Neighborhoods in Brief

Old Town -- The area within Dubrovnik's walls is known as Old Town, and most of the city's main attractions are there. Besides historic buildings, Old Town is home to restaurants, cafes, shops, and services that line the Stradun -- a long (just under .5km/ 1/4 mile) and wide street that runs from the Western Gate (Pile) to the Eastern Gate (Ploce) -- and its backstreets.

Ploce -- Ploce is the neighborhood just outside Old Town's Eastern Gate. Some of the city's classiest hotels are located on beachfront property in this area, as is the city's main public beach, Banje.

Lapad -- There are no big-time historic sites in Lapad, whose main attraction is a wide, leafy pedestrians-only street lined with hotels and restaurants and backed by a residential area on this peninsula west of Old Town. Lapad abuts Lapad Bay, so it has some beachfront, but the neighborhood's draw is several moderately priced hotels -- moderate compared to the luxury hotels in Ploce and Old Town. Almost every bus that stops in Lapad (nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 11) connects with Old Town at the Pile Gate; the ride takes 15 minutes and costs 10kn if you buy on board, 8kn from a news kiosk.

Babin Kuk -- On the Lapad Peninsula, at some indeterminable point less than 6.4km (4 miles) from Dubrovnik's center and bordered on three sides by the sea and pebble beaches, the Babin Kuk neighborhood begins. Babin Kuk is home to several hotels in various price ranges. It also is an access point to rocky coves with what optimists call beaches (read: major pebbles/rocks, no sand), as well as to scores of restaurants, shops, and services. Babin Kuk is connected to Dubrovnik by the city's bus system. Camp Solitudo, Dubrovnik's only close-in campground, is here.