Cavtat (20 km south)

Hotel Croatia Cavtat

★★★★★

Cavtat is the small harbour town that many seasoned visitors prefer to Dubrovnik itself, and the Hotel Croatia is its grand resort. The town lies about twenty kilometres south of the Old Town along the coast, close to Dubrovnik Airport, on a pair of small peninsulas around a horseshoe harbour lined with palm trees, cafe terraces and stone houses. It is the ancient Epidaurum, older than Dubrovnik itself, and it has its own sights: the Rector's Palace museum, the monastery, the house of the painter Vlaho Bukovac and the hilltop Račić Mausoleum by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović. The Hotel Croatia occupies a wooded peninsula next to the town, its long terraced buildings stepping down through the pines to the sea, so most rooms have balconies with views over the water and the bays on either side. The resort is designed for days spent at the hotel: there are pools, rock platforms and pebble beaches around the shoreline, a spa and fitness centre, a choice of restaurants and bars, and walking paths through the woods to the old town of Cavtat in a few minutes. It is part of Adriatic Luxury Hotels, the Dubrovnik group that also runs the Excelsior and the Bellevue, and the group announced its reopening for the 2026 season on 1 April, so it is a spring-to-autumn hotel. Getting to Dubrovnik is part of the charm: in season, small passenger boats run from Cavtat harbour to the Old Town's old port, a scenic ride along the coast, and there are also buses and taxis on the coast road. Because it is so close to the airport, it is also an easy first or last night.

Why stay in Cavtat at all? Because Dubrovnik's Old Town is at its best in the early morning and the evening, and Cavtat offers the opposite rhythm: a calm, local harbour town where the evening promenade is the main event, with the city an easy boat ride away when you want it. The Hotel Croatia is the most complete resort base there, with the space, pools and sea access that are hard to find closer to the walls, and the walking paths around the peninsula and over to the Račić Mausoleum are lovely at sunset.

The trade-offs are distance and scale. The Old Town is a boat, bus or taxi ride away, so evenings in the city need some planning, especially as the last boats leave earlier than many dinners end; check the return times or budget for a taxi. The hotel is large, with event and group business, so it lacks the intimacy of a boutique property. And it is seasonal, closing over the winter, so it is a spring-to-autumn option only. Rates are generally lower than for comparable resorts in the city itself, especially in the shoulder months.

Book the Hotel Croatia for longer stays, families who want a resort with room to breathe, travellers arriving late or leaving early by air, and anyone planning a road trip into Montenegro, since Cavtat is on the way to the border. Pair it with an early-morning boat into the Old Town for the walls, a day trip to the Bay of Kotor, and evenings on the Cavtat harbourfront with a glass of local wine.