Iberostar Cavtat Hotel

Lovely view towards Dubrovnik

by Kardrew about Cavtat Hotel

Cavtat Hotel is right on the sea front with a pretty seaside terrace (no beach or pool here but you can swim from the jetty). We had a lovely view from our huge balcony. The breakfast was a good buffet from which we were able to stock up for the day. Booked this independently for a reasonable price & the hotel staff themselves replied to our emails. Just a few minutes walk into the main village.

I think Cavtat is more expensive thabn many resorts but we stayed here for our first & last nights to be close to Dubrovnik airport.

Notes from my diary

by oneonta_ni

"There at last..."

I am beginning to think that something is conspiring against us getting to Croatia. Actually, I have been thinking that for awhile. I first heard about the beautiful Dalmatian Coast in 1989. My friend, Laurie, and I were in a hostel in Frankfurt, Germany where we started talking to a girl from NY. She told us that the Yugoslavian (as it was then) coastline was the most beautiful she had ever seen. She was backpacking around Europe and I envied her - even though Laurie and I had just been doing the same thing for the previous 4 weeks. Our trip was at its end and I felt we had missed something really beautiful. I was determined to see it some day.

About 6 Years ago, Dubrovnik was featured on a travel program on the BBC. The presenter said that the country was very keen to attract visitors again after the war and said that it was a very safe country to visit. The scenery was stunning and I was even more determined to get there. All I needed to do now was convince GF that he wanted to go, too. It took several years of convincing and then a couple more to finally find the right holiday. As we had never been to the country before, we wanted to go on a package holiday to make it as stress-free as possible. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong holiday company.

After a week's worth of being messed around with flight times and days, changing leave arrangements, being told barefaced lies and general all round disruption - all caused by Concorde Travel - we finally arrived in Cilipi airport at 2am on Monday, 30 June. We were supposed to have arrived at 7pm on Friday, 27 June.

At this point we were so tired and angry I was wondering if I shouldn't have cancelled the holiday entirely and demanded a refund. But here we were and it was 3am when we arrived at the Hotel Cavtat. That is when things changed. The older gentleman on reception greeted us and was very kind as he checked us in. He told us about breakfast and wished us a good night. The room was pleasantly decorated and larger than I expected. It was extremely quiet and we both fell into deep sleep.

"Our first morning"

We had to get up early because of the breakfast arrangements and because we didn't want to miss the rep who was going to be at the hotel at 9.15. We staggered sleepy eyed into the breakfast room and it was several minutes before we realised that the room had a beautiful view of the little harbour. The sun was beating down on the incredibly blue and clear water while little boats bobbed gently. Suddenly a week's worth of hassle with the tour operator melted away. I was finally in Croatia and it was just as beautiful as I imagined.

"A relaxing week."

GF and I decided we really wanted to spend most of our time just relaxing under the pines, reading and watching the world go by. Apart from a couple trips to Dubrovnik and a day trip to Montenegro, that is exactly what we did. For such a stressful start, this turned out to be one of the most relaxing holidays we have had.