Dubrovnik on a Budget: 30+ Ways to Save Money

Damn you, Game of Thrones. Did you have to make Dubrovnik so popular?

If you’re looking at photos of this stunning walled city with the most beautiful sea views and wondering: “Can I do Dubrovnik on a budget??”, you’ve come to the right place.

We spent 5 nights in Croatia’s famous city and didn’t go bankrupt!

In this post, you’ll find the 30+ ways to save money when doing Dubrovnik on a budget.

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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!

Dubrovnik on a budget – the basics

Let’s start with some basics that you’re probably already doing to travel on a budget.

1. Forget shoulder season

Everyone’s favourite 2020 pandemic caused an interesting change in the travel industry.

Shoulder seasons, the golden middle ground of days past, is the new peak season. People figured out that during shoulder seasons they can get the best of both – good prices and good experience.

That means off season is the new shoulder season – not truly cheap or quiet anymore.

This is speaking generally, of course.

There are still plenty of places that are like a ghost town during off season, with nothing but tumbleweed bouncing around.

Dubrovnik?

The city is way too famous and popular to be a ghost town, even during winter.

That being said, if you don’t mind colder weather, winter might be the perfect time for you to visit:

• Some accommodation, restaurants, bars etc. might be closed, but that just means less decision making for you.
• Prices are lower – even for things like sights! Even the Dubrovnik Pass, which gets you up on the City Walls, has a reduced fee in winter.
• Less crowds. People associate Dubrovnik with sunshine, swimming and ice cream, not with being blasted by wind, rain and barely seeing the sun, so they head there during the warm months. If harsher weather is not an issue, though, you can explore Dubrovnik on a budget and without pushing through hundreds of confused travellers who have just spilled out of their massive cruise ship right into the Old Town.

2. Research

Okay, this sounds way fancier than it is.

Basically, don’t book the first flight and hotel you see.

Shop around. Do some research. Plan. Compare options.

It takes more time and effort, but it will help you do Dubrovnik on a budget.

Btw, you’ve already started researching, by reading this article, so well done you!

3. Book early unless you are super flexible

Unless you have the ultimate freedom and flexibility and can fly two days after you book your trip, don’t wait.

Book things early.

Why?

• Booking early means you have the best pick of accommodation. Cheap good places are the first ones to go. You won’t find those still available a month before your holiday.
• Flights are as unpredictable as it gets these days, but one thing we’ve wasted a lot of money on? Waiting till closer to the departure time to book. Every single time the price of the flight has gone up. We’re talking about flights within Europe now, just to be clear. If your experience is different, let us know—so far all other travellers have confirmed they noticed the same thing.

4. Collect points and miles

No matter what you’re booking, always remember to check whether you can get something for it.

Can you collect airline miles?

Loyalty points?

Or get cashback?

These are all small things, when you look at an individual booking, but they add up to pretty decent freebies—like that time we got a 4-night stay in the Slovak mountains for the price of 1!

How to get cheap accommodation in Dubrovnik?

Accommodation is often the biggest expense when travelling, right?

You find a cheap flight, get all excited and then check the hotel prices, all hope lost within a minute.

How can you stay in Dubrovnik on a budget?

Using these money-saving tips!

1. Staying outside of Dubrovnik

A disclaimer here: this works best if you are renting a car (or drive in your own).

As car-free travellers, good location is our top criteria when choosing accommodation-  it has to be central, or well-connected by public transport.

This time though, during our Dubrovnik holiday, we travelled with friends in a car.

In fact, they drove us to Croatia all the way from Slovakia!

So we could pick accommodation regardless of where it was located, and avoid the expensive hotels of Dubrovnik city centre.

If you do want to rent a car (for more accommodation options and day trips), using a comparison tool helps avoid overpaying—prices here vary a lot depending on season and supplier.

Where did we stay in Dubrovnik on a budget?

We had an apartment in Orašac—a small village, a 20-minute drive from Dubrovnik Old Town.

We share more info on the apartment including why we would (and wouldn’t) recommend it later in this post.

What should you do when choosing where to stay in Dubrovnik?

