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| | | | Risen from the ashes
Dubrovnik, one of the world's great cities, has been devastated several times in its lengthy history.
The city was crushed in an earthquake in 1667 and more lately savaged by the civil war in what was Yugoslavia.
In 1991 and 1992, 2,000 shells fell on the city - many people were killed, there was $10m of damage, homes were destroyed and looted, and the water supply was cut off.
Today you can hardly tell how much the old city of Dubrovnik was damaged, apart from a map at the entry to the city showing where the shells hit.
Replacing the area's distinctive roofs was a priority in order to preserve the interiors of the buildings. Repair workers could not find enough yellow tiles so they had to use red.
They still need a few decades of weathering to bring the character back.
Some 28 out of Dubrovnik's 50 hotels have now reopened. Some have taken the opportunity to modernise but others still feel dated.
With nearly half the accommodation shut there is a shortage of rooms, especially in the festival season of July and August when it is busy.
As it also gets particularly hot then it is better to go at the beginning or end of the season.
Dubrovnik is a city to see on foot. Enter the gates and just wander the streets worn shiny with millions of footsteps. Visit the cathedral, palaces and museums or head for the walls that surround the city - but only if you are prepared for a climb.
Most people come here to see the city and take in the culture, but Dubrovnik is on the coast and there is plenty of opportunity for relaxation.
There are beaches, albeit not very pretty ones, close to the city. Choose a hotel away from the town where the shoreline is better.
Many run a water taxi into the old city and there are regular bus services and reasonably-priced taxis.
For a relaxing day away from the city bustle, take a boat ride to the island of Lokrum nearby. It has an inland lake, which is good for children, and a naturist beach.
There are other trips to the Elafiti Islands where there are beaches and trails to explore.
Dubrovnik is ideal for a city break but the beaches and islands make it worth a longer holiday.
Travel guide: Dubrovnik
Back in sparkling form
From the Mail on Sunday
A yellowing photograph in a Dubrovnik newsagent's window shows local artist Ivo Gribic standing in front of his burning house during the shelling of the city in 1991.
His eyes transmit shock but his fist is raised in defiance. It's an image that, for me, embodies the true grit of the Croatian people, who have had it tough and come through.
Not only have they shored up, with international help, their beautiful historic port - 'the pearl of the Adriatic', whose naval clout once rivalled that of Venice - they've also managed to persuade tourists to come back in droves. Last summer more than 60,000 of us alighted on the stunning Dalmatian coast and its archipelago.
Michael Foot, the Labour politician, didn't stay away for long. For more than 20 years, he has been coming to what is now Croatia, formerly Yugoslavia, to relax at the Villa Dubrovnik hotel, perched on the cliffs a mile south of town.
To prove it, there he is on the terrace as I shuffle into my seat for lunch, looking out, as we all do, on a Rolls-Royce view of the city floating in a heat haze below. A sight that, half a millennium ago, would have cheered returning merchantmen after the long voyage from Constantinople and the Middle East.
Now that the restoration work is almost complete, Dubrovnik's old town looks equally splendid close up. You can't see the joins until they're pointed out to you: here a piece of pristine balustrade, there a paving stone that's blonder than the rest.
Only a walk round the battlements reveals the extent of the repair job: the patchwork of new terracotta on medieval roofs.
Stradun, the wide main axis, is ice-rink glossy from centuries of footfalls and the exceptionally pale limestone of which everything is built gives Dubrovnik a lightheartedness that medieval cities usually lack. Local beauties are clearly aware they look best against this background in strong colours and cafe tablecloths stand out in blood red and dark green.
I love it. No traffic (except for deliveries at certain times of day), so it's a place made for just sitting about drinking brilliant coffee and people-watching - by the harbour, below the cathedral or in the lee of Big Onofrio's fountain.
Travel guide: Dubrovnik
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| | | | Brilliant coastline
Croatia has a lot more to offer than just Dubrovnik. It has a fantastic coastline with a dramatic drive up to Split which takes about five hours.
Along the way is Makarska, a busy resort with a wide promenade of cafes and bars. It also has pebble beaches.
The resort is about two hours drive from Dubrovnik, and holiday company Thomson plans to combine them in a two centre holiday next summer.
There are direct flights to Dubrovnik from Gatwick and Manchester which take under three hours. Other flights are via Zagreb so take longer.
The currency is the kuna which you can't get in the UK but the German mark is also acceptable.
Travel facts:
Thomson Lakes and Mountains brochure has seven-night holidays in Dubrovnik from £365 in May to £595 in July and August. 0870 606 147
Nook-and-cranny shoreline
After dark, a party of us thread our way through one of Stradun's needle-thin offshoot alleys to dine in a pocket-sized square festooned with washing.
