Game for a Croatian break?
There’s no sign of winter coming for NICK MCCARTHY as he takes his family to Eastern Europe
YOU give up quite a lot when you have a young child. Ask any new parent and they’ll tell you that everything seems to ebb away.
Your sleep, your social life, your bank balance and, some days, your sanity.
One thing we wanted to cling on to was our holiday.
We knew the days of cocktails at the pool were well and truly over, but we still wanted to combine our new found need for a kids club with a bit of sightseeing.
We set our sights on Croatia, which seemed to tick most of the family-friendly boxes with short flight times and excellent weather.
The bonus of choosing Dubrovnik was being able to throw in a bit of Game of Thrones sightseeing in one of the most perfectly preserved medieval cityies in the world.
The old town gets incredibly busy, so we arrived early on our first full day for a Game of Thrones-themed walking tour.
The biggest test for our walking tour guide was not selling the sheer beauty of the city, or keeping us interested in where filming had taken place, it was doing the tour with a toddler in tow.
Taking a leisurely walk around the old town might be high up on the bucket list of a Game of Thrones fan, but it wasn’t quite as high up on our son’s bucket list on that particular morning.
He would have been happy sitting in the shade, watching back-to-back episodes of Mr Tumble with a large portion of ice cream.
It was therefore a credit to our excellent tour guide, Iva Nikolic, that she was able to keep us all entertained until we got to the ice cream shop.
Iva is a bona fide Games of Thrones expert and has played stand in for Margaery Tyrell and Daenerys Targaryen. She has also featured in the series as an extra.
She has an encyclopedic knowledge of her home town, so even if you couldn’t care less about the fantasy TV series the walking tour gives you an insight into the real history. It’s also the perfect way to get your bearings in the labyrinth of alleyways and little lanes that help transport you back hundreds of years.
The giant stone steps and views out over the Adriatic also helped keep our son entertained.
There are quite a few steps to negotiate inside the walls, but it’s not impossible to make your way around with a pushchair, and it’s certainly worth it.
The only part of the old city you won’t be able to do in a pushchair, or a wheelchair for that matter, is the walks along the raised walls.
They were built between the 11th and 17th centuries and it should come as no surprise that accessibility was not high up on the agenda back then. But everyone can get great views is via the cable car, which drops you down from above the city.
If museums, churches and walking tours are not really your thing there are literally hundreds of lovely bars, coffee shops and restaurants that branch off from the Stradun (the city’s 300-metre pedestrian thoroughfare).
Most visitors arrive in Dubrovnik on enormous cruise ships and are driven down to the walls in a seemingly never ending procession of coaches.
The summer months are now so busy that visitors are counted in and out. But most day trippers are missing out on what the wider area has to offer with whistlestop tours that limit you to just a few hours.
We were fortunate enough to be able to combine our city sightseeing with one of the best family bases the city has to offer.
We stayed at the sprawling, family friendly Valamar Club resort in Babin Kuk, which is at the northern end of the Lapad peninsula.
The hotel is just a short stroll to the beach and is only a few miles from the old town, but it’s a welcome world away from all of the hustle and bustle.
Babin Kuk is actually home to quite a few hotels that are all nestled around the rugged coastline. The hotels are either on, or a short stroll away from lovely clean pebble beaches.
In an area that caters well for
older travellers it was a huge relief to find a hotel with a genuine family focus. The Valamar has an enormous pool, playgrounds, a kids club for all ages and buffet-style eating – meaning you don’t have to worry as much about ordering meals that little ones might not eat.
My only real complaint (and it’s not really a complaint) is the giant dancing crab who popped up every night.
The crab, called Maro, is the kids club mascot and it seems the pay off for the walking tour was having to dance along with him at the nightly disco for the rest of the trip.
Whilst you could easily spend the days dancing away with Maro, or lounging around the pool, It’s worth exploring a little further afield.
The new port is just a short taxi ride away, or you can hop on the local bus that pulls up to the front of the hotel.
At the new port you can catch local ferries to a number of nearby islands. The closest is Lokrum and just a 15-minute trip on the local taxi-boats.
The island itself is a nature reserve and is just a mile wide. The only permanent inhabitants are peacocks and it’s worth a trip to enjoy some peace and quiet.
We also spent a full day at Lopud Island, which is a longer trip on the local commuter boat.
It took more than an hour each way, but it’s worth it and the friendly commuters kept our toddler entertained with a seemingly endless supply of snacks.
We were reliably informed that Lopud is a favourite holiday spot for locals. It’s bigger than Lokrum but not by much and is still only 5km squared.
Whilst people permanently live on the island, there are no cars, which is obviously appealing if you are travelling with small children.
The island is also blessed with one of the best sandy beaches in the region.
It’s on the opposite end of the main harbour and you can walk 20 minutes over the hill, or hop on the back of a golf cart for a small charge.
Our week in Dubrovnik made us realise there is so much more to see and do in this wonderful country.
Dubrovnik old town is so impressive that it has almost become a victim of its own success.
Many visitors don’t venture beyond the old city walls and most people seem to overlook it as a genuine family friendly destination that can compete with the likes of Spain, Italy and Greece.
We will definitely be going back, but will try to avoid dancing crabs with annoyingly catchy songs.