• First decide whether you will rent a car or rely on public transport
• If renting a car, one of your top criteria when choosing accommodation should be private parking availability
• If you’re planning on using public transport, start by looking at this map
• Check where local buses run and use that to narrow down your accommodation options
• If you’re looking to stay further out, like we did, don’t waste your time googling buses on Croatian websites (or relying on Google Maps’ inaccurate info)
• Instead, check the description of the accommodation first, to see if public transport info is mentioned
• If not, to save time, message the accommodation directly to ask whether Dubrovnik centre is reachable by public transport
• We also usually search for words like “public transport”, “car” or “bus” in the reviews to see if anyone mentions staying at the accommodation without a car, or, the other way, whether they mention that a car is a must

2. Choosing an apartment instead of a hotel

This is a smart move anywhere, not just when doing Dubrovnik on a budget.

Apartments often come without the extra perks of a hotel: no spa, pool, laundry services, breakfast, concierge, daily housekeeping etc.

But if you can do without these, going for an apartment can save you a lot of money.

Plus, you can save extra on food, but we’ll get to that later.

3. Compare prices across platforms

Don’t just check Booking.com and automatically book there. See if the apartment is also listed on Airbnb (and vice versa).

Another underestimated trick when booking hotels or guesthouses is to check their official website directly.

Sometimes the price is cheaper than on Booking.com.

Sometimes the price is the same as Booking.com, but you’ll get extra perks, such as a later check out or a welcome drink (we LOVE when welcome drink is included! Such a little treat right at the start of your stay, right?). It’s always worth checking the official sites.

4. Sign up for the Genius loyalty programme

If you’re not signed up for Booking.com’s loyalty programme, do it right now.

The only downside? There are only two levels. If you book accommodation often, like we did when we travelled full-time, you’ll reach the top tier quickly and won’t unlock any further benefits.

5. Check the mobile app

A little Booking.com money-saving secret you might not know?

Checking the price of your chosen accommodation on the Booking.com app, rather than on desktop.

Sometimes, the app price will match the desktop one.

But often it’s cheaper.

We’ve managed to save so much money with this hack.

Dubrovnik on a budget accommodation tip

We stayed in this Airbnb during our holiday and it was one of the main reasons we managed to do Dubrovnik on a budget!

The apartment is rated very well—4.94 on Airbnb at the time of writing, and it genuinely was great in many ways:

• Big terrace with beautiful sea views (and star watching at night!)
• Two bedrooms and two bathrooms, so perfect for sharing (lets you save more money if you split with friends!)
• Private parking, so you don’t have to worry about paying every day on a street
• Peaceful, quiet village, perfect if you want a relaxing holiday

Surprisingly, there were some major cons as well:

• Main one being the lack of public transport, though we knew this when booking. You need a car to get around
• What we didn’t know was that A/C was only in one of the bedrooms—we had just a fan in ours, which was a ridiculous solution in the 35°C+ heat in the middle of August
• The biggest nuisance were animals though. Spiders. That were presumably hunted by the mini gecko that was roaming about. More worryingly though, there were no mosquito screens and we battled a colony of ants in the kitchen (an uncharged Dyson was provided as a solution to that by the owner)

As always, we want to note that this was our experience. It’s always important to check recent reviews, because things in accommodations change—problems get resolved, new ones appear, and you want to know what to expect.

How to save money on sights in Dubrovnik?

One thing travellers are often outraged about? 

The cost of sights in Dubrovnik, mainly the famous City Walls.

Especially when they discover how much cheaper they used to be… just a few years ago.

So here’s what you should do when travelling to Dubrovnik on a budget:

• Figure out how many days you want to spend in the actual Old Town. It’s very small and compact, so you can cover it in one day, if you’re pushed for time and only want to see the main sights.
• List the sights you ideally want to cover. Make sure you check with the rest of your travel party as well, there’s nothing worse than wasting money on a museum or climbing up on city walls, just because everyone assumes that’s what everyone wants to do (but actually nobody does).
• Check the Dubrovnik Museums combined ticket which covers 10 museums in the city at a discounted price. Does the ticket cover enough of the sights you want to see to make it worth it for you?
• Compare the Museum ticket with the Dubrovnik Pass, which includes access to the famous City Walls, some museums and also free public transport. The pass is available for 1, 3 or 7 days, so this is why it’s good to first figure out how many days you want to spend exploring the city.
• Btw, if you’re wondering whether the Dubrovnik Pass is worth it, yes it is, at least for adults. The price is the same as the entrance fee just to the City Walls and with the pass you’ll get all the extras. 
• If your travel party includes children aged 7-18, check the cost of individual sights vs the Dubrovnik Pass, since a child pass doesn’t exist. For example, if you only want to visit the City Walls and have kids in your group, it might work out cheaper for you to buy a direct ticket just for the walls, rather than Dubrovnik Passes.

