Wedding in Dubrovnik

Recommended days	7
Budget	£
Difficulty	Medium

I’ve categorised this as a city break because we were based in the town for our wedding in Dubrovnik although we spent a lot of time exploring nearby areas. Dubrovnik is a beautiful little medieval town on the shores of the Adriatic. When we visited the battle damage from the war following the break up of Yugoslavia were still evident.

It was an unusual break for us because we hired a villa instead of staying in a hotel and we also had our wedding in Dubrovnik while on this break! The wedding was organised by Dubrovnik Luxury Weddings and they were superb at organising everything and communicating with us throughout.

The villa was lovely, about 10 minutes bus ride outside the old town and a few minutes walk to the beach and the kids loved the pool. The first day was taken up with waiting for everyone to arrive and the kids swimming in the pool and the adults in the sea. That was enough holiday stuff so the next day we visited the Old Town.

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik has been called ‘The Jewel of the Adriatic’ and it is certainly worthy of this accolade. The bus dropped us just outside the city gates and we headed in for a wander. The wander became a bit of a trek as we walked the walls, then outside the walls and finally the streets. The high sided buildings were a welcome break from the relentless sunshine and there were also some excellent gelato shops.

One thing that was recommended was the cable car trip and that was excellent – it was great to see the whole city laid out and there was also a war museum at the top as the city had been shelled from the hills where the cable car now is. We also visited a war photography exhibition in the town itself.

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Bosnia

The next day was more exploring – there is just so much to see in this region and it is so different to Western Europe! As a lot of these areas were under Ottoman rule and then gradually reconquered by the Venetians and Habsburgs a lot of the villages still had mosques in and Bosnia was certainly a lot more run down and agricultural than Croatia with it’s glamorous cruise ports.

Pocitelj Castle

First stop was the castle at Pocitelj, a very impressive hilltop ruin and quite a steep climb. Originally built to defend against the Turks it was eventually captured by them and held for about 200 years before the Venetians liberated the area. Unlike the usual castles we visited there was no cafe or gift shop though!

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Mostar

The highlight of this days trip was Mostar. I remember watching the shelling and destruction of the bridge on TV and the town was still heavily scarred by shells and small arms rounds. I was actually glad we’d booked a guide as it was more like a Turkish town than a European one. I certainly wouldn’t have known about visiting the mosque to climb the minaret for views without the guide!

The bridge was rebuilt in 2004 after being destroyed in 1993. When we visited there were kids offering to dive off into the river below for a few Euros. The bridge is certainly a lovely piece of architecture, as you’d expect considering it was designed by an apprentice of Sinan. The whole area around the bridge with the market and now streets was very evocative of a different continent.

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Kotor, Montenegro

Our last trip, before having to prepare for the wedding, was into Kotor, Montenegro. Our initial impression on arrival was that it was populated pretty much entirely by Russian prostitutes and security guards! It was a beautiful place with great views and architecture but it did feel a bit dodgy, like a police state.

The climb up the side of the fortress walls was hard work but certainly worth it. There were also some very welcome cafes in the centre of the town with delicious ice creams. The drive around the bay was very pretty too and the ferry across the tip was great, saved a lot of driving.

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After our wedding (I’ll put some pics at the end of this post as some of the buildings were beautiful and worth visiting, even if you aren’t getting married in them!) we had one more day in Dubrovnik itself.

We explored more of the old town and one of the fortresses and also a monastery, as well as the obligatory gelato stops. We also did an evening walk which was delightful as the cruise ship parties had all left on the streets were bathed in a golden light. I’d love to go back and revisit that for some far better photos. A couple of our friends also participated in some cliff diving, ideal for the partially insane!

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Here are a few of the pics from our wedding in Dubrovnik to give you a taste of what you can expect if you choose to do the same as we did or you just want to visit some of the different buildings in the old town. It was certainly a wonderful day and extremely well organised in a spectacular setting.

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2011