Sunday, 09 February 2025
Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas - The editor and big chief of The Dubrovnik Times. Born in the UK he has been living and working in Dubrovnik since 1998, yes he is one of the rare “old hands.” A unique insight into both British and Croatian life and culture, Mark is often known as just “Englez” or Englishman. He is a traveller, a current affairs freak and a huge AFC Wimbledon fan.

Email: mark.thomas@dubrovnik-times.com

At the initiative of the City of Dubrovnik, a summer cultural and entertaining program "Ulicama naseg Grada" (‘’On the streets of our town’’) will be launched again. This program will entertain numerous Dubrovnik guests and locals with a rich Dubrovnik cultural, traditional but also entertaining heritage from July 21st to August 31st.

The concerts of the five Dubrovnik vocal groups will take place at two locations within the historical core, on the Peskarija and in front of Dominican monastery and in Uvala Lapad, right next to the fountain.

This is the schedule for the concerts:
Friday – Vocal group ‘Kase’ – in front of Dominican monastery
Saturday – Vocal group ‘Maestral’ – in front of Dominican monastery
Monday – Vocal group ‘Ragusa’ – Peskarija
Wednesday – Vocal group ‘Subrenum’ – Peskarija
Thursday – Vocal group ‘Ragusavecchia’ – Uvala Lapad, right next to the fountain

The concerts will last from 9:30 to 10:30 pm in the historical core, and in Uvala Lapad from 9 to 10:30 pm.

Croatia’s mainland finally got a permanent connection to its islands. Fans of the coastline and the many tourists can use the connection whenever they want, without the fuss of cruise timetables.

The new UberBOAT service is at a non-stop disposal in Split, Dubrovnik and the island of Hvar, and you can request it through just a few clicks in the Uber app. The service offers transfer to a destination and back, and a half-day or full-day trip that passengers can plan for themselves.

uber boat app

If they sail out of Split,tourists can get a trip around the beautiful islands of Hvar, Biševo (with its Blue Cave), Šolta, Drvenik, Vis, Brač and its unique Zlatni Rat beach... The boat captain will stay with the passengers for as long as they want, allowing them enough time to visit the islands, sample the local cuisine and buy souvenirs.

In the area surrounding Dubrovnik, Uber captains will take tourists to the Elafiti islands and their ancient forests, Mljet, the magical Korčula, and Lastovo, whose unique beauty is sure to make them want to return.

Every trip ends at the point of departure, while fares will depend on boat size, mileage and duration of the adventure. An eight-passenger speedboat starts at HRK330, each additional kilometer will cost HRK29, and each minute will cost HRK2.60. A bigger boat will cost HRK 660 to start and another HRK 36 per kilometer and HRK 3.30 per minute.

UberBOAT’s other service allows for a simple and fast transfer to a destination and back. A Split-to-Hvar trip will cost HRK 2,600 for an eight-person speedboat, or HRK 3,300 for a 12-person speedboat. All Uber captains have valid licenses and are familiar with the Croatian coastline. 

uber boat hrvatska

As Dubrovnik becomes a more and more popular tourist destination it can be tricky to find a spare room on AirBnb, bokking.com and the other popular websites. Often hotels are completely overbooked and the private accommodation scene is a similar story. There are quite simply not enough beds in Dubrovnik for the amount of heads that want to rest on a fluffy pillow.

But why book a room when you can camp on a cliff face overlooking the Adriatic Sea! Quite clearly the nearby Rixos Libertas Hotel was fully booked so these tourists decided to pitch their tent in a cave by the sea. These photos were taken at around 5.00am and show the tent nestled in the rock face with presumably the happy campers inside snoring.

camp cave dubrovnik 2

The German low cost airline Eurowings has announced that it will operate flights to Croatia all year around. For this winter Eurowings will operate flights between Koln and Rijeka three times a week, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

This is the first time that the route has been chosen and with the additional of three flights to Croatia in the winter months the country can expect an increase in tourists through a period of the year that is traditionally challenging.

Eurowings already flies to Croatia, to Zagreb, Pula, Split, Osijek, Zadar and Dubrovnik and with these new flights, which will be operated by an Airbus A319, the city of Rijeka will receive a healthy flow of German tourists.

The Mountain Rescue Service of Dubrovnik has proved that they are more capable than goats when it comes to covering rough terrain. On the 18th of July the service received an emergency call to rescue a baby goat that had fallen between rocks near the village of Osojnik around 15 kilometres from Dubrovnik.

According to the official report three members of the mountain rescue arrived on the scene at 9.15am. They attempted to expand the hole in which the unfortunate goat had fallen to pull it out. The goat was stuck at a depth of 3 metres and the after a three-hour mission they finally released it from its confine at 12.30. The lucky goat was in great shape and as soon as it saw the light of day run away.

goat dubrovnik 2

The long awaited opening of the beach in the Bay of Lapad is hopefully around the corner. The final preparation works are underway and the beach area, which is three times larger than the previous area, should be completed within the next few days.

This whole project has run terribly over schedule, the planned opening was at the end of June, and is obviously causing problems with tourists would have been expecting to be able to roll out their towels and dive in the Adriatic.

lapad swimmers 2

Plenty of room to roll out a towel 

Even though it is officially closed some swimmers have decided to take matters into their own hands and started to use the beach. After climbing over or through the fences around the beach area the swimmers jumped into the sea. “They were told to leave after a while,” a source told The Dubrovnik Times.

swimmers in lapad

Thanks to the filming of the HBO series "Game Throne" the Dubrovnik-Neretva County was visited by an additional 244,415 tourists who spent 126 million Euros from 2012 to 2015, according to the research work by the Zagreb Institute of Economics.

In a research paper entitled "The Effects of the Film Industry on Tourism: The Game of the Throne and Dubrovnik" the researchers Marina Tkalec, Ivan Žilić and Vedran Recher evaluated the effects of filming the "Game Throne" series on the tourist results in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The paper concludes that the recording of this series in Dubrovnik had very positive effects on the tourist results.

An average of 60,000 extra tourists a year visited the city through the period of 2012 to 2015 and in total an extra 1.5 million overnight stays were achieved by Game of Thrones fans.

One of the most popular series in the world, "Game of Thrones” started filming in Dubrovnik in 2011. Dubrovnik was chosen as the location for King's Landing, the fictional capital of the seven kingdoms that frequently appears in the series. The rich and exceptionally preserved Dubrovnik cultural and architectural heritage is ideally suited to the medieval context of the series, which is why snapshots of Dubrovnik city walls, the Lovrijenac Fortress and Lokrum often appear in the series.

And according to this latest research these images of Dubrovnik have not only raised the global recognition of Dubrovnik but have also brought an extra 126 million Euro of revenue to Dubrovnik.

 

 

On this day, July 19th, back in 1969, Dubrovnik Cable Car was opened.

That was the first and only cable car built on the Adriatic at that time and for years was one of the most significant attractions and symbols of Dubrovnik. Sadly, during the Homeland War it was completely destroyed.

The renovated cable car was launched on July 10th in 2010, on the day of the opening of Dubrovnik Summer Festival. It is one of the most visited attractions in Dubrovnik since it offers a beautiful view at the Old City.

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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