Alternative money-saving ideas to Dubrovnik Old Town 

A good way to make your Dubrovnik trip even more interesting (and potentially even save more money)?

Venturing out further away from the Old Town!

We did 2 day trips during our Dubrovnik holiday and would recommend both:

1. The twin villages of Ston and Mali Ston

These small villages are known for 3 (awesome) things:

• Forget overcrowded Dubrovnik City Walls, these two villages are connected by a 4km fortification wall you can walk along!
• You can find the oldest salt pans in Europe here (Pro tip: buy some salt here as an edible souvenir you can use in your home cooking while reminiscing over your holiday in Croatia!)
• Make sure to try the local oysters, considered among the best in the world, with official EU protection to prove it.

The Ston villages were peaceful and quiet, even in the middle of the high season

2. Mljet National Park

A beautiful national park on the Mljet Island with two saltwater lakes. 

As a total inception, the Large Lake has another island in the middle, complete with a 12th century Benedictine monastery. 

And yes, you can swim in the lakes too!

Where to park in Dubrovnik?

Parking in Dubrovnik in high season is a nightmare, we’re not going to lie to you. 

It’s a walled city that gets super busy and everyone wants to be comfortable and drive.

Here’s what you can do if you want to do Dubrovnik on a budget:

• Plan in advance. Don’t rely on coming across a car park as you drive to Dubrovnik
• Compare prices. There can be big differences between the different car parks
• Consider walking. Let’s talk more about this

We’re car-free travellers, so parking in Dubrovnik isn’t something we looked into. That was the job of our friends who drove us to and around Croatia.

But one thing we know is how much they complained about the prices.

So here’s what we did.

Dubrovnik parking tip

We parked at this car park.

It was majorly cheaper than other ones, but it was also a 15-minute walk to the Pile Gate, which is the entrance to the Old Town.

Now, if you decide to park further away from town, remember to consider this:

• Walking 15 minutes might not sound like a lot, but if you’re doing it in 40°C, you’ll be done by the time you reach the Old Town. Make sure you plan well and start your day early, before the temperatures climb up.
• When leaving your car, double check you’ve got everything. You don’t want to waste 45 mins walking there and back because you realise you forgot something just as you reach the Old Town.
• Keep in mind that at the end of the day, after all the sightseeing, you will still have to walk back to your car. If you’re doing the Walls of Dubrovnik, up and down for hours in the sun, you might be cursing yourself for not spending more money and not parking closer.

Always consider the cons of saving money, even if doing Dubrovnik on a budget.

How to save money on food in Dubrovnik?

We have a few hacks to share with you when it comes to saving money on food in Dubrovnik, including a great restaurant tip!

1. Make your own breakfast

One of our favourite ways to save money when we travel is making our own breakfast. It also saves us time, because we can eat in the room while we’re getting ready for the day ahead.

This works best when staying in an apartment, but we have a hack for hotel rooms or other accommodation without a kitchen too!

Here are the tips:

• You can get porridge pots—just pour hot water into them and you have a healthy and filling breakfast ready without any work (make sure your room comes with a kettle!).
• Our pro hack? If porridge pots are not available in shops, we bring our own ingredients. Yep, we are the kind of weirdos who travel with cocoa powder.
• At a push, you can usually grab cheap pastries in a local bakery or a supermarket and eat them as you sightsee.

2. Skip lunch

This is a money-saving trick we used when full-time travelling.

When it’s super hot, especially in the middle of the day, we don’t usually feel like eating. Plus we’re usually busy sightseeing.

So we either skip lunch (make sure you have filling breakfast!) and then just have a dinner.

Or we grab something small for lunch, like another pastry or a sandwich.

Again, it can save you a lot of money and a lot of time, because you don’t have to:

• Research more restaurants
• Try to figure out which part of the city you’ll be at during lunchtime
• Spend time choosing from the menu, waiting for your meal, waiting to pay etc.

We know that skipping lunches isn’t for everyone, but if you’re trying to do Dubrovnik on a budget, it’s worth considering. (You can always have gelato instead?? Now that’s a good lunch substitute! Although, with the gelato prices, make sure you don’t end up spending more than on a proper meal!)

