Dubrovnik
 

hey guys,
me and 4 of my friends are goin for a 3 week trip around europe, ending up in dubrovnik. We have heard that at the train stations/ ferry ports that there are loads of locals there offering accomodation in their own homes. Is this true? because we thought this would probably be cheaper than booking a hostel as we'll be in Dubrovnik for about a week. Is it safe enough to arrive with no accomodation. I'm worried cos we'll be there about 20th aug, so its peak time and also cos theres 5 of us and we dont really want to split up!! any thoughts or advice would be great thanks!

If you want to stay with locals, you may want to consider an organized homestay or couchsurfing. Following locals that hangout at trainstations is usually not a great idea (to their house or anywhere else for that matter)

--Joey

I was just in Dubrovnik back in June. While not quite as busy as August I imagine, we had no trouble getting accomodations once we got there.

There were 4 of us and we found a great cheap place, really close to Old Town. There is the quick answer. Now let me get into details.

4 of us (Me, wife, brother, & sister) arrived in Dubrovnik via the ferry. Got off the ferry incredibly hungover (okay probably still drunk) and went thru immigration no problem (we were coming from Bari, Italy).

Immediately after going thru Immigration we were bombarded with offers of places to stay. It's like organized chaos. The people have all these pictures of the places, maps with the location on there. I knew exactly where I wanted to stay and what i wanted to pay, so that helped filter out the first few offers. I suggest doing the same. Before we left I checked prices on the internet for pre-booking apartments and they were around 25-30 Euro a person, give or take for something decent near the Old Town. It was especially important for me to be near there.

A 20-something girl approached us after hearing that I wanted to be near the Old Town and said she had something near the Buza gate (1 of 3 entrances into the walled Old Town, in the center). She promised it was 2 blocks back from the gate, 5 minute walk. Showed us a map. We asked how many beds, private bath, all that stuff. She said private WC/shower, 2 bedrooms (1 with a single, the other with a queen and a single - plus a couch in the living room (where my bro slept so wife and i could be alone in the queen)). Also, the ferry station is like a 10 minute DRIVE from the Old Town so she offered us a ride in her hoopy. Knowing that my brother and I could overtake her even in our drunken state, we climbed in. As she stated, even if we got there and didn't want it, we got a free ride to town.

We get there, park right at the Buza gate and start a two block walk away from it. So far everything going like she said. We get to the apartment and the owner was in there cleaning it. We met her, chatted, she was super nice. She was living in in-laws like quarters in the basement, had her own entrance and bathroom and promised we wouldn't see her again if we didn't seek her out (which was true). The girl (who was like a broker) told us it was 20 Euro per person per night. I countered with 15 and we settled on 17. Now realize, this was two blocks from the main part of Dubrovnik, we could see the Adriatic from the window, and was almost half of what I saw on the Internet. The house looked as promised, the price was great.

Now we only rented it for 3 days, but from what i understand, if you are staying longer you can get better deals. And while its these people's homes, they aren't living directly with you for the most part. Either they live in a separate part of the house (as with our case) or they have another home or apartment to use when renting their main house. The house we had would have fit 5, my brother said the couch was comfy. I dont think you'll have any problem at all. I would highly recommend going there and scoring a local place.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I'm going to try to upload some pics for you but many of our Dubrovnik ones aren't online yet.

Hope this helps and good luck!

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photo...0208_0_ALB.jpg
This was taken from our house's front window. There is some zoomage going on here, but not much. We really were that close. My favorite part was being able to see the sea beyond the town.

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photo...0208_0_ALB.jpg
Here is the house we rented. I know its hard to see because of the trees, sorry.

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photo...0208_0_ALB.jpg
This is the terrace outside of the house. Those were grape vines on top of it. You could sit out there and watch the sunset whilst drinking cheap Croatian wine. Good times.

thank you so so so much!! you have definately put my mind at ease about dubrovnik!! i'm so excited about going now!! thanks again

Is this me, or the pictures aren't showing ? :confused:

nope, they're not showing for me either :(

damn, sometimes i see them, sometimes i dont. weird. Let me try to fix this...

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1270/...eccf6c3af0.jpg


This is the terrace outside of the house. Those were grape vines on top of it. You could sit out there and watch the sunset whilst drinking cheap Croatian wine. Good times.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1344/...438949c6fe.jpg
Here is the house we rented. I know its hard to see because of the trees, sorry.

well they're still not inserted...but can people at least get to them? This is weird...

^^I fixed it. :afro: The problem was the code : the digits after ".jpg" were one too many.

Gorgeous place ! It's a little pricy, but given the location, and the cost of life of this part of Eastern Europe, I agree it was worth it ! I'll keep this post in mind if I pass by Dubrovnic. :)

Thanks for the help. I would definitely recommend Dubrovnik to anyone in that part of the world