Dubrovnik Tourist Traps

If your looking for restaurants to eat your meals, caffe bars to have some coffee drinks, sodas etc. or buy a souvenier...........stay away from the main strips. Venture in the side streets you'll get more for your money!

Fun Alternatives: Food: there are places in the side streeets that have sandwiches, pizza and even nice sit down places that the food is much better and cheaper ex. Taj Mahal, Mia Kulpa, Mrvica, Peskarija, Dundo Maroje.
Caffe Bars:The places on the strips have the bad coffee drinks and priced outragous. Go down the side streets to Caffe Bar Rio.
Shops: The best place for souveniers is the little newspaper/magazine shops. The prices are half the price.

The prices differ a whole lot when looking for food in Dubrovnik, so avoid the main alleyways that are the busiest or have the most traffic - there are a million great pasta-and-pizzerias and other kinds of restaurants to be found throughout the city and stari grad, so take the time to move at least five or six blocks in any direction away from the central space, and prices will be much cheaper, and the food just as good.

Unique Suggestions: If you are truly starving and have no patience for going out of your way for food, the prices are not totally unreasonable, although expensive by Croatian standards and nearly as costly as it would be in the US. So, try to at least go a block or two off the main avenue, if not entirely out of the way.

All bills should be paid in Croatian kunas. Most credit cards, such as American Express, Diners Club, EC/MC, and Visa are widely accepted. Foreign currencies may be exchanged in banks, post offices, hotels and licensed exchange bureaus. Automated teller machine dispense Croatian kunas.

LABIRINT is highly recommended in some travel guides.

The setting is beautiful with a good view of the walls where the actual restaurant is.

There is also a dance floor downstairs. In that particular night, the music was not really interesting.

Problems:

- service was worse than in "budget" or more traditional restaurants in DBV
- advice about wines was disappointing
- food: dishes were to be garnished with side risotti which never came
- after all this, the bill was (1 starter, 2 main dishes, middle-price wine) equivalente to 90 British pounds. Even in London, known for its expensive restaurants, you eat much better for this amount.

Unique Suggestions: We don´t know if it is possible not to order food in the terrace, but if it is, enjoy the view and have a drink.

Although we believe that, instead of seeing the walls and the people from the terrace, it´s much better to be strolling around... Dubrovnik has so much to offer...

Fun Alternatives: So, instead of places like this, GO TO:

- Spaghetteria Toni: locals go. Cheap, tasty pasta.
- Domino: great service, good-humoured, experienced staff. Try seafood platter with tomato salad (tomato is always great in Croatia).

And, while in Croatia, if you go ZAGREB or anywhere closer to Slavonia, YOU MUST TRY KULEN, a Slavonian specialty which we loved so much we bought at the Dolac Market in Zagreb.

Have fun!!

The shops here are full of the usual tourist junk. T-shirts, hats, etc... Don't expect to find any deals or real Croatian products. In the evening the Strada will be full of hawkers for the restaurants.

Unique Suggestions: Buy icecream from shops in the alleys, they are cheaper.

Fun Alternatives: For handmade croatian products hop the bus down to the other side of the city and check out the shops at the mall.

Not so much a trap but advice. The stradun is absolutely packed in August and tables are not easy to come by on the main route. Take one of the small side passages and find something a lot quieter. There are plenty of places to choose from.

Considering I was a little banged up from my visit to Split, I spent a little more time than usual cruising the internet while in Dubrovnik. For 20-50kn depending on where you go (less than 10USD for sure), you can surf the web for an hour. There are two places just off of Stradun on the northern end (up the hill).

Don't let the ticket fool you, there really aren't many fish displayed here besides the one pictured on the ticket :) Easily the biggest tourist trap I came across in Croatia. Hardly worth the price of admission to watch the aquarium's lonely sea turtle suffer in it's tiny enclosure. I truly hope things have changed since my last visit. Avoid this sight at all costs !!!

The restaurants in the Prijeko street (and some other areas in the Old Town) all appear to be soooooooo nice, BUT trust me you won't taste national cuisine, and you will get ripped off. Don't EVER go to places that are packed with tourists only.

Fun Alternatives: Instead always go where local people go, trust me - we care deeply about what we eat and of course decent price is a must for most of us too.
Actually, this doesn't apply ony to restaurants, it applies to everything (bars, clubs,...)
: )

I love churches and religious art and was really looking forward to seeing all the reliquaries. It doesn't cost much to see the treasury - I think it was 7 kn as of July 2004 - but for that, you only get to peek into a glassed in room. It is full of the most amazing gilded kitsch, but everything is piled in and virtually nothing is labelled in English, so you end up having no idea what you are looking at. I was quite disappointed.

Unique Suggestions: Just take in the huge amounts of gold and OTT-ness of it all. Ask the ticket peron to point out Jesus' nappy.

Fun Alternatives: The best religious building we visited was the Dominican Monastery (up the staircase near the Ploce gate) which was 10 kn and had loads to look at, all well labelled, and a beautiful church and cloister as well.