Fabulous Dubrovnik Walking Tour

Dubrovnik has a way of stopping people in their tracks, whether it is a first visit or a tenth. The limestone streets, the baroque facades and the shimmer of the Adriatic behind the ramparts do most of the work on their own. This 90-minute private walk starts at the Pile end of the old town and gives you a guide to yourselves, which means the pace, the questions and the detours are all yours.

The route follows the Stradun, the broad main street that runs the length of the walled city and has been polished smooth by centuries of footsteps. Along the way you stop at Onofrio’s Fountain, the visible end of a water supply system that was well ahead of its time, the Franciscan monastery with one of the earliest pharmacies anywhere, and the Convent of St Clare, which housed one of the world’s first orphanages. Your guide also turns off the main street into the narrow stepped lanes, where the everyday city is much easier to picture.

Much of the tour is about ordinary life rather than dates and dynasties: how people got their water, cared for the sick, took in abandoned children, and organised themselves inside a small republic that held onto its independence for centuries while larger powers came and went. Departures run several times a day, year round, and the walk can be led in a number of languages. Because the group is only ever your own party, the guide can lean towards history, architecture or storytelling depending on what you are curious about.