The name of the restaurant, the Domino Steak House, is uninspiring, but the menu has lots of fish. The one we order - dentex - sounds more like a brand of toothpick and the wine, Grk, like a burp but everything tastes good, costs little and maitre d' Bulic Blago, has us in fits translating the menu.
Croatian is at times a disconcerting language - people barking 'Bog!' at each other as they part company seems rude until you realise it means, 'See you soon.'
Next morning, there are two must-haves on my shopping list. One is travarica, the home-made firewater sold in recycled bottles in Gundulic Square market. Each farmer's wife flavours it with her own mix of herbs and spices. I choose one with a red chilli and wafting fennel which at first tasting burns a hole in the back of my oesophagus. But it's moreish.
The second must is a pot of anti-wrinkle cream from a still-functioning 14th Century apothecary inside the Franciscan monastery. Part museum, with huge Delft jars, filigree Roman jewellery and Gothic reliquaries, it sells natural beauty products made by monks.
Sadly, the anti-wrinkle stuff doesn't work but it makes a good after-sun cooler.
For tanning on the beaches around greater Dubrovnik's nook-and-cranny shoreline, you need a bit of cushioning. Like most on the Dalmatian Coast, they are stony - with the kind of big round pebbles that really dig in. An inflatable sunbed and plastic shoes are essential.
But the sea is really clean and bays are wooded and pretty. If you must have sand, there is always Korcula.
Of the thousand islands scattered in the emerald Adriatic, Korcula is the sixth largest and just three-and-a-half hours by ferry from Dubrovnik. It has one rare sandy bay at Lumbarda backed by the vineyards that produce Grk. Unfortunately, I go there on a rare damp day so the beach is deserted. But I can see its potential.
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| | | | Grilled garlic prawns
Korcula, 'black island' to the ancient Greeks (owing to its once thick fleece of pines, now broken by vines and olive groves), is the perfect backdrop for a week's chill-out. It has all the right ingredients - a small Venetian port full of nice corners to linger in, every imaginable craft afloat in endless picturesque inlets, a laid-back ambiance which is almost Fifties and cheap country buses to take you from here to there.
The Hotel Bon Repos seems a bit ho-hummy when I arrive - functional-looking, if comfortable - but it soon wins me over with a chilled bottle of Rukatac (one of Croatia's best whites along with Grk and Posip) and a plate of grilled garlic prawns. The gardens are pleasant, there's a pool with sunbeds unplagued by towel-bookers and a 20-minute wiggly shore walk to snake you into town.
One way or another, Korcula is a delight. The islanders have an innate reserve but you only have to look worried to draw offers of help.
They have reason, of course, to be well disposed to the British - in the wake of Serb destruction 10 years ago, 75 per cent of aid came from the UK and, going further back, Sir Fitzroy Maclean was given a grace-and-favour villa here by President Tito in recognition of his services to the partisans in the Second World War. The Maclean family still uses it.
'Marco Polo's House', in Korcula town, is the alleged birthplace of the peripatetic Venetian who wrote the first-ever travel book but the evidence is as insubstantial as the ruined shell we peer into after climbing rickety wooden stairs. Much more interesting are the sketches by Tiepolo in the little municipal museum.
Back in Dubrovnik, it's another balmy night and we eat dinner on the terrace of Orhan, below the ramparts of the castle where the RSC does a summer season. Black Adriatic waves crash over the rocks and an almost three-quarter moon casts a laser-like path across the water.
Over a final travarica, as the moon path blurs, I reflect that I've learned to say little other than 'please' and 'thank you' in Croatian, since most of those we've met have made such a good stab at English.
Still, as I check my bags in tomorrow at the airport, I shall definitely be bidding the Dalmatian Coast a resounding 'Bog!'
Travel facts:
Holidays Options (01444 244499) offers seven nights half-board in Dubrovnik and Korcula. For more information call the Croatian National Tourist Office (020 8563 7979).
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| | Available rental properties in Dubrovnik |
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| |  | | Art Studio Villa
Apartment is a part of the art studio gallery "Marijan" with artistic surrounding among 50 sculptures, made from marble and bronze with a great view to the Lapad bay. Perfect for families.
|  | | Apartments Panorama, Dubrovnik - Croatia
Apartment is fully equipped, with own balcony, with sea and Old town view. 300 m walking distance from Old Town and pabble beach.
|  | | Villa Katarina
Stylish contemporary villa with pool maintaining traditional Dalmatian values offers 5 elegant adjacent apartments with stunning Adriatic views just a 5 minute drive from the Old Town
|  | | LAPAD APARTMENTS GALIJUN
ENJOY YOUR STAY IN LAPAD APARTMENTS,ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF DUBROVNIK
|  | | Dubrovnik apartments - Dolphin
An apartment within a large Villa with full equipment, DVD, surround, DVD films, near the beach, sea view, with opened Jacuzzi, sauna...
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Holiday Rentals in Dubrovnik |
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