik.
The modern town of Dubrovnik is a working seaport but its main income comes from tourism. The port is a regular stopping-point for glamorous private yachts, fishing fleets and cruise ships. We pass the Port of Gruz on our way to the Ariston Hotel, a few kilometres southwest of the town.
The Ariston is one of four hotels that share the Importanne Resort facilities, on a peninsula overlooking the sea. Swimming pools have been dug into the cliff, which is terraced to provide perfect platforms for lounge chairs and umbrellas – ideal spots for lazy sunbaking. The pools look good but the sea is more inviting, and we climb down a short, stainless-steel ladder and plunge in. The soft, balmy water draws us back, a welcome respite from the heat of the afternoon sun – deep, pure blue, crystalline water that flows over a rocky shelf extending out into the bay. A ring of buoys protect swimmers from boats and from the jet skis that zoom around the harbour. The tidal variation here is slight, creating a fantastic watery playground, with a myriad of bays and inlets offering safe haven for boats, and sheltered swimming areas.
In the old town of Split
While the blue waters of the Adriatic entice us to play, the past exerts it presence. The focus of any visit to Dubrovnik is its Old Town: a walled fort, steeped in history and tradition. Next morning, we head off to explore.
At a vantage point on the road down to the town, we survey the two-kilometre wall that, for centuries, defended the city from land and sea attack. Once we’ve recovered from the visual impact, we’re keen to explore the Old Town and its story, both ancient and more recent. The physicality of the city, with its strong walls and forts built atop impressive cliffs, guns trained seaward, testifies to real danger.
Neither those walls nor its listing in 1979 as a UNESCO World Heritage site saved Dubrovnik from devastation during the Balkans conflict triggered by the break-up of Yugoslavia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rocket fire from the surrounding hillsides severely damaged many historic buildings and inflected untold hardship on the population; many thousands were killed. The Croatian government has spent around AU$2 million a year since the war on restoration, with donations coming from the international community. Eighteen years on, the town has been restored and the tourists, previously the mainstay of the local economy, have returned.
Beautiful scenery along the coastline
Outside the walls, at the west gate of Pile, is the central bus station: we stop here and enter the Old Town through the west gate. No cars are allowed inside the Old Town, which is still a living township, housing around 800 residents.
From the early Middle Ages until the earthquake of 1667 that destroyed most of the town, a city state developed within the walls, complete with stunning Romanesque and Gothic churches, palaces, and fountains that delivered the city’s water supply. In the Middle Ages, Dubrovnik had diplomatic ties with Venice, and its evolved, humane social institutions and religious tolerance meant that philosophy, science and literature flourished here. The third-oldest pharmacy in Europe, opened in the town’s Franciscan Monastery in 1317, still trades, and the synagogue in the Jewish Street is the one of the oldest Sephardi synagogues in existence.
The main thoroughfare, known as the Stradun, was rebuilt after the earthquake and is lined with identical three-storey buildings, all with arched doorways and green shutters, many now housing retail boutiques. The harmony of the Old Town owes much to the uniformity of materials and colour. The town is built from stone, with only orange-red roof tiles and green shutters permitted.
Beach life along the coastline
Restaurants and cafés abound, and we take a morning coffee break so we can kick back, enjoy the ambience and absorb the atmosphere on Luza Square. Deciding that climbing the fortress walls is too daunting a prospect in the heat, we retreat for an afternoon by the sea.
After a sunset cruise on the harbour, we land at the Old Port, now primarily a pleasure-boat harbour. Music drifts from cafés where arched façades once held the city’s arsenal. The walls still loom but the challenge of climbing them will have to wait, as they close at sunset.
Next day, we explore the beaches and bays around the coast. In the late afternoon, we catch a local bus into the town centre to climb the sea walls. The southern section of wall is built over steep cliffs that drop sheer into the sea. Large gun ports have been strategically placed as a defence against attack. The still evening delivers spectacular views at every turn.
The soft sounds of stringed instruments draw us back to the Old Port, and we relax in candlelight under the moon over delectable Italian antipasto and a shared seafood platter. We have fallen under Dubrovnik’s spell, and vow, as we shove souvenirs into suitcases, to return.
Photography by Christine Chaseling and Croatian National Tourist Board
Travel Facts
getting there
Getting around
- Avis, phone 13 63 33 or visit www.avis.com.au
- DriveAway Holidays, phone 1300 723 972 or visit www.driveaway.com.au
- Greece & Mediterranean Travel, phone 1300 661 666 or visit www.greecemedtravel.com
- Hertz, phone 13 3039 or visit www.hertz.co.nz
- Intrepid Travel, phone 1300 364 512 or visit www.intrepidtravel.com
- Rail Europe, phone 03 9642 8644 or visit www.raileurope.com.au
- Rail Plus, phone 1300 555 003 or visit www.railplus.com.au
- Renault Euro Drive, phone 1300 551 160 or visit www.renaulteurodrive.com.au
- Scenic Tours, phone 1300 136 001 or visit www.scenictours.com
- Tempo Holidays, phone 1300 558 987 or visit www.tempoholidays.com
- Trafalgar Tours, visit www.trafalgartours.com.au
- Uniworld Cruises, visit www.uniworldcruises.com.au
- Utracks, phone 1300 303 368 or visit www.utracks.com
Where to stay
- Two major hotel complexes, located in a Mediterranean oasis on the Babin Kuk peninsula, about five kilometres from the Old Town, share resort facilities. Phone +385 20 440 100 or visit www.importanneresort.com
- Valamar Hotels & Resorts also has four choices of accommodation. Phone +385 52 465 400 or visit www.valamar.com
- Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik is located a stone’s throw from the west gate of the old town. Phone +385 20 320 320 or visit www.hilton.com
Further information
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Capital Gains