Sarah's Lovely Little World: Dubrovnik, Croatia

On Sunday 24th August 2014, Bob and I went on holiday to Dubrovnik with his Mum and Dad, his brother and his brother's girlfriend. Bob's Mum and Dad booked this trip for us all, and I don't think we would have even thought of going to Dubrovnik if it wasn't for them making the decision, so I am very grateful they did! I cannot recommend visiting Dubrovnik enough.

We stayed in Lapad, which was about a 5 minute bus ride away from the old town. I think this was a brilliant idea as it was away from the hustle and bustle of the busy old town, but close enough that we could go visit the old town as much as we wanted throughout the week. The hotel was lovely (we stayed in the Grand Hotel Park), the room was half board, so we got breakfast and our evening meal in with the room price, and surprisingly the food was really nice! I tend to find that buffet style hotel meals are a bit of a let down, but this one was really good. We ate in there every morning, and all but one evening.
The hotel had an outdoor and indoor pool and a gym. We went for a swim every morning before breakfast, and I would have loved to use the gym but I forgot my trainers, doh!
There was a strip of bars and restaurants just around the corner from the hotel which was very handy. And it was only a short walk down to the sea. Note: Dubrovnik does not have sandy beaches (at least not in the area we visited), just rocks. This didn't bother me at all, as I'm not one for lying on a beach all day getting sand absolutely everywhere, but just in case you were wondering. It's not too bad, as places provided sun loungers. The one time I did a bit of sunbathing I just lay on my towel on the big rocks and it was fine.

We visited the old town many times. The architecture was absolutely incredible. The old town is surrounded by a huge wall with two big gated entrances. The whole place is just stunning. The weather was amazing too. Sunshine and clear skies all week - I actually got a tan for the first time in years! Woo!

During our time there we did a couple of trips. One was to an island across from the old town called Lokrum. We caught a boat from the old town harbour which took about 10-15 minutes. The island was gorgeous. It had the ruins of the old monastery on it, other than that it just had a little cafe. It was such a beautiful island to walk around. It was a very popular spot to relax. This is where we spent a very chilled out day sunbathing and swimming. Also on this island, hundreds of peacocks! The monks brought some over for the gardens and because there are no predators there they just multiplied! There were loads, and the little babies were all wandering around too, so cute! (pictures below)

A few weeks before we went I found out that Dubrovnik old town is in fact the location used to film Kings Landing in the television series Game Of Thrones! I am a huge fan of GoTs, so this was incredibly exciting to find out. I booked a walking tour of the filming locations through Viator. It was a little on the expensive side for the two of us, but I would say it was SO worth it. Our tour guide Maria was so nice, and she really knew her stuff. Not just about GoTs, but all of the Dubrovnik history too. It was a very interesting tour, and we got to see a lot of filming sites and learned how it was all done etc. We even saw the location where the purple wedding was filmed!! If you are a Game of Thrones fan and you ever find yourself in Dubrovnik, I highly recommend the tour. It was fantastic.

Everyone we met were so lovely and very helpful. I loved our time in Dubrovnik so much, we had decided after one day that we would definitely be going back there in future. To be honest, I would have been extremely happy to just stay there forever. If it wasn't for George waiting for us to come home I would have been very tempted! Haha. It was the first time we had left George for a week, so we really couldn't wait to get home and see him. He stayed at our friend's house for the week, and he was a very well behaved boy *proud mummy* (:

Here are some pictures I took: