Our second visit to Dubrovnik and it still took my breath away!
Dubrovnik Old Town
Dubrovnik is an old walled town at the southern end of Croatia, a narrow country that sits on the Adriatic. It's perched on a hillside next to the sea and is popular with those interested in its rich and long history (as well as Game of Thrones enthusiasts). The town is beautiful and very accessible - definitely worth a visit!
The town itself is surrounded by high walls that can be accessed by steps only, but all of the streets (and narrow alleys) and most of the shops are level. You can wander around and take in the atmosphere, sit by the harbour eating take away pizza and ice cream or sit outside and dine in one of the many outdoor restaurants. It gets very busy when there are cruise ships in, so you may want to visit early morning or later in the afternoon or evening.
The restaurants we visited didn't have accessible toilets but according to other sites there is an accessible restroom in Pile Brsalje Square, which is just outside the main gates into the old town. We got to the old town by public bus service , which is frequent and cheap, and has spaces and ramps for wheelchair users. The drivers will get the ramp down when they spot a wheelchair user at the stop.
There is also supposed to be an accessible cable car that will take you to the top of the hillside to give you a view over the old town. We pushed the chair up the hill to get this, but it was closed (October 2017). It's a pretty steep walk, but in all honesty I can't imagine a better view of the town than we got from the taxi from Dubrovnik airport (30/40 minutes away from the old town). taxis from the old town will drive you to a viewing area for photos, but I didn't see any wheelchair accessible ones.
Hotels and Beaches
We've been to Dubrovnik two times now, in June 2018 and October 2017, each time for a short break. To the north of the town are a number of pebble beaches and lots of hotels, many of which offer accessible rooms. On both visits we stayed in Valamar hotels, the President first and the Argosy second.
Both the President and Argosy are very accessible hotels with great pools (no pool lifts) and beaches. The rooms were really comfortable, and the President particularly spacious. There were wet rooms in both hotels but for us the Argosy had the best facilities. Our room had three beds (our eldest stayed at home this time) and offered really good facilities. They supplied a ramp which meant that the we could get the wheelchair outside on to the seating area.
In terms of beaches, the President beach is the most accessible we found. There is a chair lift into the sea at Copacabana beach but its a real hike down on fairly uneven ground that I didn't fancy given that the temperature was close to 30 degrees centigrade. The lift is also into open water, rather than the buoyed off beaches. For us it was easier to get the President lift down to their beach, push the chair across the 10 meters from board walk to shore and get a parasol as near to the sea as we could. From there we carried our son into the sea but beach shoes are a good idea for this as there are rocks at the foreshore. The water gets deep quickly which is great if you're a good swimmer and its really good snorkelling.The staff at the President were really helpful and offered to help, as did some of the holiday makers. You need to be a Valamar hotel guest and have their keycard to use the lifts.
There is a coast path from beyond the President that follows the coastline into an area called Lapad I think, that has loads of restaurants and bars. There's a beach here also but it has a few steps down to the sea. But there's lots of choice of food here some of which is on the level or has one step up to the entrance. We really enjoyed the Mexican restaurant we found.
Croatian Hospitality
The customer service in Croatia is really great. Staff are friendly and helpful and genuinely want to help. Food is great too, we ate a lot of 'Italian' and fish is in abundance. the portion sizes are generous and the prices reflect the menu, so President food is more expensive than you pay away from the hotel, but you get good food and great views and service.
I guess it's pretty obvious that we liked Croatia, especially as we've been twice within a year. The scenery is really beautiful, the sea's warm and the old town is fascinating. Take time to read up on its history. I found this site really useful: https://www.total-croatia-news.com/heritage/16296-dubrovnik-a-history
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