Where to stay in Dubrovnik: the best areas and hotels

The Old Town is the reason you came: marble-smooth streets, Baroque churches, the Rector's Palace and two kilometres of city walls with views over every rooftop. Rooms inside the walls are mostly small guesthouses and apartments up steep steps; magical, but busy and noisy when the cruise crowds arrive.

Just east of the walls, Ploče has hotels with the famous view back across the old harbour, and the cable car up Mount Srđ starts nearby. West of the centre, the leafy Lapad and Babin Kuk peninsulas have most of the city's larger resort hotels, with pebble coves, a seafront promenade and frequent buses to the Pile Gate.

Cavtat is what Dubrovnik might be with the volume turned down. This small, handsome town curves around two bays south of the city, with a palm-lined waterfront promenade, a harbour full of boats and pine-covered headlands with paths and swimming rocks. The painter Vlaho Bukovac was born here, and his house is now a gallery.

The hotels are excellent. One is a 1920s villa built on the remains of ancient Epidaurum, steps from the waterfront; another is a big five-star right on the beach with a spa. There's an all-inclusive in the heart of town and well-kept apartments near the centre. Dubrovnik airport is just minutes away, and boats run along the coast to Dubrovnik's old harbour.

Mlini is a small, leafy fishing village in the bay of Župa Dubrovačka, about 8 km from Dubrovnik's Old Town and 5 km from Cavtat. It has pebble and sandy beaches, clear water and little islands offshore, and it's a lot calmer, and kinder on the wallet, than the city.

Families do well here. There are modern villas and apartments, friendly guesthouses with a shared pool, and a big luxury resort by the sea with a spa, about 15 minutes' drive from the Pile Gate. Further along, the village of Plat has a villa-style hotel above small, secluded pebble beaches, with a bus stop nearby for the city.

Korčula Town is a little stone peninsula of a place, its walls and towers crowding onto a point of land with streets laid out in a herringbone pattern to catch the breeze. It claims to be the birthplace of Marco Polo, has a fine cathedral and some of the best wine in Dalmatia, and feels wonderfully unhurried after Dubrovnik.

Hotels are a short walk from the old town: a 1912 heritage hotel with just 20 rooms on the seaside promenade, a hotel in the centre with sweeping views, and a beach hotel and apartments on a bay a couple of kilometres out. It is around 140 km from Dubrovnik airport, so plan for a longer transfer, or come for a few days of an island-hop.

Orebić sits on the tip of the Pelješac peninsula, looking across a narrow channel to Korčula, around 15 minutes away by ferry. Behind the town, a mountain rises steeply; along the shore, pine-shaded paths link pebble beaches and old sea captains' houses. Pelješac is famous for its red wine, and the vineyards are close by.

Hotels here are relaxed and family-friendly: beach hotels 20 metres from the pebbles, villas in a Mediterranean garden, and a family-run pension near the village of Postup with its own historic cellar and home-cooked dinners. It is a long way from Dubrovnik airport, about 140 km, so treat it as a destination rather than a base for the city.