Dubrovnik for families

Best free attractions

Dubrovnik is famous for the things you pay to enter — the wall walk, the cable car, the cathedral treasury — and the assumption creeps in that this is where the city keeps its best material. It isn't. The list below is five places that cost nothing to reach and nothing to stand in: a group of hills on the coast, a lived-in neighbourhood of Dubrovnik that most visitors never step into, the public square at Luža, the named ground of Gundulićs, and an arboretum that is worth the ride to reach. A pair of grippy shoes helps at the first. An unhurried afternoon helps at most of them. None ask for admission. Free in Dubrovnik does not mean second-best; it means the money you did not spend on a ticket is better spent on the meal afterwards, or on the wine on the terrace when the sun finally turns kind. Come to these first; buy the ticketed views second, if at all.