3. Cook dinner at home

This money-saving hack comes with a big BUT.

Because you don’t want to be visiting a foreign country and cooking all meals in your accommodation (or skipping them).

You want to taste the local cuisine, try new things and, importantly, enjoy not having to cook and clean up, right?

What would we suggest?

Small changes make a big difference

Even one dinner can make a difference. If you’re doing a 5 day trip and you spend €60 on a meal per evening, that’s €300. But cook one of those dinners at your accommodation and you just saved yourself €60. That’s the cost of a 7-day Dubrovnik Pass during winter season. Or a lot of gelato!

Make a plan

Have a good plan, especially if you’re planning to cook more than one dinner.

• Know what meal you want to cook. 
• Make sure it’s easy, quick and can be made with easily-sourced ingredients.
• If travelling as a bigger group, calculate how much you need to buy for all your meals, so you save time in the shop and avoid having to go back. You don’t want to be wasting your precious holiday time shopping for pasta (unless that particularly excites you!).
• If you’re a bigger group, talk about meals in advance. Divide roles. Take turns. Make sure one person isn’t hating their holiday, because they feel responsible for feeding everyone every day.
• Shop in bigger supermarkets outside of the Old Town where prices are cheaper.

4. Dubrovnik budget restaurant tip

A must-visit restaurant, especially if doing Dubrovnik on a budget?

Barba!

Here’s what you need to know about the Barba restaurant:

• Fast, affordable and high quality? Isn’t that all you want from a restaurant when doing Dubrovnik on a budget?
• 4.5 rated on Google with almost 4,000 reviews tells you it really is good
• The menu is limited, which means you don’t have to worry about analysis paralysis
• It’s all seafood-focused (you’re on the Dalmatian Coast, after all!). The octopus burger was recommended—we can confirm it’s super tasty. Daniel tried the shrimp burger which was equally good
• Sadly, the secret’s out. The queue snaking all the way up the street confirms Barba is awesome
• But it also means you’ll have to wait a while before you get your food. Don’t wait till you are starving to come here
• Don’t expect to sit inside. It’s tiny and you’ll have to wait even longer, especially if you’re a bigger group
• What to do instead is place your order as take away and wait on the stairs across from Barba for your name to be called
• Make sure you don’t get in people’s way as you wait—people go up and down the stairs all the time

Pro tip: What we did was got our food to go, walked for 5 mins to the harbour (Porat Dubrovnik on Google Maps) and then sat on the low wall, people-watching with sea view as we ate our delicious dinner!

Saving money on travel insurance

Should you get travel insurance for your Dubrovnik trip?

Yes! You never know what will go wrong and you definitely don’t wanna be paying out of your own pocket if something does.

But should you spend a lot of money on a bad insurance company?

No! Choose someone who is awesome and offers travel insurance on a budget.

Yes, it’s possible. Check out True Traveller who we trusted even during our full-time adventures.

They offer great features, low prices and mindblowingly good customer service.

All you want in a travel insurance company!

Bonus tip for saving money in Dubrovnik

A simple way that you can save not just money, but also the planet?

Bringing a reusable water bottle on your trip to Dubrovnik!

There are multiple water fountains in the Old Town and one is even just outside the famous Pile Gate through which you might be entering. 

The most impressive is the Onofrio’s Large Fountain—a massive water fountain inside the Old Town. Make sure you top up your water there, but also walk all around it to see all the carved-stone masks!

While we usually recommend carrying a good filter bottle with you on your adventures, you don’t have to worry about it when topping up from Dubrovnik’s water fountains. The water is totally safe to drink. 

We saw so many tourists spending money in shops on water, especially since we were there during the August heatwave, when all they had to do was get one water bottle and keep filling it up from the public water fountains!

It might not save you a lot, but it all adds up when you’re doing Dubrovnik on a budget.

Btw, if you’re still wasting money on buying bottled water at airports, check these hacks and never pay for water again!

We hope our 30+ money-saving tips will help you do Dubrovnik on a budget.

If you have any questions, give us a shout on our Instagram or book a call with us, if you want to chat more about your travel plans.

Oh and one more tip? No matter what budget you’re on, there should always be some money set aside for ice cream. That’s an official rule and we’ll know if you break it. 🧐