Dubrovnik Beaches

The coast around Dubrovnik is pebble and rock rather than sand, and the water gets deep quickly, which keeps it clear. Banje is the beach in the photographs, five minutes east of Ploce gate with the city walls and Lokrum in the frame; it runs a paid sunbed operation through summer but keeps a public section. Further east, Sveti Jakov earns its regular-crowd loyalty with the same view and half the traffic, reached down a long flight of steps from the Viktorija district.

West of the centre the Lapad and Babin Kuk peninsulas hold the family beaches: the bay at Uvala Lapad with its promenade of cafes and pedalo stands, and Copacabana on Babin Kuk with shallow entry, water polo goals and sunset views towards the Franjo Tudman bridge. Rock swimmers use the platforms at Dance and Sulic below Lovrijenac, and the Buza openings in the seaward walls, where ladders drop straight into open water. The Lokrum ferry from the Old Port opens up a further set of rocky coves, including a small saltwater lake, on a fifteen-minute crossing. Water stays swimmable from roughly June to early October.