Tivat and Dubrovnik

Although the point of our recent trip to the Balkans was to swim, we wanted to post briefly about the cities we visited - Tivat, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Montenegro is a very small country (population is only about 625,000 people -- less than Seattle, not to mention LA), and Tivat is a small resort area. Although Tivat has a tiny, nearby airport, there are few flights. So, like most people, we arrived in Dubrovnik and took a car to Tivat. This required a border crossing into Montenegro, which looked a bit like crossing into an Eastern Block country in a movie from the 70's or 80's, a pretty long ride along a two-lane road and a ferry crossing. The ferry is totally utilitarian, but extremely important for getting people to and from Tivat:

On our trip back to Dubrovnik, a large cruise ship was passing through the narrow channel that the ferry crosses causing a terrible bottleneck. Fortunately, our aggressive Montenegrin driver got us very close to the front of the line so our wait was limited.

Tivat itself is very small and, like many resort areas is all about the "beach" -- although the "beaches" were more of a pebbly water entry point or concrete ledge. We stayed in a slightly older part of town, but a relatively new harbor is filled with large yachts (including one we found on the internet, which is owned by a Saudi sheikh and cost $300 million to build), and surrounded by high-end shopping and newly constructed resorts.

The location is beautiful; here is a view from our hotel:

Unlike Tivat, Dubrovnik is an ancient city and a long-time tourist destination. Given the level of tourism, we were amazed to hear that the population of the city is under 50,000 people. We chose not to stay in the old town, instead renting a VRBO above the new port. The views from our balcony were spectacular:

The first morning after we arrived, we woke up early and walked a bit over a mile to the Dubrovnik old town to walk along the ancient walls that still enclose it. We were happy to have done this early because once the tour groups show up (mostly off of cruise ships), the volume of people on the walls becomes unbearable. Not to mention that it was really hot. When we were on the walls, however, the crowds were limited and the views were amazing:

Although it was expensive (over $30 each), walking the walls of Dubrovnik is definitely the highlight of any visit there. While we visited a few museums, along with the old Synagogue (second-oldest in Europe after the Old-New Synagogue in Prague), none was really very impressive. The central square of the old city is nice, but the hoards of tourists and the heat, which is reflected and intensified by the stone walls, make it difficult to savor:

We very much enjoyed our visit to this part of the world we had never visited before, and can definitely see returning to Croatia to see Split and Zagreb (in the northern part of the country), perhaps along with a tour of the islands. Plus, we know they have good wine and oysters there.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana